Mr. Azhakeson Viyagappan, Milagrow’s Technology Mentor
Knowledge Buddy(KB): Why is R&D critical for any organization?
Mr. Azhakeson Viyagappan(AV): R&D plays an important role in the innovation process. It results in the technology that brings new products and services to the market place or underpins better processes. Innovation results in high quality jobs, successful businesses, better goods and services and more efficient processes.
The companies which concentrate on sustained growth through investment in R&D are most likely to achieve sales growth and increased shareholder return.
Businesses are in a better position to achieve and maintain competitive advantage in the increasingly global market place with sustained R&D and other related investment at the right levels.
R&D results in valuable inventions, ideas and designs which can be a source of potential value when it comes to gaining competitive advantage. A variety of Intellectual Property Rights exists to help a company protect these valuable assets.
KB: What are the global benchmarks in terms of Investment in R&D in terms of percentage of revenues? In your opinion how does India rate against these benchmark and why?
AV: The global benchmarks on Investment in R&D for Industrial and consumer Products are about 3.0 – 5.0% of the revenue. In India it is only about 0.5 – 0.7%.
Importance is not given to R&D in India. Core R&D is still done either at Japan or Korea in APEC region. India is focusing on converting those designs to manufacturing, especially in the consumer and auto industries.
KB: What according to you should be the objectives of having a R&D Strategy for an organization?
AV: The firms must continually revise their design and range of products to cope with continuous technology change and development as well as other competitors and the changing preference of customers. A system driven by marketing is one that puts the customer needs first, and only produces goods that are known to sell.
The product range is developed so that production processes are as efficient as possible and the products are technically superior, hence possessing a natural advantage in the market place.
New product design and development is more often than not a crucial factor in the survival of a company.
KB: How does an Organization ready itself for launching a successful R&D program?
AV: The R&D Projects are basically driven by Marketing. Company having strong marketing leadership and the commitment from the top management can be highly successful in executing a R&D program.
The success of R&D program depends on the cross functional teams consisting of representatives from marketing, engineering, manufacturing, finance, purchasing, testing, quality, finance and any other required disciplines with responsibility for developing a product or product subsystem.
Such a team should be empowered to represent the functional disciplines and develop a product by addressing its life cycle requirements including its product and support.
KB: Most SMEs feel that they are either too small to invest in R&D or that the cost of having a R&D program is not economically feasible, what are your thoughts on their concerns?
AV: SMEs who are unable to invest in R&D can start with Production Engineering department, which can support production in the areas such as technical, process, productivity and cost reduction by value engineering. This team can also be involved in delivering small upgrades of existing products, so that the firm can slowly acquire technical capabilities to set-up a R&D along with the growth of the company.
KB: For SMEs not having internal capabilities for developing and implementing an R&D program, what are the options that they can avail?
AV: The answer to this question is partially covered in the above answer. In addition to this, these SMEs can out source the design and development activities
By:
Nishant Pathak 
