Tracking and Assessing Risks

In Chapter 5, the basic elements of the business-driven R&D process have been described as being absolutely essential to raise the productivity for basic scientific research, technology development and innovation management. The role of networks and partnerships in facilitating the business-driven management process is the topic of Chapter 6. While how the crucial role of people and its impact on business-driven R&D continues to remain a most under-explored subject, is described in Chapter 7. There are very few well-designed HR programmes available specifically to train new research scientists recruited into industry, and introduce them to the nature of business and commerce. Even more glaring is the fact that, with few exceptions, the vast majority of CEOs and business heads have devoted very little effort to comprehending even the rudimentary aspects of how success in scientific research leads to wealth creation. This is in spite of the fact that in industry, investment in R&D has on the whole kept growing. Some of these attitudes in industry can be traced back to the disappointments of the 1960s, 70s and 80s.