Augmenting corporate R&D with networked micro innovation teams

Abstract

Continuous innovation is key to a company's growth. The current models for corporate research and development are not suited for evaluating small scale emerging technology and trends. Networked micro innovation teams fill that gap and augment corporate R&D expenditure but using employee volunteers to identify and evaluate innovative concepts. These teams provide competitive advantages to the companies which develop them. The basic structure of corporate research and development has not changed despite radical changes in how ideas and technologies emerge in the market [1]. There is ample opportunity for companies to create internal innovation teams which evaluate emerging technologies and trends at a smaller scale than is practical with the traditional R&D departments. There are few studies among the legion about R&D which consider very small, or micro, innovations. Technology now enables a different approach to identifying and testing opportunities at a drastically smaller, cheaper scale than. In the past, innovative R&D departments have created autonomous islands free from bureaucracy or traditional management in order to address specific goals. Lockheed Martin's skunk work [2] and Alphabet's X lab (formerly Google[x]) are examples of innovation incubators outside the formal R&D process [3]. Creating separate laboratories which operate under separate rules can be useful pursuing auditions goals and for time and capital intensive projects, however, even these looser structures are overkill for the needs of some projects. To fill this gap, companies should create micro innovation teams which function as a network of local, decentralized teams. For example, buying an Oculus rift to explore its capabilities is an act too small for either a traditional or skunk works-style corporate R&D department. Yet, there are many opportunities for open innovation available to companies if they have the ability to conduct rapid and small-scale experimentation.