Today a company’s ability to compete and develop is directly or indirectly associated with its research and innovation programs. The important thing is to keep ahead of the competition in an expanding global economy by maintaining a technology edge. Every company in its efforts to get ahead of its competitors has to face a lot of difficulties.
The solution lies in a long term investment in cutting edge research technologies with the potential to drive future revenue growth. It gives the management valuable insight into where their company is heading and what challenges are in store for them. How does a company efficiently move innovations in technology into new practices or products in a fast changing world where research and development costs are increasing day by day? It needs to be evaluated what research and development model works best in a global marketplace.
In recent years many new challenges are being faced by the organizations in the field of research and development. For many years large industrial laboratories such as AT&T’s Bell Labs served as light houses for the new and emerging industries. In an effort to scale down size and costs, these large groups have been forced to reorganize and more narrowly focus their research programs.
The best way to initiate research and innovation program in an industry is to create an environment which encourages collaboration in diverse fields to achieve corporate goals. Here are the important steps to create a team of researches within the corporate culture.
Three steps to create a team of researches
The first step is to create a team of researches whose primary role is to conduct research and they must be free from the tight product-release and maintenance procedures. This entails to explore long-term goals and projects as well as to concentrate on more urgent problems.
Secondly, it is important to utilize multidimensional skills to ensure far sighted research approaches which allow the discovery of diverse topics.
Thirdly, the company needs to create an environment that encourages innovation by fostering a culture of interaction across diverse disciplines and corporate boundaries. This goal can be achieved by keeping a small team of researchers who can frequently interact with each other. These researchers need to have a close contact with customers, product groups and with academic institutions of renown. A variety of collaboration programs with leading engineering universities around the world that involve strong internship and fellowship programs bring in additional talent.
It is important to conduct the research at a higher level with practical, organic and real-world implications. The researchers need to be exposed to the real marketplace challenges to endure and address the competitive pressure. At the end of the day, the long term success of a company will mainly rest on its ability to innovate and evolve changes in technology and the markets it serves to ensure its technological leadership in the times to come.
