Benchmarking the best practices of non‐corporate R&D organizations

Abstract

Presents an illustrative example of a benchmarking exercise for non‐corporate R&D organizations. Drawing from a global study of 60 R&D organizations from around the world, the benchmarking practice for identification of processes, practices and best practices is examined. Focuses primarily on R&D‐industry linkage – a nagging problem, particularly relevant for non‐corporate R&D organizations. Processes like project selection, human resource development and knowledge delivery systems are functionally related to R&D‐industry linkage and therefore constitute the main body of the benchmarking exercise. It has been argued that the basic organizational principle behind successful R&D is partnership between R&D organizations and users of the research results. Practices under each of the selected processes, therefore, have to be examined in the light of this basic organizational principle. Argues that, to achieve this, actionable accuracy is more important than quantitative indicators for identification of best practices.