R&D Cures Depression

Friday, March 13, 2009 | Posted by: Brian Maguire
Categories: Business | Tags: innovation, great depression, economic downturn

Apple. Those crazy guys. They’re about to launch an up-scaled IPod Shuffle, and rumours grow of a new touchscreen device. Recently, they previewed a refreshed desktop range. What’s with all the innovation Steve, there’s a recession on? Maybe a depression. Even with cool little headphones jammed in your ears you can hear the world collapsing, or maybe Apple is too in tune with a different beat.

Technology analysts expect Apple’s continued product development to increase IPod sales and boost profits. Where’s all the doom and gloom? “Can we get some fresh doom and gloom in here, Apple’s ruined all the doom and gloom mojo we had going on, darn it.”

Apple’s passion is a love of labour. Though passion in the workplace will usually get you into trouble, researchers tend to be less narcissistic than the sales team, more in love with their work than the average Joe. Writing the next line of code consumes their waking hours; binding the next polymer at a fraction of a degree lower; quickening the data transfer time. The economic thing is someone else’s mess - researchers are more concerned with the next big thing, not the last big deal.

Which is why in an economic downturn, no matter how severe, innovation shouldn’t stop, and investment in the future of company remains crucial. Getting a product from concept to commercialisation is usually a long cycle, a cycle longer than a recession. Trim costs, sure. Focus on core activities, of course, but stop innovating and you wont need to worry about the next recession.

During the Great Depression, an era so terrible it now receives capital letters, innovation, as measured in the volume of intellectual property registrations, took a nose dive. It bounced back, as is often the case, when more liquidity entered the marketplace.

The corporate instinct is easy enough to understand – should we really take a punt on some new projects when we don’t know how long the GD is going to be? CEO’s didn’t know it was going to be called the Great Depression in the ‘30s; they didn’t know how long it was going to take. What every business knows is that it can’t last forever. The question then, is, ‘what is your business doing to get ready for the recovery?’

If getting ready for the recovery hasn’t been on your board meeting agenda recently, it should headline the next meeting. Item number two should be – increasing patent filings. Getting ready for the recover is a mindset capable of shifting a firm’s focus from that bad mojo economy stuff, to innovation, action, expectation.

Measure your company’s IP filings in the last year compared against three years ago. How much have they declined? Is your company hiding in a bunker with metal hats on, just waiting for the ‘all clear’ siren; or is it demanding greater insights, leaps of industrial development, more patents, more big ideas.

The cheap side of R&D is often the concept creation. Switching R&D activity to concept creation and development is a clear switch to the forward thinking mode. Commercialisation of the concept may have to wait a year or two, but with your patent filed, you have restocked your arsenal and the infantry are getting ready to charge again.