Roles of Industry and the University in Computer Research and Development (1982) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 75-93
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From page 75... ...
Because of the time constraints under which this project was carried out, we chose only six companies, all of which are located in the Northeast: · AAA Corporation. A major company in the computer marketplace, with a large and well-established research and development organization.
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From page 76... ...
We believe that the primary reason for this state of affairs is that, as noted earlier, the computer industry is not technologically mature. The raw mass of unexploited technological ideas and the rapid pace of technical developments based on existing or freely available science leave little opportunity for any but the very largest organizations to fund basic research in computer science.
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From page 77... ...
Dr. Z categorizes advanced development projects, the other two-thirds of the work done in the Computer Science section, into · Technology enhancement, i.e., the refinement of technologies that are in use by other divisions of the AAA Corporation.
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From page 78... ...
C, who is both the director for large business and integrated information systems and product line manager for office systems marketing in the Market Planning and Development Group, and Dr. A, the special assistant to the president.
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From page 79... ...
Weekly design review meetings are held to provide overall coordination of BBB Corporation's marketing and technical plans. These meetings are regularly attended by the BOB president, the head of MP&D and his directors and managers, the engineering vice presidents, the head of manufacturing, etc.
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From page 80... ...
m e BBB Corporation's approach to this field was to diversify their prior product line, moving out from the existing base, which had emphasized calculators and typing systems. They waited 2 years for the technology to become economical for the application and then entered the word processing market as swiftly as they could.
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From page 81... ...
They do not like to employ consultants except to gain perspectives on market trends or to assess new markets. Nothing special is done in the area of rewarding development personnel beyond such normal business practices as a profit-sharing program.
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From page 82... ...
The budgeting process at CCC is informal and reflects the loose organization and entrepreneurial atmosphere entailed by explosive growth. Although a corporate planning organization exists, it seems to have little real influence on the budgeting process.
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From page 83... ...
They stay away from people with too narrow a specialization and have not had much luck finding people when they needed someone with a very specific background. CCC makes little use of consultants except occasionally for market trend analysis and formulating business strategy.
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From page 84... ...
m e research activities of DDD are centered in three laboratories that are specialized by technical areas, the A Research Center, which focuses on marking and imaging technologies, the B Research Centre Canada, which is concerned with materials processing research, and the C Research Center, whose focus is on digital systems research. Classification of Technical Activities DDD classifies their technical activities in four complementary ways: · Time phase.
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From page 85... ...
They therefore consider some of their leading-edge technological products, e.g., their present word processing products, to be of great strategic importance because of the market entry that they provide, even though they currently account for only a very small portion of the corporation's revenue. 000's basic strategy for entering the office systems market was to develop a corporate base of expertise in digital systems far in advance of product requirements.
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From page 86... ...
Together with the chairman, president, and executive vice presidents, these four agencies form the Corporate Policy Committee. m e corporate planning group and the engineering RD&E staff track R&D projects, corporation-wide, in weekly review meetings.
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From page 87... ...
Classification of Technical Activities The contractual basis of most of the work carried out at EKE Systems establishes an easy and clear distinction between research and development activities. Each of their contracts is awarded either for
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From page 88... ...
Budgets for the two research divisions have the nature of business plans rather than forming part of a corporate product planning strategy. In the product divisions the development groups propose their own budgets, which are then reviewed by the division directors and finally by Dr.
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From page 89... ...
EKE makes frequent use of outside consultants, generally university faculty, and tries to maintain longterm relationships with them by setting up one day a week consulting arrangements. These people usually participate as regular project team members, not as occasional advice-givers.
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From page 90... ...
FFF Technology Company This short section is based on a brief interview with Dr.
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From page 91... ...
Our general picture of the distribution of research activities in the computer industry was well summarized by one of our interviewees, Dr. C of the BBB Corporation, who offered us a perspective on his own organization's position in the computer industry by classifying computer corporations into three categories based on their size: 1.
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