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Effective Management of R&D Teams and Organizations  

 

In today's technology-driven global economy, innovation is at the core of the survival-of-the-fittest organization. The innovation process begins with the identification of market needs or technology opportunity and then goes through stages, such as adopting or adapting existing technology that satisfies the identified need or opportunity, inventing when needed, and finally transferring this technology by commercialization or other instrumental means. Effective and efficient R&D management can have profound and determining consequences, considering the key role it plays in the economic health of a nation and the world as a whole, the profitability of a business enterprise, the effectiveness of a technology-based governmental agency, and the enormous investment nations make in R&D activities. Today, the complexity of the technology creates complex organizations in which many disciplines have to be coordinated. It is the manager's primary responsibility to bring components together so they can operate smoothly and harmoniously, each making an optimal contribution to the R&D organization.

  

Managing R&D organizations and concentrating on their productivity and excellence offers a unique set of problems and unusual challenges that are amplified when the team is scattered spatially in a global economy. This uniqueness arises primarily from two basic facts: (1) the character of the enterprise, and (2) the highly-specialized, articulate, and autonomous people involved in R&D. As American economist and Nobel laureate Kenneth J. Arrow stated, "The central economic fact about the processes of invention and research is that they are devoted to the production of information." Obviously, the generation of information requires research and, in addition to the R&D organizations' focus on information, research involves considerable uncertainty because the outcome can never be predicted perfectly from the different inputs used. It will, therefore,  become clear in this course that managing an R&D organization is largely the art of integrating the efforts of diverse, creative, intelligent, and independent individuals. The ideas presented in this course consist of the condensed works of a multitude of experts focusing on ways to improve the productivity of R&D and foster excellence and innovation in organizations.

 

The course is intended for all levels of managers, supervisors, and team/group leaders who wish to improve their leadership, management, motivational, and communication skills for creating optimum individual and team performance in R&D organizations. It is particularly useful to scientists, engineers, project managers, and other technical personnel who intend to make a transition to management positions in an R&D environment or who want to improve their own leadership and/or followership skills. It also is beneficial for faculty members, group leaders, department heads, research administrators, managers responsible for sponsoring research, and policy makers in science and technology.  

 

 

 

 

 

Electronic and hard copies of the seminar materials can be purchased and are only available through ATC. Contact ATC for price and shipping.

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOTE: Professionally-prepared "audio-video Powerpoint-type presentations" of these seminars are available for purchase by the companies. Each slide is presented with a clear audio by the consultant, describing the subject, while a digital pointer guides the audience to where the attention is to be focused. Companies can put such audio-video presentations on their intranet to be used by their employees. It is a cost effective way of approaching  professional training which also contributes towards R&D, design, and intelligent new product development. Presentations are updated every year at a fraction of the original cost.  For a sample presentation click on the word "R&D" in the picture to get a feel of how information is transferred (High-speed internet access is recommended. Otherwise, download may take a few more minutes). The actual copy sold is of high resolution with high quality sound. For more details and pricing please contact ATC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Arrange for a Presentation:
 

 

Upon completing this course, participants should:

•          Receive a concise, yet effective, overview of the management issues specific to R&D environment

•          Know ways to improve R&D organization productivity and foster excellence

•          Learn and understand the innovation process in effective R&D organizations and can intelligently use it for their own corporation

•          Understand the effective reward system and communication style in order to achieve optimal results from their R&D department

•          Be prepared and conditioned to make a smooth and efficient transition from a pure technical staff to a management and leadership position

•          Learn the essence and ingredients of a successful technology transfer process in an R&D atmosphere

•          Be able to effectively contribute to the management and leadership teams in their corporation

•          Develop the background and necessary foundation to educate themselves beyond the depth and topics covered in this course

 

Daily Schedule

"One man's research is another man's routine",

Prof. Antoni K. Oppenheim

 

FIRST DAY:

R&D Organizations and Research Classification

·                   What is research and development?

·                   Basic or applied research

·                   Unique issues in R&D management

 

Components Required for R&D Organizations

·                   Staff, ideas, communication, funds, culture

·                   The match of a person and the job

 

Creating Effective and Productive R&D Organizations

·                   Organization effectiveness

·                   Specific characters of inventors/innovators

·                   Management, researcher, and peer relationships

·                   Group/team formation

·                   Ethos of a scientific community

   

SECOND  DAY:

Motivation in an R&D Environment

·                   A human behavior model

·                   Reward system and its change to sustain and support scientific/technical careers

·                   Organizational structure for optimum communication

 

Leadership and Issues in R&D Organizations

·                   Leadership styles

·                   Leadership in R&D organizations: mutual influence process

·                  A leadership style case study

 

THIRD DAY:

Technology Transfer Issues

·                  Technology transfer stages

·                   Innovation

·                   Role of people and market

·                   Organizational issues in technology transfer

·                   Strategies

·                   A case study

 

Strategic Planning for R&D Organizations

·                   Strategy in the context of a corporation

·                   Technology strategy

·                   Strategic planning

·                   Strategic thinking and management

·                   An example of a strategic plan

 

New product development

 

R&D portfolio management & optimization

 

Technology roadmapping, economic forecasting, and investment opportunities

 

Disruptive technologies and their evaluations

 

Case Studies and Discussion (numerous throughout the seminar)

·                   From Harvard Business Review (HBR)

 

Summary and Conclusions  

 

Note: for best outcome and maximum absorption, it is recommended that the above topics are covered in 4 days to allow ample time
for case studies and group discussions.

 

LecturerS: Dr. Chehroudi assisted by M. Hooshmand

 

Dr. Chehroudi, has accumulated years of technical and leadership experiences in different capacities and organizations. This includes such positions as a Principal Scientist and Group Leader appointment at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) ERCInc, a Chief Scientist at Raytheon STX, a Visiting Technologist at Ford’s Advanced Manufacturing Technology Development (AMTD) center, a tenured Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Kettering University and University of Illinois, and served as a Senior Research Staff/Research Fellowship at Princeton University. Dr. Chehroudi directed numerous multimillion dollar interdisciplinary projects in areas involving chemically reacting flows, combustion and emission of pollutants, sustainable and alternative energy sources, distributed ignition, material/fuel injection, advanced pollution reduction technologies, propulsion concepts, gas turbine and liquid rocket engines, combustion instability, laser optical diagnostics, spectroscopy, supercritical fluids and applications in environmental and propulsion systems, advanced composites, MEMS, nanotechnology, and micro fluidics. He has won many merit and leadership awards by such prestigious organizations as the Society of Automotive Engineers (1. Arch. T. Colwell Merit Award for technical excellence only to top 1% yearly, 2. Ralph R. Teetor Award for outstanding teaching/research/leadership, 3. Forest R. McFarland Award for sustained leadership in professional and educational service and a key contributor to the Continuing Professional Development Group, 4. Appreciation Award for 10 years of dedicated and inspiring  service and commitment to providing quality technical education, and  5. Outstanding Faculty Advisor), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Best Publication Award of the Year), Air Force Research Laboratories (1. Outstanding Technical Publication Award, and 2. STAR Team Award for demonstrating world-class combined scientific and leadership achievements), Institute of Liquid Atomization and Sprays Systems (Marshall Award for best publication with lasting contributions), Liquid Propulsion Sub-committee of Joint Army-Navy-NASA-Air Force (JANNAF) (Best Liquid Propulsion Paper Award involving undergraduate/graduate students),  and the 2nd International Symposium on Turbulence and Shear Flow Phenomena (Top 10 Technical Publication Award). He has been a consultant with many organizations such as, Ford, GM, Honda R&D, AFRL, Honeywell, NASA, AFOSR, VW, Bosch, Siemens, NGK, Cummins, and TRW. Through professional societies, Dr. Chehroudi delivers invited professional seminars on Management of R&D Teams and Organizations, Management of Innovation, Combustion and Emission of Pollutants in Automotive and Gas Turbine Engines, Ignition Issues, Gasoline Direct Injection engines, R&D on Homogeneously-Charged Compression Ignition (HCCI) engines, and Liquid Injection Technologies. He has a PhD in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering and Post-Doctoral Fellow (Princeton University), MS in Mechanical Engineering (Southern Methodist University, Summa Cum Laude), MS in Economics (Swiss Finance Institute, Magna Cum Laude), a senior member of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Propellant & Combustion Committee (2008-present), and is an Associate Fellow of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Dr. Chehroudi acts as a reviewer for many scientific and engineering journals and publishers, has delivered over 200 presentations in technical meetings and to nontechnical audiences, over 20 technical reports (Princeton University, General Motors, Ford Motor Co, Department of Energy, NASA, Air Force Research Laboratory), five 600-plus-page monographs on combustion and emission of pollutants from mobile power plants, ignition technologies, liquid material injection, and nanotechnology,   two book chapters on propulsion system combustion instability and applications of graphene (a nanotech product) in ignition and combustion of fuels, ground-breaking patents on applications and synergy between nanotechnology, light, and chemical reaction for a light-activated distributed ignition of fuel-air mixtures, and has more than 150 publications with extensive experience in both scientific and management areas and intensive trainings in finance and financial engineering

 

 

For M. Hooshmand's short biography click on her name: Hooshmand Bio

 

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