As an R&D manager, you know that getting better results for your company
-- such as higher market
share, greater customer satisfaction, and improved product quality -- is
often as difficult as it is crucial.
This innovative new book shows you how to quantitatively measure both financial
and non-financial
goals like these -- and illustrates how using these measurements can help
guide your R&D management
performance and improve your company’s success.
Fifteen information-filled chapters enable you to effectively...
Choose financial R&D projects
Create a customer satisfaction index
Create an effectiveness index
Measure every component of "idea-to-customer" time
Create a "balanced scorecard" that’s focused on innovation rather than implementation
The book also explains how to interrelate R&D procedures with external
technical and commercial
areas (also known as boundary spanning), explores new methods of evaluating
and practicing time
management, and shows how to use cross-functional teams as a method of
integrating R&D with other
company functions. What’s more, each chapter concludes with a special "Lessons
Learned" section that
highlights how to put the information provided to use in your R&D management
practice.
An invaluable "how to" guide for R&D managers, this book is also an
excellent source of information
for product managers, engineering managers, and technology management professors.
Contents:
1. Introduction to Evaluating R&D Process Management: Motivation for
Evaluating Projects.
Government Policy Toward R&D. Finding Funds for R&D. An Approach
to Metrics: A Balanced
Innovation Scorecard. Some Lessons Learned From Selected Metrics.
2. Managing the Financial Boundary: Evaluating in Economic Terms. Traditional
Methods of
R&D Evaluation. Manage Within Your Firm's Financial Culture. Character
of Measurements. Financial
Frameworks Lessons Learned.
3. Evaluating the External Commercial and Technical Tasks of R&D: Market
Share. Evaluating
External Sources of Knowledge. Evaluating the Build-up of Commercial Knowledge.
Build-up of
Technological Knowledge. Effect of Internal Organization on Boundary Spanning.
Lessons Learned on
External Boundary Spanning.
4. Measurements in the R&D Process: An R&D Process Model. Processes
as Functions of Time.
Lessons Learned on Managing Along the Process.
5. Manage the Interaction With Other Functions: Managing Upstream Interfaces.
Downstream
Output Measurements. Lessons Learned on Managing the Interaction Process.
6. Evaluating Crossfunctional Innovation Teams: Why Crossfunctional Teams?
Lessons Learned
on Team Evaluation.
7. Cycle Time -- Outcome and Output Evaluation Metrics: Introduction to
Cycle-Time
Measurement. Expanded Dimensions of Time to Market. Measuring and Recording
Time. Measuring
Overall Time. Measuring Time Segments. Lessons Learned on Expanded Time
Measurement.
8. From Time Measurement to Time Management: Time Management Practices.
Accelerating the
Innovation Process. Time Management Lessons Learned.
9. Interaction and Input Metrics: Interactions With Other Organizational
Units. Inputs to the
Innovation Process.
10. Evaluating Internal R&D Processes: Management of Human Resource
Issues. Lessons Learned
on Internal Process Metrics.
11. Customer Satisfaction Evaluation and Measurement: Defining the Customer
and
Satisfaction. The Survey Instrument. Lessons Learned on Measuring Customer
Satisfaction.
12. Improving Strategic Intent Results Through Other Evaluation Measurements:
New
Products and Services. Using Benchmarking for Innovation. Measuring Improvement
and Growth. A
Proposed R&D Effectiveness Index. Key Lessons Learned on Measuring
and Evaluating Strategic
Innovation.
13. Financial Frameworks in an Innovation Perspective: Financial Evaluation
of R&D. Financial
Analysts' Views of R&D. R&D Executives' Panel Discussion. Financial
Results. Financial Frameworks
Lessons Learned.
14. Methods of Quantitative Measurements: Methodology. How the 1990 Through
1995 Studies
Were Done. Measuring Leading Indicators of Customer Satisfaction. Measuring
Cycle Times. Measuring
New Products and Services. Measuring Market Share. Measuring Benchmarking.
Measuring Financial
Results. 1995 Effectiveness Index Model.
15. What Is the Best Set of Leading Indicators?: Innovation Outcome Evaluation
and
Measurement. The Best Set of Innovation Precursors. Afterthoughts.
Lynn Ellis is a retired professor of management at the University of New
Haven and president of Lynn
W. Ellis Associates, a consulting firm for telecommunications, technology
management, and strategic
planning. A Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers,
and of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, he earned his doctorate in
management from Pace
University.