17th R&D-Product Development Metrics Summit – April 15-17, 2014

This Summit will provide participants with a snapshot of the evolution, current status, and projected future of R&D and Product Development Metrics as viewed from the top of corporations.

During the first two seminars of the Summit, we will teach the Body of Knowledge of R&D and Product Development Metrics — with a focus towards the measures that company Officers and Senior Executives need to manage the organization and its performance as a whole. The first one-day seminar is dedicated to focus on the metrics for decisions and issues that Officers and Senior Executives face in directing and measuring overall performance and entire organizations. The three most adopted industry metrics of the past decade will be discussed, along with a number of other all-in-one metrics: 3M’s “Vitality Index,” the emergent “Return On Innovation” metric, and the rejuvenated “Return On Capital.” Capacity, pipeline and portfolio management, hurdle rates, risk, and trade-off analysis discussions round out the first day. The second seminar, a half-day concluding with an early afternoon luncheon, is dedicated to “proactive” and “predictive” metrics. Proactive metrics lower the risk of R&D investments before they are approved. Predictive metrics improve the ability to foresee the execution and financial outcomes of approved investments.

During the third and final seminar of the Summit, participants will break into working groups to create a “set of metrics” suitable for managing and monitoring R&D and/or Product Development organizations as a whole — including Projects, Technical & Functional Disciplines, Improvement Initiatives, and the overall Corporate Performance of R&D. Applied Research and Advanced Development organizations are easily accommodated as well in a single integrated framework, for companies with multiple development organizations. The Linked Metrics Portfolio® approach, preferred to the Balanced Scorecard for managing R&D and Product Development, will frame the exercise.

Senior executives wishing to put themselves and their fellow senior executives in a better position to direct and drive product creation and commercialization should strongly consider attending. Several of our prior participants have said, “this Summit covers everything an Officer or Senior Manager needs to know on the subject of Metrics.” GGI, a 28-year old company, has been recognized as a thought leader and practitioner in this field since the early 1990s.

Finally, and this is not true of all GGI Metrics Summits, GGI has just completed our 6th North American study of R&D and Product Development practices in the areas of R&D Operating Environments, Organic Innovation, Open Innovation, Intellectual Property, and the Top Corporate R&D Metrics In Use. Two-hundred companies from the USA, Canada, and Mexico participated in numbers that represent the relative R&D spending of the North American countries. It will be difficult to find information that is more current to augment the practical nature and usable outcomes of this 17th Metrics Summit.

Please visit our Summit web site for additional content and registration information.