Hello, Manuel - I would appreciate feedback on responses to your question.
>... pointers to published articles on H.P.'s R&D model or similar ones...
I don't have precsiely what you're looking for...but here's a chaotic
sampling of ingredients stewing in my collective being - not fully formed,
but perhaps of use?
Key people with the knowledge, intelligence, and ability to lead action
taken in context of shared goals, processes and constituent success are
still the core strategic resources of companies, and the most critical
element of success in product development and management.
from the book "Intelligent Enterprise", Quinn, Free Press - Old concepts
of manufacturing vs. service industries as distinct are obsolete and
misleading in today's technology industries. Services are synergistic
with and inseparable from manufacturing, with 60-80% or more of the
personnel in manufacturing companies in service roles.
Strategic professional services, not raw materials, not energy, not core
technology differentiates the survivors from the losers in manufacturing
as well as service industries today.
Innovation - putting ideas and approaches into practice for the first
time, and re-newing core products and services - is the strategic focus
for successful technology-based businesses in today's globally competitive
markets.
The primacy of innovation leads to lean organizations with tight focus on
core competencies, and the ability to define short-term actions to rapidly
create new products and services for growth markets. World class
infrastructure to enable outsourcing from basic R&D to marketing is a
critical base for this approach.
Infrastructure - improving the ability to create and enable ad hoc teams
that cross the walls formally separating design, engineering,
manufacturing, marketing and sales sectors is another key factor in
success today.
Communications systems, methods and services that enable connection of
internal teams and external suppliers and customers around the world so
they can share strategic, time value information are critical. Realtime
customer contact and response is increasingly important.
Strategic alliances with suppliers, complementary companies, and
outsourced contractors supports sharing of resources toward a common goal
of world class quality and performance in every facet of a company's work.
... my response to a conference on Technology Partnerships at U.C. Santa
Barbara, Feb. 2-3, 1995.
INNOVATION TOUCHES EVERY PHASE OF LEADING COMPANY
The ability to put new ideas into practice, to renew products and
processes, to increase value to customers and to embrace changes in
management structure differentiates world class companies from the rest in
the late 20th century.
Economic transition in mega companies - Hewlett Packard and Rockwell
Hewlett Packard is one of the few technology companies viewed as a leader
25 years ago and still today. It is a leader not just because of its
products but because of extensive investment in its people. HP applies
"engineering" principles not only to technology and product lines, but to
their own team management and innovation process. HP thrives with change
because it empowers its people to focus on customers and potentially
emerging markets.
Bill Shreve, Director of an HP Instruments and Photonics Lab, provides a
glimpe at the ability to adapt to changing business conditions. Some
facets of change at HP:
PAST FUTURE
defense funded R&D competitiveness funded R&D
performance driven customer value driven
stable products rapidly changing products
customer loyalty lowest cost product loyalty
generic products solution focused products
hardware driven software driven
U.S. competition global competition
At HP the time pressure to innovate is intense. Product development cycles
are down to two years, with 60% of 1994 HP sales coming from products
introduced in 1993 and 1994. In early product planning stages a key
measure is expected "break even time" - the time when all cumulative R&D,
manufacturing, marketing et al product costs are covered by sales revenue
and the first profit occurs. The bottomline of marketing is considered
from the beginning.
Rockwell International, like HP, is another multibillion dollar company
with major internal resources to intrapreneur its own pathways to the
future for the most part. Joe Longo of a Rockwell Science Center offers
two key competitive factors for their commercial technology success today
in the changeover from defense to commercial markets.
* Timing of release of products to markets
* Technology driven by economic value = cost for a given function
These factors have led to significant changes in the management of
technology within Rockwell. Typical of most large defense/aerospace
firms, technology walls used to separate Rockwell's many business areas.
Customer focus on massive programs such as the B-1 led to technology
investment decisions being made primarily within business areas. Like the
Berlin Wall, and for related reasons of global connectivity, these
cross-divisional walls have fallen.
Business strategy now guides technology strategy. Only those core
technologies that are very important to three business areas of Rockwell
are supported by IR&D finds (the internal R&D budget). Active partnership
across business groups now drives Rockwell's investment in R&D. Balanced
consideration is given to :
Markets/Products Technology Sales/Distribution Management
More attention is paid to aligning business areas on common
technology-based themes and prioritizing expansion potential. The future
is king. Technology areas that show high growth potential command a higher
percentage of R&D budget than they did in previous defense oriented
business years. Funding is down for advancing research into technologies
of core products that led to past business success.
To adapt to new markets, Rockwell encourages diversity, expression of new
ideas for projects and approaches, and individuals who can adapt and
thrive on change in the workplace.
How are smaller companies doing converting from defense to commercial
markets?
Smaller technology-based companies have similar stories to tell, but they
are more dependent on outside alliances for innovation. General Research
Corporation, Inc. is a $100 million+ mid-sized, technology-based company
founded in Santa Barbara over 20 years ago. SWL, Inc. is a GRCI
subsidiary led by Mr. Joe Easham. Easham provides a model that he thinks
has led to SWL success in developing fluorishing commercial business
entities, in the changeover from defense-oriented business.
Key points for SWL have been:
* speed to market
* flexibility to adapt to niche customers
* customer focus
How has SWL encouraged and supported this change?
* let small teams emerge
* reward technical heroes
* reward marketing heroes
* protect innovative units from existing mature businesses
* encourage internal cross-team, cross-division alliances
* encourage external alliances
* share information: be open and upfront
Infrastructure is more important for smaller companies - The smaller a
company is, the more it must act as a subsystem within a larger industry
context- its business infrastructure.
To focus on core competencies, all commodity operations, in fact any
aspect of operations a company does not see as world class or as giving
them a strategic competitive advantage, is outsourced.
The factors SWL point to for success include much greater need to reach
out to outside connections. Strategic alliances of many kinds are becoming
more critical - one form is R&D alliances which involve the universities
and public research labs as well as other companies.
The next table shows another perspective of the massive market forced
changes impacting HP's Research and Development process.
PAST PRESENT
diverse offerings core competencies
technology driven market driven
defense dominated commercial dominated
performance focus cost paramount
long-range R&D short-term product development
high end/low volume yes- AND low end/high volume
central R&D product focused R&D
The huge central research labs of recent decades are gone or have
diminished roles. Previous product development models don't fit. These
linear models had basic research overlapping applied research in central
R&D labs, then development in division R&D, then manufacturing, then
distribution.
Industrial R&D roles are now compressed and simultaneous, tied to market
parameters from the beginning of product design cycles. New research
goals are to find and better serve customers. Research strategies focus
on how to create and define the future.
The primary function of corporate research inside HP today is to reduce
uncertainty, to minimize risks of product development, to add proprietary
value to basic technology in creating products, and to use new technology
to open entirely new markets.
My best to you in your search -
Bruce
Bruce Hanna, paradigm innovation associates
Results...the human element bhanna@piweb.com
1211 Plaza del Monte Santa Barbara, CA
(805)962-6677
"To know, and not to act, is not to know."
- Wang Yang Ming, Chinese General, 880 A.D.