How to organize Research and Development?

Research and development (R&D) has two major objectives: to open up new avenues for future development, or to deepen the understanding of critical points for identified projects. Expanding the company's knowledge base is not just a question of responding to the trend towards a "knowledge economy" (see Mapping know-how).

By developing a body of specialized know-how, the company acquires part of the capital needed to :

• carry out monitoring activities and, in particular, interpret data concerning new scientific advances; the company needs experts capable of spotting emerging technologies that can be applied internally;

• collaborate with high-level external partners capable of proposing innovations; with R&D, the company has employees capable of dialoguing with experts ;

• Preparing projects: before launching a project, preparatory work is essential, requiring the involvement of employees who are able to detect obstacles and technical barriers at a sufficiently early stage;

• propose innovative concepts by considering the application of acquired knowledge to specific problems.

On the other hand, research enables us to carry out studies at the request of other departments or teams, to develop techniques and contribute to the design of new products and processes.

So, is R&D upstream or in the middle of the innovation process? What if the "or" was an "and"? All your decisions will influence and make possible (or not) this dual mechanism of R&D generating innovation and R&D serving innovation.

In practice, there are four aspects to consider:

• How should R&D be organized: what management structure should be put in place?

• How should researchers be distributed and how big should teams be?

• Team organization: specialty versus project.

• Should we open up to the outside world, and how?