C O N F E R E N C E
Improving R&D Productivity:
How to Link Resource Management to Portfolio
Process
March 29-31, 2004 / Atlanta, GA |
KEYNOTE PRESENTATIONS
| Key Strategies to Drive
R&D Capacity and Productivity |
 Michael S. Allen
Director
Strategic Decisions Group
|
R&D productivity means
productively working on the right projects - those that create shareholder value. To work
on the right projects, a company requires a strategy of creating shareholder value and an
R&D portfolio that supports that strategy. In an era of limited resources, R&D
portfolio management must concentrate on aligning resources with strategic goals. Simply
eliminating low-value white elephant projects is not enough. The best R&D portfolio
management practices focus on explicit consideration of project alternatives, including
different goals and resources, to meet corporate strategic needs. The key in examining
R&D project alternatives is to examine alternative technical and product goals for the
projects, acceleration or delay of projects, and resource alternatives.
An overall portfolio strategy, coupled with an effective management
system, drives R&D capacity, resource development, resource allocation, and capability
development. The results of effective R&D portfolio management are not only proper
project priorities, but also determine the resources required to accomplish each project
as well as overall R&D resource requirements. These results enable the R&D manager
to identify cross-project bottlenecks and provide the basis to remove bottlenecks by
either reallocating resources or changing resource levels to meet the future R&D
requirements rather than the historic needs of the organization. Using these methods can
typically increase R&D productivity by 30 percent, and in some cases the results
can be so powerful as to redirect the corporate strategy to maximize overall value. This
presentation will specifically address how to:
- measure and forecast R&D productivity
- account for uncertainties in both technical & commercial success
of R&D projects
- produce real, actionable project alternatives
- relate R&D expenditures to the creation of shareholder value
- clearly align resources with strategy, identify gaps and fill them.
ABOUT MICHAEL ALLEN
Mr. Allen, managing director with Strategic Decisions
Group, specializes in developing and managing R&D and corporate strategies. He is the
author of Business Portfolio Management, published in 2000 by John Wiley & Sons. Mr.
Allen is a leader in effectively applying the techniques of strategy development to create
new business and R&D strategies for his
clients. He also has a substantial background in research, manufacturing, and distribution
operations consulting.
|
| Why
Good Decisions Fail to Deliver Results |
 Jeff
Elton
Principal
McKinsey & Company
|
Allocating
scarce talent and sufficient resources to your most important initiatives has always been
one of the most significant challenges of R&D portfolio management. Resource
allocations and reallocations can be viewed as the implementation of portfolio decisions.
They enable the right skills to be engaged in the right work and collaborative
problem solving. In short, the failure of many well designed product development and
portfolio management processes can be attributed an inability to match deployed
resources to agreed upon priorities.
This presentation will examine resource allocation as a core business process
that is subject to performance expectations. Through industry examples, Mr.
Elton will highlight an approach that will identify the most critical performance cells
(e.g., management decision boards, project teams), their contributions to performance, the
critical decisions they make, and approaches to resource allocation in different operating
environments that successfully align allocation of talent to priorities.
ABOUT JEFF ELTON
Jeff Elton, Ph.D. is a principal in McKinsey &
Company's Boston Office. Dr. Elton focuses on technology-intensive industries,
including biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, health and bioinfomatics and medical devices.
He is a leader of the Firm's Product Development and Pharmaceutical and Medical
Products Practices. |
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