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Survive & Thrive: Tips and Resources to Sustain Technology Growth in Challenging Times

IRI created this page to help R&D leaders meet today's challenges and help their companies catapult out of the current economic times.  We are continuing to collect additional resources and encourage you to submit ideas for links to other articles to IRI.  Check back often.

Spotlight:

RTM article, "Revisiting Corporate R&D Spending During a Recession," RTM, July-Aug, 1995

Overview: Successful product and process R&D should translate into improved company performance.  We would hope that this would be particularly evident in periods of recession when new products or more efficient processes should shield a company from economic decline.  This study over two recessions shows that companies that invest heavily in R&D continue to grow while competitors with modest investment suffer sales declines.  Model analysis shows that these results are not influenced by company size, type of ownership or market segment.

Resources from IRI's Journal

Research-Technology Management (RTM) Articles:

"The Relationship Between R&D and Company Performance," RTM, Nov-Dec 2007

"Maximizing Return on Innovation Investment," RTM,  Nov-Dec 2006

"You Can Innovate in Hard Times," RTM, July-Aug 2005

"Corporate Performance and Technological Change Through Investors' Eyes," RTM, Nov-Dec 2003

What are others Saying??  

See our page with Outside Articles of Interest, including Depression Era Lessons for Innovators

Related Tips & Presentations from IRI Events

"Economic Survival Strategies" - from IRI Human Resources Network (HRN) Webinar:

  • notes from February 2009 webinar session

"Beating the Budget Blues" - from the IRI Spring 2009 Multi-Network Meeting:

  • Notes from March 2009 Joint Network Session

John Deere Case Study - Presentation from IRI 2007 Annual Meeting

Maximizing Return on Investment - Multi-Company Presentation from IRI 2006 Annual Meeting

Upcoming IRI Events Helping Companies Thrive during Challenging Times
 

IRI 2009 Member Summit - "Innovate, Collaborate, Accelerate:"
October 27 - 29, 2009

 Fairmont Royal York, Toronto, Canada

The IRI Member Summit is an exceptional forum for networking of R&D executives. The friendly, and semi-formal atmosphere of the Summit makes communication highly effective.   Vice President, Innovation & Technology, Creata

Popular Related IRI Content

Technology Value Pyramid (TVP) is a tool to enhance the effectiveness of R&D by providing a framework for selecting a small number of appropriate metrics.  These metrics can provide a basis for:

  • Assessing the creation of shareholder value
  • Assessing probability of business success
  • Selection of R&D projects
  • Managing a portfolio of projects
  • Increasing the productivity of your R&D processes
  • Assessing the effectiveness of your decisions
  • Assessing the value of your technical assets

Technology Value Pyramid  - Online collection of metrics, IRI Members Only (login required)

Original 1995 RTM article on TVP

Recent work on Innovation Portfolio Management

Innovation Portfolio Management – a Research on Research (ROR) working group studying the management of multiple innovation portfolios, typical of large corporations with several autonomous business units, by cataloging and assessing the strengths and weaknesses of relevant portfolio management methods.

A few of their 7 best practice hypotheses:

  • ‘Step-wise’ optimization is best general process
  • Uncertainties require multiple updates/year
  • Discretionary funding sources offset risk aversion

For more information, see their recent presentation or visit their wiki