Frost & Sullivan's Growth Team Membership™ (GTM) recently completed its 2012 survey of R&D/innovation and product development executives throughout Asia Pacific. The executives were asked to identify their most pressing challenges for 2012. GTM will focus its best practices research to address the prominent issues identified in the survey.
R&D/Innovation and Product Development in 2012 - A Snapshot from APAC
- Generating an accurate and relevant technology roadmap is the primary challenge of R&D/innovation executives
- Insufficient personnel is the root cause of R&D's primary challenge
- In comparison to 2011, budgets and staffing levels are expected to increase in 2012
- The majority of companies have staff assigned to open innovation
- Open innovation is pursued primarily for idea generation
- Creating an effective collaboration framework is the primary challenge with open innovation
2012 R&D/Innovation and Product Development Survey Executive Summary
The survey reveals that R&D executives in Asia Pacific are focused on challenges surrounding two topics: (1) managing the product portfolio and (2) integrating inputs from an array of sources outside of R&D. In regards to the first topic, R&D executives are struggling to generate an accurate technology map - that outlines customer needs, the current technology landscape, and gaps. Developing an accurate technology map is the first step to addressing R&D's other portfolio management challenges - prioritizing and funding projects within the portfolio. A technology roadmap allows R&D executives to develop a portfolio strategy - that pinpoints which needs match company capabilities for development. Furthermore a formal portfolio strategy is necessary for an effective portfolio management process and measuring project ROI.
