“Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.”
– Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
Transformational innovation is rare. How many truly new-to-the-world ideas happen in a year? In a lifetime? Not many!
Research & Development (R&D) should be an integral part of the culture of a progressive organization, as it’s indicative of innovation and growth.
The scarcity of industry breakthroughs is largely because few occur organically. Breakthroughs occur with hard work, focus, and often long-term effort to explore a vision, solve a problem or tweak an existing prototype and that’s all before the product is successfully brought to market.
The R&D investment is to sustain a competitive market position in an environment where advances are coming thick and fast; fall behind and you fall out of the market. Research & Development as Defined by Investopedia as “the investigative activities a business conducts to improve existing products and procedures or to lead to the development of new products and procedures.”
The big question regarding R&D is: What strategies work? How much should a firm invest in R&D? What factors lead to breakthroughs or transformation innovation?
Specialist R&D tax advisors Swanson Reed reported that business R&D spending reached $356 billion in the United States, and appears to increase at least 5 percent each year.
So, why are companies investing so heavily in a strategy that has no practical connection to profits? Fundamentally, companies spend on R&D to stay ahead of the curve.
Sales and operations keep companies afloat and R&D is among the tools that organizations must leverage to evolve and prepare for the future. Unlike some of the other tools in the growth and innovation arsenal focused on discovering and fast-following opportunities, R&D is a long-term strategy of intellectual property and unique efficiencies.
Choosing an R&D strategy requires following a model based on quantifiable data.
Recognize core competencies and maximize them!
Learn how inMMGroup can help you overcome the challenges of R&D and pivot your organization. Connect with us.
