Business mentor: Progress, people and benefits - the keys to successful R&D projects

By JULIAN KROLL*

Q. How do I assess if a research and development project is worth doing in my business?

A. I think we should look at three broad principles.

* How does it stretch the organisational learning?

* How does it develop the people in the business?

* What enduring benefit will be created?

What do we mean by stretch? In a technology setting, the definition I use is if you have a product that operates using analogue technology and want to modify its operating system by writing more code, this is effort.

But if those same developers are creating an environment where the product will work in a digital mode, that is a technology stretch.

Where your organisation can gain new skills to expand its market potential and create a greater likelihood of increased sales, then the R&D project is likely to have stretched the business in a beneficial way because there has been fundamental new learning.

Let's now add people to the equation.

If the business has learned from completing the R&D project, we would hope that the people inside the business have knowledge that they can retain.

In some cases you might contract a specialist to complete a particular task on a project, but that specialist takes the knowledge away when finished. The idea here is to let your people develop their capabilities.

Over time, as you complete more R&D, your competency increases and your R&D cycle time should reduce. The physical product made is an asset, but the people and their intellectual capital are also an asset to your business.

The third element is about replication. To maximise your investment, you would want the R&D project to have more than a single use, so consider how it will have enduring benefit.

Does the project build on previous learning and will it form part of the platform for further developments?

How long will the benefit of the R&D last before you lose any advantage gained, and is the benefit contributing to the bottom line?

Industry New Zealand is working with the Foundation for Research Science and Technology to assist small and medium-sized businesses with R&D projects.

* Julian Kroll is from Industry New Zealand.

To find out more about R&D funding, Email Mark Turney or ring (0800) 224-480. FRST programme details are on FRST

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