By T. T. MILLER, W. R. Grace
& Co., New
York
THE CAST
A
J . J . Topp Gordon R. Testtube
Play
€d Proffïtt Carl Plant Bill Shipman Joe M a k e p e a c e
In Two
President o f Products U n l i m i t e d N e w v i c e president for research a n d development Vice president f o r finance Vice president for m a n u f a c t u r i n g Vice president for m a r k e t i n g Vice president f o r personnel
THE SCENE
Acts
The time is tomorrow,
Feb. 25,
1958.
Gordon R. Testtube has just been hired as vice president for research and development of Products Unlimited, a tvell integrated corporation consisting of several operating divisions, including chemicals, plastics, metals, and scientific instruments; it also has a central research division. Testtube has been asked to appear at his first conference with top management. Subject: what they expect of him and his research programs. At 10:00 A.M. Testtube arrives on the 15th floor and is told to go right into the conference room. As he opens the door, he sees the president and four vice presidents. He is cordially greeted and asked to take a seat at the right of the president. 88
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H o w Top Management Evaluates Its Research Program ACT I T O P P : Gordon» first I'd like to welcome you officially. W e a r e glad to have you with us a n d are glad t h a t we were able to pry you loose from your last position as director of research of Multi-Purpose Industries. We have always been impressed with the new products and processes that Multi-Purpose has developed, and w e felt that you should b e able to work in well as t h e research and development m e m b e r of this top management team of Products Un limited. T E S T T U B E : Thank you, I look forward to doing so. T O P P : S O that we're all talking in the same terms» let me first read you from our Policy Manual our defini tions of the kinds of research and development w e will be referring to. Basic Research. Original explora tion for the advancement of scien
tific knowledge in fields of present or potential interest to our company without regard to specific commer cial objectives. TOPF; (Looking up from his manual) Incidentally, Gordon, w e believe that companies with b i g research pro grams like ours should, as a matter of successful survival, b e devoting a share of the effort i n their own laboratories to basic research. TOPP: (Turning back to the manual) Applied Research, Search for new knowledge directly applicable to a specific industrial problem and the application of all existing knowledge to t h e practical solution of that problem. Applied G r o w t h Research. The ef fort directed toward t h e creation of a new product, and to the develop ment of n e w uses for existing prod ucts. Applied Maintenance Research.
The
effort to maintain an established po sition by improving quality or costs of an established product. Development. Those technical ac tivities necessary to bring new prod ucts or processes to actual fruition. TOPP: (Putting down the manual) Gordon, as I have told you during our interviews, we thoroughly be lieve in research in Products Un limited. It would be just as difficult for u s to grow and prosper without research as it is for a community to exist without religion. P L A N T : Gordon, research in our com pany has for many years been con sidered an essential, principal func tion with t h e same recognition and responsibility in the organization as manufacturing and sales. P R O F F I T T : There is n o question in our minds that the research w e are doing is necessary to our company's well being. W e try to keep t h e
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SlimHiTopb -, T o evaluate i t s research program, management should have clearly j ; thought, out objectives f
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1958
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Research is as essential as manufacturing and sales a n d deserves the same recognition a n d responsibility
of the current research work is, of course, incomplete and requires such a long time to bear fruit that w e try to evaluate it before it is finished. Here, most of us have found nothing better than assuring ourselves that the problems being worked upon are worth while and that they are being attacked intelligently and with vigor.
pansion plan. The expansion plan must b e assessed against capital requirements a n d the company's ability to finance them. The research T O P P : Gordon, we believe that for top programming for such a span of management to evaluate its research years should allow for more research P R O F F I T T : Evaluation of research b y program, it should have, first of all, projects than there is capital availyardsticks is much more difficult than clearly through-out objectives to b e able, should all the projects come evaluating sales or production b e achieved. Here is your copy of our to fruition. This is required to have cause most research results in failFive Year Growth Plan for 1958-62. selectivity in choosing the best projures, and I guess it always will. You'll want to study it a n d b e very ects for commercialization a n d , as familiar with it. well, allow for project failures. T O P P : I would like to add a t this point that technical work can be highly MAKEPEACE: Gordon, we believe that T O P P : Our research program c a n be successful a n d come u p with negative management does have a responsievaluated much more effectively if results, and sometimes that's t h e best bility toward research, just as refairly definite goals a r e set forth in for the company rather than prosearch does toward management. writing, so that actual performance tracted, fruitless pursuit in a n area Creation of an environment which can be compared with the objectives. where there is limited possibility of encourages t h e individual research I think it goes without saying that favorable results. worker to his greatest interest a n d these objectives must be compatible absorption in his work is an imporAnother point. W e , as a matter of with t h e over-all long-range plans tant job of our management. A part policy, try to take our high risk of the organization. of this favorable research climate is programs in our central research the recognition by t h e research T O P P : N O W , Gordon, we're sophistiarea. High risk implies a limited workers that their management is cated enough in the ways of research, likelihood of total success. patient, deeply concerned, a n d I believe, not to expect results over S H I P M A K : Research a n d development, thoughtful in the support and adopnight. W e have come to the conand the introduction of the fruits tion, or termination, of research projclusion that w e cannot appraise acof that research a n d development, ects. Management's evaluation of complishments of research on a yearis a continuing, day-after-day, busiresearch and t h e expression of this to-year basis. It probably must be nesslike process. You can't turn it evaluation is important t o t h e prodone b y taking a broad look a t reon or off at the slightest provocation ductivity and fruitfulness of a laborasults by five-year periods o r possibly or at the slightest dip i n the ecotory's effort. even by decades. nomic picture. T h e best analogy I PROFFITT: T O program research prop- PLANT: Our greatest frustrations come can think of is the hearth f u r n a c e erly, we believe that it should tie in from trying to forecast t h e future keeping those fires going is vital t o with our long-range corporate exproductivity of research. So much that steel mill, and if you turn them amount of money w e spend o n it in balance with our many other necessary expenditures.
Carl Plant
Great frustrations come from tryirigjjjj to forecast the future productivit^gjf of research fllll
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