B.Lab

This sunny Sunday I am sitting through 8 hours of R&D material for my MBA program. I thought it might be interesting for a change to expose a bit of it on this blog and maybe even stay awake. I don’t know if I can tie it back to social media but innovation is a very interesting topic.

• R&D is a risky investment that is must to differentiate from competitors
• Monetizing intellectual property is a fuzzy thing but is a must today to fully evaluate the market value of a company (ie. not just financial assets)
• It’s not always about having the best product innovation but sometimes process innovation (cheaper, more efficient). Usually the large companies.
• “Research intensity”: the amount of money each fulltime faculty/researcher generates at a university or company.
• Invention vs. Innovation (right hemisphere/creative vs. left hem/analytical)
• Japan has number share of R&D to gross domestic product (US is high but #1)
• In the US universities is being spent on R&D (for industry) not teaching. The reason for the high tuition costs. Students pay.
• Obama’s $820B bailout plan is to put $114B (14%) into  universities (R&D and infrastructure)
• Ireland is ranked A on their innovation report card. Interestingly, they didn’t have invention so they opened themselves up to outside companies, had knowledge transfer and grabbed the process innovation. The new Japan?
• Viagra as accidental invention. Erectile disfunction was originally thought to be psychological. Surprise!
• Better Place: an Israeli company that developed a energy conservation solution where car batteries can be swapped at gas stations.  Will the model work? Trying to convince the government to put an extra tax on gas users. With Obama, is there a better chance for something like this?
• HP acquired Voodoo (from Calgary) to make PCs more personal. Dell -> Mac approach. R&D focused on high margin products.
• 3M chose Boise, Idaho to run their Post-It test, had people try it and got 90% approval. History was made.
• To be an innovative company, 30% of your revenue should come out of new products (not incremental innovation). Does this depend on the industry? What about pharma? No major hits in years.
• Dyson Vacuums: applied research – used centrifical force to develop a bagless vacuum
• Definition:  If there is a certainty, it isn’t considered R&D. Needs to be experimental.
• Activities NOT eligible for R&D tax credits:  style changes,development based solely on design, commercial production of a new or improved material
• With the Everett Rogers Adoption Model: 50 are innovators, early adopters and early majority
• Clayton Christiansen: don’t create disruptive technology inside current organization and don’t sell it to your current customers
• My R&D product idea: a smart frig that uses RFID to scan what food is running out and using a web connection automatically order low products at one of the local Japanese EC enabled supermarket (in Japan Itoyonokado is a very popular one)

No related posts.