Research and Development Management

Excellence in Research and Development is driven by closely aligning R&D efforts with business strategy.

This is best done via formal processes for bringing new products and services to market like a formal Design and Development process. With today’s collaboration tools, this work can be coordinated using the best resources around the world in order to accelerate growth.

Strong product and project management – often led from marketing and sales teams to ensure strong customer links – help focus efforts on the things that customers value.

Research and Development Oversight

Another key to success in R&D oversight is having key measurements in place. One excellent metric is to measure new product or service revenue as a percentage of sales.

Depending on the product life cycle, you can adjust the time period of the new product – a building product might have a life cycle of years versus a software product might be months. R&D can then be tied into normal business cycles to ensure that you are bringing innovations or customer enhancements to market on a regular business cycle. These innovations must grow the overall gross margin of the business; otherwise, the high expense or R&D will lower financial results.

People and R&D

The people side of R&D is often overlooked by businesses – these roles need autonomy within boundaries coupled with excellent leadership. To be respected and effective, that leadership has to be able to understand the particular research work.

For example, research chemists need leadership with an understanding of chemistry or software researchers need managers familiar with their technology. Best practices allow for flexible work hours, innovation rooms to encourage brainstorming and collaboration and excellent facilities and equipment for researchers to discover something new and unique.

TechCXO can provide leadership in R&D that integrates well with the entire business, starting with best practices on how to find and solve unmet customer needs. A structured Design and Development process ensures that projects are completed within scope, on time and below budget. This will result in new products and services that customers will pay a premium for, improving the financial results for the business.