R&D Project Selection
Research and development does not tend to be the most visible or glamourous group within an organization, but for the long term health and success of an innovation-oriented company, R&D couldn't be more important. The choice of which projects to invest in can determine whether a company will lead the market or rush to catch up.
Because an R&D program must balance technical considerations with commercial potential, finding the best ideas and choosing which technologies to invest in is a complex decision that requires expertise from across the company. Companies face many challenges.
- Balancing market opportunity versus technical viability while staying within the R&D budget
- Ensuring alignment with the company's overall strategy
- Getting everybody's input from across the organization and from within the R&D team
- Gathering the best ideas from the brightest people and giving each idea a fair assessment
- Taking politics and personalities out of the decision
- Comparing different proposals, and comparing new proposals with past proposals
These are a lot of factors to consider, involving many people. The real challenge then becomes managing the research and development portfolio without having the process consume too much expert time that can lead to cutting corners.
- The decision process must seem fair to those who have contributed their ideas and expertise
- It must be easy for employees to contribute meaningful ideas
- Participants must be able to compare meaningfully very different kinds of ideas
- Choices must account for important but intangible factors such as strategic alignment, the possibility of a breakthrough advance, and so forth
- It must be easy to present the leadership with a clear set of options for the final decision
So managing an R&D portfolio is necessary and important work, but it presents many technical and organizational challenges. ProGrid has broad experience and expertise helping companies make the best choices and the best use of research budget and expertise.
A robust R&D portfolio management process will deliver benefits across the company.
- Employees will be able to easily propose new ideas, knowing exactly what is required for a new research proposal. They can get constructive feedback on their proposals, know where the proposals could be strengthened, and have confidence that each proposal is given a fair and thorough consideration.
- Expert evaluator will get complete, well structured proposals to review which saves time and allows them to quickly winnow out the weakest options. They can also provide feedback to proposal writers to clarify and fill out the proposals.
- For the manager responsible for portfolio management, a rigorous process will produce better quality proposals, with more relevant detail. A disciplined, transparent approach shows that the right projects are chosen for the right reasons. Evaluators can visually compare different proposals to quickly identify the strongest. By making intangible factors tangible and quantifyable, the selection team can support recommendations and defend decisions. It becomes easy to prepare a final set of choices to management, with all relevant information clearly laid out.
- CEOs and CFOs can gain confidence in the portfolio management process by having a better understanding of requirements and benefits of proposals. They can maximize the long term value of the firm by ensuring that their research budget is being spent on ideas with a solid technical foundation and clear commercial potential. And all of this helps them increase shareholder value by optimizing and balancing the R&D investment.
Case Studies in R&D:
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