GGI RapidNews: Volume 9, Issue 7 - R&D

GGI RapidNews R&D Product Development eZine: Volume 9, Issue 7 - July 2, 2008
GGI RapidNews is published approximately once a month.

Research Execution: The study was conducted by a combination of mailer surveys, and e-mails with links to download web sites. 7094 mailer surveys were distributed, 476 surveys were downloaded from web sites. Of the total of 7570 surveys distributed, 1256 mailer surveys were returned as undeliverable. Net total surveys distributed was 6314. A total of 218 completed surveys were received. Four (4) surveys were determined to be invalid and were eliminated. Five (5) duplicate responses were eliminated, yielding a total of 209 valid responses included in the 2008 results database. The response rate was 3.31%.

Research Participants: About two-thirds of respondents were from public companies, about one-third were from private companies. Over fifty percent had a title of Director or greater, less than 20% held a title of Manager or lower. Over eighty-five percent of respondents were from R&D-Product Development and/or Senior Management. About half of respondents were from companies with sales less than $.5B, forty percent were from $.5B to $5B, and twelve percent were greater than $5B. All industries were represented, including a number of software-only companies.

Research Description: The research was focused on areas in the Innovation Body of Knowledge where Innovation is "tangible," meaning that "it can be directed by executives and is actionable by employees." GGI's focus since 1998 is to investigate the actual processes and practices that companies use that cause their results. The five subjects GGI researched between August 2007 and February 2008 were:

1. Innovation Environment [This RN Issue]

2. Innovation Processes [RN August 08 Issue]

3. Innovation Identity [RN September 08 Issue]

4. Innovation Tools [RN October Issue]

5. Top Corporate Metrics Used in Industry RD&E [RN December 08]

Research Findings - Part 1 - Innovation Environment: Only 5% of companies follow an "innovator" R&D strategy, the rest of companies follow more risk-averse strategies. "Platform-Derivative" strategies have been growing for the past thirty years and are now practiced about equally to "Balanced Portfolio" strategies. The rest pursue "Follower-Extender" strategies. Regardless of strategy, management's emphasis on innovation will be greater in the coming five years than it has been in the past. Management will primarily achieve this emphasis through increased financial investment in physical assets when compared to financial investment in people, processes, and practices.

Research Conclusions: It seems that management has a different perception about approaching Innovation than the recent Lean, Six Sigma, and Agile initiatives of the past decade where there was primarily an emphasis on training people and using processes, and practices. The tangibleness of innovation remains elusive.

Sales of educational toys are expected to reach $5.5 billion per year by 2010. A two-year study funded by the University of Stirling, in Scotland, found that educational electronic toys are no more effective at developing literacy and a number of skills than traditional toys and teaching methods. Child development specialist, Diane Levin, calls these toys "bad toys." "Toys with batteries and buttons. Toys that tell children what to do. Toys that program children's play." Educational toys "not only fail to teach children but make raising infants and toddlers 'harder, more confusing, and more insecurity producing.'" Instead of encouraging children's imagination and risk taking, electronic toys stifle it, breeding passivity and consumerism.

MIT cognitive and linguistic science professor Laura Schultz tells Paul that children who play with lots of "smart" toys" become passive absorbers. Instead of honing their ability to focus, they develop impatience; instead of learning creativity, they learn to behave like unskilled workers on a factory line."

An integrated metrics program will result in greater speed in new product development, more profitable products, and improved performance of your research and development environment. What does such an integrated program entail? Find out by attending GGI's Product Development Metrics Summit to be held October 21-23, 2008 in metro Boston.

All three seminars are geared to top-level professionals that manage entire organizations, departments, budgets, and senior program management executives. An excellent approach would include two to four key staff members who could produce a result for the R&D organization as a whole.

If you wish, please view a list of Companies who have participated in prior GGI Summits. We are grateful to the September and December 2005 participants who provided us with a Testimonial, Testimonial. We are grateful to the March and September 2006 participants who provided us with a Testimonial, Testimonial. We are grateful to March and August 2007 participants who provided us with a Testimonial, Testimonial. We are grateful to the January 2008 and June 2008 participants who provided us with a Testimonial, Testimonial.

Bring your team and come away with your company's solution! This is an excellent opportunity to quickly leverage the power of metrics. Early Bird Discounts are $200 per individual. Teams of 3 or more receive an additional $224 discount, a savings of over $400 per individual.

Intellectual Property Rights for Engineers, by Vivien Irish, 2nd Edition August 2005, IEE, London UK, ISBN-10: 0863414907
and ISBN-13: 978-0863414909.

This fully revised and updated edition of Intellectual Property Rights for Engineers, addresses the rights of engineers with respect to innovation as constrained by UK law. The assumption used throughout the book is that the engineer generating the innovation is a UK national working in the UK.

In the UK, the general term for the legal rights protecting innovation is intellectual property rights (IPRs). There are six basic IPRs: patents; copyrights; registered designs; design right, trade marks; and confidential information. The author describes these six rights in enough detail so that engineers can use the IP law and understand the reason for using it.

The author also provides a practical guide to applying the six IPRs to various types of engineering product or material (e.g., Technical Report, Computer Program, Manufacturing method, etc.).

The book is intended for engineers and managers of engineers who might need to know how to license IP or even litigate when necessary. There is also some coverage of strategic aspects for decision-making and management.

Thank you to the 209 people who responded for their companies in our biennial primary research project of North American industry. We appreciate the time it took you to respond accurately to our robust survey questionnaire. All participants should have received their complimentary "Summary" copy of the results at this time. If you participated and did not receive your "Summary," please contact Ervin Kule at eak@goldensegroupinc.com. Ervin is GGI's Manager of Market Research. He can also be reached at 781-444-5400 x202.

The 2008 Biennial Survey theme was "Tangible Innovation." Much is said and written about the "perceived to be somewhat soft" topic of innovation. GGI's research focused on selected aspects of the innovation body of knowledge that are tangible and can be actively managed by companies and their executives. We also refreshed our ongoing biennial research of the past decade regarding the usage of R&D and product development metrics by industrial and high tech companies. Industry Week has recently published the "Top 10 Metrics In 2008" and contrasted them to our research from 1998 to identify the changes during the past decade.

Our research covered 88 different metrics that measure the overall results obtained from investments in R&D and Product Development. It is clear that the measurement emphasis is changing to reflect industry's initiatives in intellectual property, innovation, productivity, lean, and other areas. In a few years there are likely to be a number of metrics that will move up to become Top 10.

Industry Week also asked us to write a small piece about some of these trends in metrics that we observed during our research. Most of these trends occur below the Top 10 Metrics which have stayed fairly constant over time. This piece was also recently published.

The majority of the research effort focused on "Tangible Innovation" versus "Metrics". To date, we have not made any of these findings public and will likely do so only sparingly in public media. We will be providing selected highlights to RapidNews readers in the coming months starting with this issue, see above first section.

We have two reports available for sale to companies that might be interested. Our flagship report is "MR42" which is a summary of all questions across the population of respondents. It includes full color graphics of each question. We are also offering a less expensive scaled-down version, MR41, which is text only at about half the price.

For more information please visit our 2008 Biennial Survey web site. Here you can find our Research Description, Product Description, Product Brochure, Tables Of Contents for the reports, and/or place an order for one of these publications. Pricing and ordering information may also be found in The Wisdom iStore in the "Primary Research" section. All reports are available in hard copy, or electronic.pdf format for posting on company intranets.

GGI's Featured Item changes approximately every other month and is always offered at 40% discount. To order this material, please go to GGI's Featured Item on the GGI Home Page or find this item in the Primary Research section of The Wisdom iStore.

2004 Product Development Metrics Survey - Product Selection, IP Management, and Top Corporate Metrics: The Summary Report (MR32h) and Highlights Report (MR31h) for GGI's 2004 Biennial Product Development Metrics Survey are now available for purchase by the public through GGI's Wisdom iStore. These reports are completely based on primary research performed by GGI researchers. The research includes 202 respondent companies. There was a 5% response rate.

McKinsey & Company, Texas Instruments, Rockwell, Kimberly Clark, JDS Uniphase, Shure, Curtiss Wright Flight Systems and Datacard are representative of companies that purchase market research from GGI.

The 2004 Survey focused on the following five areas of product selection and IP management:

We have already shared many results with GGI RapidNews readers since we began this line of business in 1998. 2004 Survey results ran in six RN issues, RN V5I11 - RN V6I5, which may be found in the RN archives, along with results from prior years.

The three commercial versions of the survey results that we currently offer for public purchase are:

1. 2004 SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS: A text-only report (75 pages), including the full text of all the results and analysis of the survey population analyzed as a whole, and
2. 2004 SURVEY SUMMARY: A report of composite results, where the survey respondents are analyzed as a whole (149 pages, includes a full set of graphed answers for every survey question).
3. 2004 SURVEY RESULTS: A report of composite results, where the survey respondents are analyzed as a whole AND five different cross-sections of the survey data contrasting Public vs Private, High Tech vs Low Tech, Big vs Small Revenues, Large Number of Employees vs Few Employees, and Process vs Repetitive, vs Discrete vs Job Shop (313 pages, includes a full set of graphed answers for survey questions).

Individual sections of the research reports, as well as logical combinations of sections are also available. All reports are available in printed or electronic versions.

2002, 2000, 1998 Product Development Metrics Survey: The Summary and Highlights Reports for GGI's prior Biennial Product Development Metrics Surveys are also available for purchase by the public through The Wisdom iStore. Information about the purpose and focus of prior surveys may be found in our Biennial Survey Archives.

GTK- Gateway To Knowledge is a DIRECTORY OF THOUSANDS OF LINKS to providers of engineering, purchasing, and manufacturing technologies and services. If you hit the right subjects, it is more useful than a search engine! The "main entrance" to GTK can be found at:

For those of you that do not want to go through the main entrance above, some of the Gateways that we believe you will find useful or entertaining are highlighted below.

GGI's Calendar of Industry Events contains an up-to-date listing of links to Conferences, Seminars, Distance Learning Centers, Colleges & Universities, Executive Education, and Corporate-Sponsored Universities. The calendar has just been updated with 60 upcoming conferences and seminars throughout 2007. The categories we follow are:
Seminars
Distance Learning Centers
Colleges & Universities
Executive Education
Corporate-Sponsored Universities

The categories of conferences, seminars, and distance learning are further organized into the following subject areas:
Strategic, Knowledge & General Management
Marketing & Sales - Mechanical, Electro-Mechanical, Electrical, & Electronic
Marketing & Sales - Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology, & Life Sciences
Product Development - Mechanical, Electro-Mechanical, Electrical, & Electronic
Product Development - Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology, & Life Sciences
Manufacturing & Automation - Mechanical, Electro-Mechanical, Electrical, & Electronic
Manufacturing & Automation - Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology, & Life Sciences
Software, Internet & IT
Project Management
Metrics

If you are looking for a conference or other learning opportunity, check out the Calendar. This free service for our readers is front and center on GGI's Home Page. Or, go directly to the Calendar of Industry Events MEGA Gateway.

Alexander Haig's World Business Review: Brad Goldense has made several appearances on Alexander Haig's World Business Review. Streaming video is available for all shows, which aired on August 4, September 29 and December 15, 2002 and on May 20, 2003. See below for details.

May 20, 2003 Broadcast of September 29th In-Studio with Alexander Haig (22.5 minutes): Streaming video for this segment is available on GGI's web site.

December 15, 2002 In-Studio with Alexander Haig (7.5 minutes) on CNBC paid programming: Streaming video for this segment is available on GGI's web site.

September 29, 2002 In-Studio with Alexander Haig (22.5 minutes): Streaming video for this segment (as well as the entire 30-minute show) is available on GGI's web site.

August 4, 2002 On-Location at GGI (3.5 minutes): This On-Location field report is available in streaming video on GGI's web site.

The web page includes links to download a streaming video player, if you do not currently have one installed on your computer.

GGI RapidNews is an e-mail publication from Goldense Group, Inc (GGI). Its subject matter includes survey findings, company news, book and article reviews, key industry conferences and R&D information of interest to clients and associates. Please send communications to rn(at)goldensegroupinc.com. Thank you.