R&D Case Studies

Ten cases in this chapter chronicle how R&D practitioners have overcome the strictures of mechanistic bureaucracy to generate ideas of value to customers. The professional status of scientists and engineers in many enterprises separates them from stakeholders on the business side of their enterprise. Transformation from serial to concurrent development systems helped R&D staff cross-fertilize ideas not only for creating new knowledge but also for collaborating with business functions to fulfill unmet customer needs. Most cases used Strategy, Process, Organization, and Tools/ Technologies (SPOT) to baseline their “as is” product development capabilities vs. best-in-class (BIC) standards. They formed improvement teams to envision more capable product development systems and prioritize actions to close gaps for achieving “should be” product development capabilities. After baselining their “as is” product development system, they targeted new opportunities for improving and reducing persistent gaps. Teaming to focus on internal as well as external customer needs proved to be a harbinger of success.Eli Lilly provides an exemplary case study of the implementation of concurrent product development (CPD). They formed heavyweight teams to exploit frontier research for developing two breakthrough drugs (Case A). The US Army Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) was an early adopter of concurrent engineering (CE) practices for executing basic and applied research projects as well as developing military equipment for use by soldiers (Case B). The Stanley Works implemented concurrent development across eight lines of business (Case C). One of its business units, Access Technologies, developed a hugely profitable, disruptive new product. Rolls-Royce improved its aerospace R&D over a period of six years during which impressive gains were recorded (Case D). A separately managed group developed a radically new jet engine called UltraFan which deployed many concurrent practices at Best-in-Class levels (Case E). 3M is an exemplar for customer-inspired innovation. Their development of products in partnership with lead customers is distinctive (Case F). DuPont promoted intrapreneurship to spark radical innovations by its employees (Case G). Exxon Enterprises formed an intrapreneurial division to grow new internal businesses and make venture capital investments in start-ups (Case H). Kodak encouraged employees to establish external start-up businesses to complement internal R&D (Case I). The challenging experiences of these entrepreneurs and scores of others highlighted the potential benefits of strategic partnerships between small and large firms. Genentech invented Humulin using recombinant DNA technology but needed to partner Eli Lily to successfully bring it to market (Case J). Melding the organicity of entrepreneurial start-ups with flexibility in mechanistic discipline proved to be a winning combination in a study of 37 small -large firm partnership in ways which emulate the axis of the composite model for achieving cost-effective innovation.All 10 cases deployed distinctive practices for enterprise-wide teaming and/or methods for attracting and retaining customers. Appendix Table 14A excerpts a key practice from each of these case studies that readers may evaluate for emulation. Appendix Table 14B provides 10 best practices readers may use in benchmarking teaming and customer relationship practices correlated with new product development performance.