Below are the the interesting resources that I have come across. They are structured around the key terms, tools and techniques for the management of R&D projects.
1 Overarching Resources
1.1 General Resources
Resource Name
|
Description
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Resource Type
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Innovation Management a Network Perspective |
I submitted this study as part of my requirement for completing an MSc in Management at the University of Bath. It looks at the overlap between innovation management and network management theory. The results of the literature review were applied to a programme of innovation projects from within the UK Ministry of Defence. The results highlight a strong link between network management capability and innovation success and examines the implications for wider management and academic theory. |
Presentation
|
Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating And Profiting from Technology |
This is hands down the best book you will read in the field of technology management. It has heavily influenced all of my thinking throughout this wiki and is an absolute must read. |
Book
|
The Core Competence of the Coorporation - Prahad and Hamel (1990) |
Prahad and Hamel were the first people to suggest the core competence model for business strategy. They essentially argued that a company should concentrate on what it is that makes them best in class (your core competencies) and the bits they are not great at they should look to partner with externals to achieve this. This approach is really the start of Open Innovation as companies realise they can't do it all. |
Journal Article
|
When is virtual virtuous? - Chesborough and Teece (1996) |
I've always seen this article as the perfect accompaniment to the core competence article by Prahad and Hamel. It discusses how a company needs to warey of outsourcing so much that they become a "hollow organisation" not really adding any value and easily replaced. |
Journal Article
|
1.2 Open Innovation Articles
Depending on who you ask, there are a number of responses to "what is open innovation?". Here are just a few of the definitions as described by the literature:
- Setting research challenges to the general public i.e. open calls,
- Influencing your supply chain to get them to solve your problems,
- Outsourcing research and development capabilities,
- Co-development of products with other companies,
- Licensing in or out technologies.
In my opinion open innovation is all of these and should really just be thought of as the conscious effort of an organisation to benefit from minds outside of their own four walls.
Resource Name
|
Description
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Resource Type
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A Discussion About Crowdsourcing and Open Innovation With Dwayne Spradlin (CEO of Innocentive) |
Presentation on how using crowdsourcing services such as those offered by Innocentive. Obviously he is slightly biased but he makes some very strong arguments for companies to start looking outside there own four walls. |
Video
|
Academic engagement and commercialisation – A review of the literature on university–industry relations |
This article provides a comprehensive overview of the literature covering university-industrial engagement. It focuses on individual relationships between academics and companies and draws out a number of key themes which act as good guidance to anyone looking to operate in this space. |
Academic Paper
|
Coping with open innovation - Responding to the challenges of external engagement in r&d |
This is a really good article that looks at the practicalities of implementing an Open Innovation agenda at the individual level. |
Academic Paper
|
CreativeBarcode - Legal protection for disclosures within crowd-source communities |
An interesting company that looks to bring legal coverage to ideas in their early stages developed by communities. They provide a simple QR code which is attached to the documentation (normally online) and when it is shared the reciever must agree to the terms and conditions to view it. This ensures confidentiality is maintained and makes disclosures controlled such that future IP filings are not jeopardised. |
Company Website
|
Crowdsourcing.org |
This is an interesting website that pulls together resources from across the internet on crowdsourced development. |
Website
|
Does IP Strategy Have to Cripple Open Innovation? |
This is a really good article that looks at how IP can actually act as enabler for and Open Innovation strategy. It presents an interesting framework to help businesses to decide on different strategies depending on the type of environment they are operating within |
Online Article
|
Getting help with Open Innovation |
|
Report
|
How Intellectual Property (IP) Enables And Protects Open Innovation Platforms |
This Forbes article discusses how in order for companies to succeed in an Open Innovation strategy they must have a strong IP strategy to allow them to work openly and get maximum benefit. |
Online Article
|
How to implement open innovation: lessons from studying large multinational companies |
This is a great report which looks at how you actual implement open innovation in an organisation. |
Report
|
IP protection and Open Innovation can work together (if you do it right). |
|
Report
|
Innocentive - Companies put technical challenges to the community and pay for the best solutions |
Innocentive are one of the longest running community based open innovation companies. They operate a challenge based model where companies place their technical challenges with a cash reward for the best solutions. |
Company Website
|
Integrating IP Protection with Open Innovation Business Practices |
|
Report
|
Intellectual Property and Transfer of Technology and Licensing |
This video is from the head of the World Intellectual Property Office on the aspects of IP that an organisation must take into account if they are looking to take part in collaborative development. After listening to this you will either be completely put off the idea of collaborative development, or you will see that it is achievable but you better get some good IP lawyers on your side. |
Video
|
Intellectual property knowledge unleashing the opportunities for crowd sourcing and funding |
Article discussing the implications of crowd sourcing and crowd funding on intellectual property. |
Article
|
Intellectual ventures |
|
Company Website
|
Interfacing Intellectual property rights and Open innovation |
|
Journal Article
|
Looking Back on a Decade of Open Innovation |
|
Journal Article
|
MANAGING OPEN INNOVATION IN LARGE FIRMS |
To mark 10 years since the publication of his seminal book, Henry Chesborough has produced this report looking at companies attitudes to Open Innovation. The main findings were: 78 % of firms in the sample report practicing open innovation, No firms in the sample report abandoning their practice of open innovation, 71 % report that top management support for open innovation is increasing in their firm, 82 % report that, compared to three years ago, open innovation is practiced more intensively today, universities and suppliers are the three leading open innovation partners reported by survey respondents. |
Report
|
Marblar - Collaborative community looking to breathe new life into patents |
A novel web based approach that looks to the open community to find applications to existing patents. People who help work on an idea get a share of the royalties. |
Company Website
|
Open Innovation - Is it really open? |
|
Report
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Open Innovation - Where We've Been and Where We're Going |
|
Journal Article
|
Open Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights – The Two-edged Sword |
|
Journal Article
|
Open Innovation in the Eighteenth Century - The Longitude Problem |
The Longitude problem is one of the first examples of a competition based approach to Open Innovation. The UK government put up a prize fund worth millions in todays money for anyone who could create a technology that could accurately calculate the longitude of a ship when it was at sea. |
Video
|
Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating And Profiting from Technology |
This is hands down the best book you will read in the field of technology management. It has heavily influenced all of my thinking throughout this wiki and is an absolute must read. |
Book
|
Quirky - Online community of inventors |
Online community of inventors. |
Company Website
|
TedX talk - Charles Leadbeater on Innovation |
Leadbeater discusses amateurs practicing creative collaboration in this video. He uses the example of mountain bikes. The mountain bike was not really created in a Research and Development lab of some large corporation. Rather, it was an evolution of ideas, started by a crowd of consumers who were unhappy with the limitations of their current bikes. This community drew on each individual’s expertise to collective create a product that now accounts for 65% of bike sales in the United States. Leadbeater’s main point is that since technology is so accessible, amateurs are no longer limited by a lack of equipment. By working together, these groups of amateurs can change the world. |
Video
|
The Role of the Innovation Capitalist in Open Innovation |
|
Report
|
The evolution of open innovation: an interview with Henry Chesbrough |
|
Interview
|
World Intellectual Property Office - Views on Collaborative Innovation |
WIPO holds a conference each year looking at the effects of open innovation and collaborative development on IP. They believe IP can be a key enabler as long as people break the problem down into manageable chunks whilst always keeping an eye on the bigger picture. |
Article
|
1.3 Innovation Management Articles
A relatively new discipline in management theory, innovation has been closely studied as it is ultimately something that all organisations strive for. The term has been so misused over the years that it is worth reminding ourselves what it actually means.
Resource Name
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Description
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Resource Type
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Architectural Innovation: The Reconfiguration of Existing Product Technologies and the Failure of Established Firms |
|
Journal Article
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Fortified R&D Castles |
In his book on Open Innovation, Henry Chesbrough compared old "closed innovation" models used by organisations to fortified castles. The work was carried out inside the four walls and no knowledge came in or out. This is discussed at length in the his book (see resource library) but there is a free article which discusses this analogy in the context of drug development. |
|
Innovation Management a Network Perspective |
I submitted this study as part of my requirement for completing an MSc in Management at the University of Bath. It looks at the overlap between innovation management and network management theory. The results of the literature review were applied to a programme of innovation projects from within the UK Ministry of Defence. The results highlight a strong link between network management capability and innovation success and examines the implications for wider management and academic theory. |
Presentation
|
Innovationmanagement.se |
|
Website
|
Innovations and Networks Combined |
This m2i webpage looks at the overlap between Innovation Management and Network theory. |
M2i wiki page
|
Killer Innovations - Phil McKinney |
|
Book
|
Managing Innovation - Integrating Technological, Market and Organisational Change |
This is a great website put together by two pro's from the Innovation Management community Joe Tidd and John Bessant. There are loads of great resources on this website so it's well worth a look. |
Book
|
Managing Your Innovation Portfolio |
|
Online Article
|
Organising for Breakthrough - Rejuvenating the established firm |
This report has been put together by the Cambridge Based research group at the Institute for Manufacturing. |
Report
|
RADMA |
|
Website
|
RD Insights |
|
Website
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Strategic Innovation and the Intellectual Property Rights |
This is a talk from Marshall Phelps former corporate VP for IP Policy & Strategy at Microsoft and VP got IP & Licensing at IBM. His role in shifting the focus of IP from a company cost to a profit centre was revolutionary. This is a great presentation which starts with a background to IP in the US and then talks through the benefits brought by using the IP portfolio as a way to generate income. He talks through his story which is fascinating and shows how licensing agreements are absolutely essential to creating successful products. He finishes up by highlighting some of the issues with the way in which IP is managed in the US and makes suggestions on how the system can be changed for the benefit of innovation. |
Video
|
Surfing the right waves |
This analogy works quite well when thinking about trying to choose which early stage technologies an organisation should jump on board with. The basic premise is that it is like being sitting on a surfboard just off the coast waiting for the perfect wave to come so you can ride it to shore. It is very hard to see which waves are going to become the best ones ("narly" I think) to ride but with practice it is a skill that can be learnt. I can't remember where I first read this so I can't quote the original source but here is an article which summarises it quite well. |
|
The Ideafactory 2, Introduction to Innovation Management |
|
Video
|
Types of Innovation (Extract from Book) |
This is a chapter from a general book in innovation. This chapter introduces the reader to the different types of innovation and talks about the Incremental v Radical against Modular v Architectural matrix. |
Book
|
1.4 Intellectual Property Articles
Intellectual Property is perhaps one of the most important concepts described here. It is through Intellectual Property that a technical company is able to generate a sustainable income. The R&D department of a company exists either to generate IP (internal innovations) or provide the company with the intelligence to evaluate or generate external IP (Open Innovation). Understanding the finer points of IP is the key to innovation success.
1.5 Crowdsourcing Resources
When online communities come together to work on a challenge. Crowd sourcing has already made a huge impact in the software world (Firefox, Linux, Open Office) but it is now starting to make its way into more tangible products.
Resource Name
|
Description
|
Resource Type
|
A Discussion About Crowdsourcing and Open Innovation With Dwayne Spradlin (CEO of Innocentive) |
Presentation on how using crowdsourcing services such as those offered by Innocentive. Obviously he is slightly biased but he makes some very strong arguments for companies to start looking outside there own four walls. |
Video
|
CMNTY Platform |
Now clearly this crowd sourcing thing must be taking off when companies like this exist solely to provide the internet back end for running community challenges. |
|
Cascade: Crowdsourcing Taxonomy Creation |
A clever algorithm that allows the crowd to create a taxonomy for a large data set. |
Article
|
Challenge Question Formation for Crowdsourcing |
|
Article
|
CreativeBarcode - Legal protection for disclosures within crowd-source communities |
An interesting company that looks to bring legal coverage to ideas in their early stages developed by communities. They provide a simple QR code which is attached to the documentation (normally online) and when it is shared the reciever must agree to the terms and conditions to view it. This ensures confidentiality is maintained and makes disclosures controlled such that future IP filings are not jeopardised. |
Company Website
|
Crowdsourcing.org |
This is an interesting website that pulls together resources from across the internet on crowdsourced development. |
Website
|
Crowdsourcing: How Do You Engage Those on the Edge? |
This video has a consultant from the IDEO talking through the open collaboration branch of the business Open Ideo. He discusses the concepts behind the site along with some interesting observations on how such a community can be built. |
Video
|
HitRecord |
This community of creatives is coordinated by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and produces everything from music and videos to poetry and stories. The work is created collaboratively, released and all contributors receive a share of all the profits. |
Company Website
|
Hypios |
Another crowd sourcing company who will put teams of experts on your challenges. |
|
Idea Connection |
IDEO are probably one of the most well known design consultancies in the world. They take a design centred approach to their clients. Their CEO literally wrote the book on The Art of Innovation, Another crowd sourcing company who will put teams of experts on your challenges. |
Company Website
|
Ideaken |
Another crowd sourcing company who will put teams of experts on your challenges. |
|
Innocentive - Companies put technical challenges to the community and pay for the best solutions |
Innocentive are one of the longest running community based open innovation companies. They operate a challenge based model where companies place their technical challenges with a cash reward for the best solutions. |
Company Website
|
Innoget |
Another crowd sourcing company who will put teams of experts on your challenges. |
|
Intellectual property knowledge unleashing the opportunities for crowd sourcing and funding |
Article discussing the implications of crowd sourcing and crowd funding on intellectual property. |
Article
|
Intellectual ventures |
|
Company Website
|
Interfacing Intellectual property rights and Open innovation |
|
Journal Article
|
Kaggle |
An interesting competition led crowd sourcing company who have a community of data scientists who will solve complex data challenges. |
Company
|
Marblar - Collaborative community looking to breathe new life into patents |
A novel web based approach that looks to the open community to find applications to existing patents. People who help work on an idea get a share of the royalties. |
Company Website
|
Nine Sigma |
Nine Sigma are one of the leading companies in the crowd sourcing for industry world. |
Company Website
|
Open Ideo |
Open IDEO is a crowd sourcing community who look to tackle some of the worlds big issues such as "How might we make low-income urban areas safer and more empowering for women and girls?" or "How might we all maintain well being and thrive as we age?". The site is an extension to IDEO who are one of the worlds leading design consultancies. |
Company Website
|
Presans |
Another crowd sourcing company who will put teams of experts on your challenges. |
|
Quirky - Online community of inventors |
Online community of inventors. |
Company Website
|
Quirky's Ben Kaufman introduces the company and discusses the link with GE |
Quirky are an interesting company who used online communities to build on ideas from the public. In this video the CEO introduces the company and discusses the recent partnership with GE. |
Video
|
TedX talk - Charles Leadbeater on Innovation |
Leadbeater discusses amateurs practicing creative collaboration in this video. He uses the example of mountain bikes. The mountain bike was not really created in a Research and Development lab of some large corporation. Rather, it was an evolution of ideas, started by a crowd of consumers who were unhappy with the limitations of their current bikes. This community drew on each individual’s expertise to collective create a product that now accounts for 65% of bike sales in the United States. Leadbeater’s main point is that since technology is so accessible, amateurs are no longer limited by a lack of equipment. By working together, these groups of amateurs can change the world. |
Video
|
The Crowdsourcing Revolution at KPMG: How to Harness the Power of the People |
KPMG now offer a service to their clients where they will put questions to their staff all over the world for a crowdsourced response. This video talks about how the service came to be. |
Article with video
|
What the Failed $1M Netflix Prize Says About Business Advice |
The $1M Netflix prize is touted around as the ultimate CrowdSourcing success story. Netflix put up a prize to improve their film reccomendation algorithm which was claimed by code combined by multiple entrants. It fits the "sum is greater than it's parts" rhetoric but most references to this story fail to mention (or actually never checked their references) that the algorithm was never implemented. This is a great article which discusses how success in Crowd Sourcing is much trickier than just running a competition. Organisations have internal checks and balances for their R&D not just to give people with bureaucratic tendencies an outlet but to ensure the outputs are actually commercially viable. It does not mean the Crowd Sourcing is doomed, but it sure as hell is not the only part of the equation. |
Video
|
World Intellectual Property Office - Views on Collaborative Innovation |
WIPO holds a conference each year looking at the effects of open innovation and collaborative development on IP. They believe IP can be a key enabler as long as people break the problem down into manageable chunks whilst always keeping an eye on the bigger picture. |
Article
|
Yet2.com |
Yet2.com are one of the most established corporate crowd sourcing websites where industry can set challenges to their community of experts. |
Company Website
|
1.6 Technology Readiness Level Resources
Also known as TRL's, this is an extremely powerful approach which provides a simple framework for articulating the maturity of a given technology. This framework, if used correctly, can be applied to multiple technologies and it will provide a single number which will be valid for comparison across all technologies. It has been adopted widely by the Defence, Space and Automotive industry and is increasingly being used as a way of consistently reporting progress of elements of a wider technical system.
1.7 Business Models Resources
Product Options can be taken to the market through a number of different Business Models including direct sales, through a distributor, rental, service contracts, IP licensing or even Open Source. When a Product Option is taken to market through a specific Business Model we have the companies Value Proposition.
Resource Name
|
Description
|
Resource Type
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Board of Innovation |
Interesting consultancy who specialise in business model innovation. They have some interesting literature worth looking at. |
Company Website
|
Servitization - A horrendous word but an important concept |
The term servitization refers to the concept of companies moving away from providing their products as a simple one off transaction but thinking about it more as a service. Instead of selling people washing machines you sell them a service for cleaning their clothes, instead of selling people a car you sell them a service for transporting yourself from A to B. Rolls Royce pioneered this concept and coined the phrase "Power by the Hour". Instead of selling their engines to the aircraft companies, they sell them a service where they rent the engines along with maintenance and upgrade contracts and charge by the amount these engines are actually used. This document looks at how UK based manufacturing companies are moving to this model to increase their competitiveness in this global market. |
Report
|
1.8 R&D Models Resources
There are a number of different models that have been designed to manage the process of taking a concept and developing it into a product.
1.9 Design Theory Resources
The art of creating new products. Design theory is an extremely important concept taught to all product designers. It is something that more traditional engineers or scientists may feel uncomfortable with but some would argue without it, final products will be at best soulless and at worse useless.
1.10 Non disclosure agreements
Non Disclosure Agreements are one of the first things required when you are looking to work with someone outside of your own organisation. They allow confidential information to be exchanged safe in the knowledge that if the receiving party tell anyone else they will be breaking the law.
Resource Name
|
Description
|
Resource Type
|
Overview of NDA's |
This site provides a good overview of Non-Disclosure Agreements. |
Wikipedia page
|
1.11 University Based Research
The link between industry and universities can be a powerful tool for generating new technology. This section discusses how this relationship works in practice and suggests approaches to help make the experience more likely to succeed.
1.12 Fuzzy Front End Articles
This is a term used to describe the chaotic nature of early stage product development.
1.13 Knowledge Management Articles
There has been a lot of work done over the years on how organisations should capture and structure the knowledge they generate. The ultimate aim is to keep it in such away that it can be queried in the future to provide useful results.
1.14 Network Theory Resources
The concept of looking at a department or entire organisation as a node within a much wider network. This perspective can help you appreciate the mammoth task of trying to influence this.
Resource Name
|
Description
|
Resource Type
|
Innovation Management a Network Perspective |
I submitted this study as part of my requirement for completing an MSc in Management at the University of Bath. It looks at the overlap between innovation management and network management theory. The results of the literature review were applied to a programme of innovation projects from within the UK Ministry of Defence. The results highlight a strong link between network management capability and innovation success and examines the implications for wider management and academic theory. |
Presentation
|
Innovations and Networks Combined |
This m2i webpage looks at the overlap between Innovation Management and Network theory. |
M2i wiki page
|
Network Theory |
This the main page from with wiki on Network Management.,
The concept of looking at a department or entire organisation as a node within a much wider network. This perspective can help you appreciate the mammoth task of trying to influence this. || M2i wiki page
|
2 Concept Generation
In this context we define a concept as a solution to a problem or an unexploited opportunity. The first step in creating a concept is understanding the problem/opportunity space and what it is that the end user is looking to get from interacting with this concept. The techniques identified here can help both with understanding this space and generating the actual concepts.
2.1 Requirements Management Resources
Requirements management is an established technique used by project managers to deliver projects. It has traditionally been used in software development (2008, Hood, Wiedemann, Fichtinger and Paut, pp 21) as a tool to ensure that the end capabilities delivered are actually what the customer needs. It has increasingly been used in other industries and many development models have requirements at their hearts (see section on R&D Models.)
2.2 Creativity Resources
There is an increasingly growing body of evidence that suggests that creativity is not a talent that you either have or do not but one that anyone can learned and developed. This section looks at this in more detail and discusses the techniques that have been designed to turn even the most uninspiring employee into a regular Da-Vinci.
2.3 Product Pull versus Technology Push Resources
R&D projects broadly fall into two categories. Technology Push projects are ones where you start with a technology and are looking for an application. Product pull projects start with a product problem or requirement and the technology is looked for.
Resource Name
|
Description
|
Resource Type
|
Push–pull strategy |
This is the main page from Wikipedia on the Push-Pull Strategy. |
Wikipedia Page
|
2.4 Value resources
In the context of this website I have taken Value to be the additional benefit the customer perceives they will gain from purchasing a Product Option.
Resource Name
|
Description
|
Resource Type
|
Identifying markets |
I created the following presentation when I was asked to think about ways in which markets could be identified for future product concepts. The process outlined is one I have developed. |
Presentation
|
3 Concept Deconstruction
All systems can be broken down into smaller ones. At this stage the initial concept is broken down into manageable chunks. It is essential that the relationships between these "chunks" are captured to ensure that work carried out on a sub-systm is sensitive to how local changes impact on the golbal and also ensure that the concept can reconstructed later down the line.
3.1 Systems Engineering Resources
Systems Engineering is a well defined approach to creating and delivering complex products/capabilities. It is the discipline of defining a problem and breaking down the solution space into manageable chunks. As long as the interfaces between these chunks are well defined they can be managed realtively independently. This approach has been widely adopted by the defence industry but has rarely been used for less technically complex products. A big focus of this website is exploring how this may work.,
An extremely powerful concept which teaches you the skills to define the boundaries of something physical or non-tacit and then unpack it into smaller sub-systems whilst understanding how these sub-systems interact.
3.2 Morphological Analysis Resources
Morphological Analysis is a useful technique for breaking down the product design space.
3.3 Quality Function Deployment Resources
First conceptualized in 1966 as a method or concept for new product development. QFD is used to translate customer requirements to engineering specifications. It is a link between customers - design engineers - competitors - manufacturing.
Resource Name
|
Description
|
Resource Type
|
Interactive House of Quality |
This is a great interactive interactive tutorial on the House of Quality (HOQ) matrix. This matrix forms the central tool for Quality Function Deployment (QFD). |
Wikipedia page
|
3.4 Pugh Concept Selection Resources
The Pugh Matrix is a tool that allows for the comparison of a number of design options leading ultimately to which best meets a set of criteria. It also permits a degree of qualitative optimisation of the alternative concepts through the generation of hybrid
candidates.
3.5 Functional Analysis Resources
Functional breakdown is the process of taking a concept and decomposing it into discrete packages that describe the things it needs to perform to deliver what it needs to.
4 Identifying Solutions and Highlighting Knowledge Gaps
Even the best resourced R&D departments will not be able to answer all of the R&D questions the generate so a process is required to select the activity that will be taken forwards. The techniques identified here are well established for project selection and management but care must be taken when applying them to early stage R&D activity. We are dealing with unknowns so no process will tell you what you should tackle, expertise, intution and plain gut feel must play apart here.
4.1 Technology Scouting Resources
Scouting is an important part of bringing new ideas and technologies into an organisation. This is a skilled discipline and there are a lot tips, techniques and tools that have been developed to assist with scouting. This section introduces a number of these techniques.
Resource Name
|
Description
|
Resource Type
|
How good scouting can beat good R&D: The Cisco vs. Lucent example |
Although this is slightly a marketing spiel about the benefits of using their software, this blog does highlight some good criteria for delivering good scouting within an organisation. |
Online Article
|
Sciencescape |
This quite an interesting company who aim to help researchers stay current in their fields without the need to trawl through publication after publication. The platform produces landscapes of literature highlighting the key articles and is continually updated through user interaction. |
Online Article
|
Technology Radar-Scouting at CISCO |
This document describes the way in which scouting is performed at CISCO through a structured process involving all employees from around the world. This document introduces their scouting radar which is a nice way of visualising the results. |
Journal Article
|
4.2 Open Innovation Platform Resources
There are an increasing amount of Open Innovation Platforms that operate a challenge based model. They work with companies to capture their reseach challenges and then either work with their own experts or open up the challenges to a community to get them to generate potential solutions.
Resource Name
|
Description
|
Resource Type
|
Innocentive - Companies put technical challenges to the community and pay for the best solutions |
Innocentive are one of the longest running community based open innovation companies. They operate a challenge based model where companies place their technical challenges with a cash reward for the best solutions. |
Company Website
|
Intellectual ventures |
|
Company Website
|
Nine Sigma |
Nine Sigma are one of the leading companies in the crowd sourcing for industry world. |
Company Website
|
Yet2.com |
Yet2.com are one of the most established corporate crowd sourcing websites where industry can set challenges to their community of experts. |
Company Website
|
4.3 IP Discovery
You can guarantee that nearly every challenge that an R&D team face, someone somewhere has had a go at sorting it out and probably filed a patent for it. There is also a high probability that the idea was useless but it is always worth looking. This section looks at the concept of thinking if register IP databases as a repository of ideas you can either learn from, purchase or use to identify people or companies who may be able to help you out.
Resource Name
|
Description
|
Resource Type
|
Delta Sight |
An interesting company who offer an approach to mine both patent and non patent information to spot trends in technology. |
Company Website
|
Innography |
An impressive piece of IP mining and analysis software which allows the user to interrogate all patents filed worldwide. There are are a few products out there that aim to deliver this capability but this is hands down the best. |
Company Website
|
4.4 Technology Transfer Articles
This term has a couple of meanings. It can be used to describe the process of taking fundamental technology and commercialising it (commonly applied to university or government research being exploited) but in the context of this site I take the more literal definition. New product doesn't necessarily mean new technology. Many of the greatest inventions have really just been rehashes of a existing idea applied in a different way. This section looks at this process in more detail.
5 Defining Potential Projects and Resourcing them
Even the best resourced R&D departments will not be able to answer all of the R&D questions the generate so a process is required to select the activity that will be taken forwards. The techniques identified here are well established for project selection and management but care must be taken when applying them to early stage R&D activity. We are dealing with unknowns so no process will tell you what you should tackle, expertise, intution and plain gut feel must play apart here.
5.1 Portfolio management Resources
Research projects are inherently risky and even with good project management you can never guarantee success. The only way of increasing the likelihood of delivering success through research is by doing more, quite simply it's a numbers game. This logic dictates that the management of multiple projects (aka Programme Management) is synonymous with Innovation Management. This section looks at the tools and techniques around this specific discipline.
5.2 Building a business case resources
The importance of being able to clearly and concisely put together justification between a request for internal funding is an essential skill. Having a consistent approach can allow an organisation to build a culture where all employees are not just encouraged to come up with new innovations but provide a language to communicate the potential behind these innovations which all levels of management can undetstand.
5.3 Heuristics and Biases Resources
When selecting projects many people like to use their gut to chose. Unfortunately it is scarily easy for us to be swayed into bad decisions due to the way in which our brains are wired. These hard coded rules are known in psychology as heuristics and are well documented and undisputed. Being aware of them can help ensure decisions are made using sound logic and not just on gut.
Resource Name
|
Description
|
Resource Type
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Heuristics and Biases |
This is the main page from this wiki,
When selecting projects many people like to use their gut to chose. Unfortunately it is scarily easy for us to be swayed into bad decisions due to the way in which our brains are wired. These hard coded rules are known in psychology as heuristics and are well documented and undisputed. Being aware of them can help ensure decisions are made using sound logic and not just on gut. || M2i wiki page
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List of Cognitive Biases |
This is the main wikipedia on the subject. |
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5.4 Benefits Management Resources
This concept looks to take a portfolio of projects and monitor the overall benefits they deliver as discrete items themselves. Ultimately a programme exists to deliver some kind of benefit but these benefits normally sit within multiple projects. This concept provides guidance on how to monitor the benefits and manage the programme to ensure they are effectively delivered.
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Benefits Management |
This is the main page from this site,
This concept looks to take a portfolio of projects and monitor the overall benefits they deliver as discrete items themselves. Ultimately a programme exists to deliver some kind of benefit but these benefits normally sit within multiple projects. This concept provides guidance on how to monitor the benefits and manage the programme to ensure they are effectively delivered. || M2i wiki page
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5.5 Project Selection Resources
Most of the time we have more projects than money to pay for them. There are a number of techniques one can use to help make sure the best ones are taken forward.
5.6 R&D return on investment
Normally in business when you have a number of options you will perform a return on investment to help you make an informed decision. Unfortunately calculating a return on investment for research (especially early stage) is next to impossible. Research can deliver its benefits years after it has been carried out, it rarely delivers a single, tangible output and most of the time it only creates knowledge, how can you even attempt to put a price against that after the event let alone before? This section explores the concept and discusses what can be done about it.
5.7 Risk Management Resources
There is no such thing as a risk free project, especially when it comes to R&D. Understanding the risk and effectively monitoring should decrease the chance that a showstopper will become a reality.
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Risk Management |
This is the main page from this wiki.,
There is no such thing as a risk free project, especially when it comes to R&D. Understanding the risk and effectively monitoring should decrease the chance that a showstopper will become a reality. || M2i wiki page
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6 Research and Development
Finally we get on with the fun stuff. This is the phase where traditional R&D is carried out. Note, everything so far has just been a way of making sure that the R&D we actually do carry out will be of use if successful. The outputs then feed into our understanding of the original problem space and may well identify new insights which had not been thought of before.
6.1 Design of experiments resources
This branch of applied statistics deals with planning, conducting, analyzing and interpreting controlled tests to evaluate the factors that control the value of a parameter or group of parameters. Many experiments involve holding certain factors constant and altering the levels of another variable. This One–Factor–at–a–Time (or OFAT) approach to process knowledge is, however, inefficient when compared with changing factor levels simultaneously. DofE is an extremely powerful and a must for anyone conducting experimental R&D.
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Design of Experiments |
This branch of applied statistics deals with planning, conducting, analyzing and interpreting controlled tests to evaluate the factors that control the value of a parameter or group of parameters. Many experiments involve holding certain factors constant and altering the levels of another variable. This One–Factor–at–a–Time (or OFAT) approach to process knowledge is, however, inefficient when compared with changing factor levels simultaneously. DofE is an extremely powerful and a must for anyone conducting experimental R&D. |
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6.2 Six Sigma Resources
Six Sigma is a set of techniques and tools for process improvement. It seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors) and minimizing variability in manufacturing and business processes. It uses a set of quality management methods, including statistical methods, and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organization ("Champions", "Black Belts", "Green Belts", "Yellow Belts", etc.) who are experts in these methods. Each Six Sigma project carried out within an organization follows a defined sequence of steps and has quantified value targets, for example: reduce process cycle time, reduce pollution, reduce costs, increase customer satisfaction, and increase profits.
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Six Sigma |
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6.3 Rapid Prototyping Resources
Quickly manufacturing tangible prototypes for hands on testing can greatly increase the speed at which you get a product to market. New technologies such as 3d printing have revolutionised this space but we should not forget the more traditional modelling/sculpting skills that can still add enormous value to the r&d process.
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Rapid prototyping |
This is the main wikipedia page on the subject. |
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Rapid prototyping overview |
This is a great webpage which gives good overview of the subject. |
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6.4 Iterative Design Process
The Iterative Design Process is one widely used within product design. It focusses mainly making physical representations of a final product and testing it to see how it performs. The process can be summarised as design, make, test, break.
6.5 Scientific Method
The scientific method is the process that scientists have followed for centuries to advance our understanding of the world around us. It starts with gathering supporting knowledge, hypothesising, experimentation to test the hypothesis and then updating the supporting knowledge.