Published by:
Harvard Business Publishing
Length: 10 pages
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https://casecent.re/p/46192
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Abstract
Traditional R&D "pipelines" have produced critical technical innovations. Yet many of today''s best high-tech companies have evolved a different approach, which the author calls system focus. Based on a study of 12 mainframe computer companies that developed a similar product in the 1980s, the author has found that system-focused companies achieve the best product improvements at the lowest cost. The most striking characteristic of system focus is the formation of an integration team. A good integration team adapts new technologies to what a company already knows how to do. Moreover, it enhances current systems to take advantage of those new ideas. Integration team members work on a stream of related projects, forming a cohesive unit that develops from project to project. And such continuity over product generations can save a company hundreds of millions of dollars -- jumping the generation gap in traditional R&D organizations, where knowledge is often lost or unintegrated over time. In a case-history comparison of two companies, the author demonstrates how this can happen.
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Abstract
Traditional R&D "pipelines" have produced critical technical innovations. Yet many of today''s best high-tech companies have evolved a different approach, which the author calls system focus. Based on a study of 12 mainframe computer companies that developed a similar product in the 1980s, the author has found that system-focused companies achieve the best product improvements at the lowest cost. The most striking characteristic of system focus is the formation of an integration team. A good integration team adapts new technologies to what a company already knows how to do. Moreover, it enhances current systems to take advantage of those new ideas. Integration team members work on a stream of related projects, forming a cohesive unit that develops from project to project. And such continuity over product generations can save a company hundreds of millions of dollars -- jumping the generation gap in traditional R&D organizations, where knowledge is often lost or unintegrated over time. In a case-history comparison of two companies, the author demonstrates how this can happen.