R&D

They cost almost nothing.

Keep teams small and share work equally.

A hypothetical case illustrates managerial problems in a firm that has lost strategic control of technology and its competitive edge by becoming insulated...

It may have to pay for the privilege.

It takes more than good tools. It takes a complete change of attitude.

And how to overcome them, according to a new study.

Scientists have a good sense of which family of viruses will cause the next pandemic.

Academic–industry alliances have been around long enough to sprout their own ivy, yet these staples of technology innovation have undergone little innovation themselves. Now a few companies are pioneering ways to get more out of university research. One particularly successful model comes from Porsche, which has brought academic brainpower inside. A few years ago, Porsche, […]

Make sure your experiments recognize customers’ varying needs.

As an outgrowth of the diversification trend in U.S. corporations, in which companies are expanding their product lines and entering new businesses, portfolio models have gained wider acceptance. General Electric is perhaps the best-known exponent of the portfolio approach. The models fall into two general categories—the standardized approaches, which usually concentrate on growth and share […]

Businesses often face big, messy problems—challenges that defy precise definition, change constantly, and have numerous causes. To find solutions, says Roger Martin, dean of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and author of The Design of Business (Harvard Business Press), managers must move through a “knowledge funnel” comprising three stages: staring into the […]

Offering nothing is better than a small prize.

Marc Abrahams, a co-founder of the Annals of Improbable Research, says some ideas deserve second and third chances.

Product R&D at many companies is a major bottleneck. The difficulty is that fully understanding the needs of just a single customer can be an inexact...

A study of U.S., Japanese, and European companies shows that, contrary to the claims of some corporate critics, large companies can be as technologically...

Unpacking the success of the company that built TikTok, Toutiao, and Douyin.

Traditionally, business viewed the social sector as a dumping ground for spare cash, obsolete equipment, and tired executives. But today smart companies are approaching it as a learning laboratory.

HomeStar's reputation for being "the first, the best, the only" name in appliances is under threat. For the second time in six months, upstart competitor...

A conversation with Pinterest’s Jeremy King

Don’t leave it to the high priests of R&D.