6. Mistakes to avoid

Avoid setting up R&D evaluation tools based solely on resource consumption and time spent. You also can't rely solely on the number of scientific publications or patents produced by your R&D department. There's nothing to say that these patents don't relate to a technology that is obsolete compared with one developed by competitors. Yet this is generally the case.

Researchers need to keep accounts to understand that they are an integrated financial center within the company as a whole.

But you also need to create a system that links R&D activities to new products/processes introduced by the company. Even if this remains qualitative, present R&D members with data attesting (or not) that certain innovative products launched have been the subject of a service provided by an R&D team, or that a new production process installed...