The Roles and Rationale for Corporate R&D

Dr. Carlos J. Haertel, Managing Director, GE Global Research Center Europe shared his views on the roles of corporate R&D and the rationale for R&D partnerships at the recent World Innovation Conference in Cannes. Here you get the bullet points:

Roles of Corporate R&D

• Reaching across disciplines

• Spreading technology across the company

• Specialized in tackling the New

• Recruiting top technologists

Rationale for R&D partnerships

Cost
• leveraging resources, access government funding

Speed & Quality
• tapping into existing capabilities & expertise

Get to Market
• innovating along the value chain, tying in customers & suppliers

Creativity
• fresh ideas, diverse perspectives, alternative business models

When Haertel talked about open innovation, he used the below image to emphasize that partnering and thus open innovation needs to go beyond the co-ideation phase in order to get the full benefits. I fully agree on this.