Business Oriented R&D Model for Public Funded R&D Organizations

Abstract

Over the past few decades, it has become evident that research and development (R&D) serves as a source of competitive advantage for both public (nations) and business organizations. Consequently, there has been a significant emphasis on R&D, involving a deep understanding of the R&D process and the efficient management of R&D organizations. Many researchers highlighted the pivotal role of the underlying management process to achieve more effective R&D outcomes. In the rapidly evolving landscape, the management of R&D organizations has become a continuously evolving process, requiring ongoing understanding of R&D organisations to maintain a competitive edge. R&D organizations encounter a major challenge in successfully delivering innovations, stemming from the inherent difficulty of maintaining focused and efficient activities throughout the entire R&D life cycle. This challenge is attributed to two main reasons. The first challenge arises from the difficulty for a single R&D organization to encompass all activities of the R&D life cycle under one umbrella. These activities, distinct in nature, require diverse types of manpower and different organizational environments for efficient execution. Consequently, the focus on innovation is lost during various stages of the R&D cycle as different organizations prioritize different activities. Secondly, R&D organizations differ from business organizations in two key aspects. Firstly, they lack direct interaction with the final customer until the end of the R&D cycle when the innovation reaches the end user. This absence of constant customer engagement results in a diminished customer focus, crucial for the efficient delivery of innovations. In contrast, business organizations continuously interact with and are evaluated by customers, who keep them strongly oriented toward customer needs and preferences. In this paper, the author advocates for the incorporation of the above two key characteristics of business organizations into public R&D entities, contending that such integration would significantly enhance the efficiency and speed of innovation delivery. To achieve this objective, the author introduces a novel concept termed as 'Business-oriented R&D Model for public funded R&D organisations'. Drawing upon extensive work experience within the Indian Ministry of Defence; Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), New Delhi, India, the model is elucidated through the lens of the author's specific experiences with DRDO.