Posted by Tim Janis:
Cloutier speaks of the need for change and adapting to current environment. The following example is how Microsoft is changing.
Excerpted from Technology Review
March 2005 - Microsoft: Getting from 'R' to 'D'
“The software giant's Beijing lab is spearheading a new way to turn research into products.”
By Robert Buderi, in Beijing
Executives from Microsoft’s Beijing research lab brainstormed a promising solution to a fundamental problem facing Microsoft and many other high-tech companies: how to move m ore innovations more swiftly and effectively from research to development to market. Their idea: a new type of organization designed to bridge the gap between "R" and "D" and in the process overcome many of the product development bottlenecks and geographic and cultural differences that impede today’s global corporations.
Given that it typically takes several years for research projects to yield anything that can be commercialized, moving innovations to development was hardly a top priority when the Beijing lab was formed in 1998. Early on, though, a group was set up to help researchers build demos for showing concept technologies to their Redmond research colleagues and to the business divisions—with two engineers or programmers assigned to each of about a dozen projects.
Dennis Adler, general manager of business development for ATC. Based in Redmond, he is the liaison between the center and Microsoft’s product groups, helping the business divisions understand what advances are emerging from Beijing and the ATC members understand development schedules and constraints. Many times, he says, product groups would have loved to incorporate some cool feature or technology created in one of Microsoft’s research labs but just didn’t have the staff to devote to it. “There are tech transfers that haven’t happened because of it,” he says. “So ATC was set up as a way to help close that gap. It’s all about lowering the impedance.”
Microsoft officials say they know of nothing else like the Advanced Technology Center either inside their company or outside it. “We just invented it,” says Adler. At least in Beijing, an organization like the center wasn’t even thinkable until a few years ago, and its creation shows the benefits of constantly adapting operations as conditions change.
Can individuals, especially scientists and engineers be more creative. According to the following it is possible.
Creativity & Innovation in Science & Technology
How can I be creative and innovative in the field of science & technology?
At first it may seem tricky for some people to mix the rigorous, structure world of some scientific disciplines, and the creative world. However, with an open mind it is relatively easy to start looking and thinking in a more creative way, which when put into the scientific world can provide exceptional results.
When you look at the growth in most areas of science and technology, you will find the main advances have been associated with creative thinking followed by innovation to turn those ideas into reality. The precise concepts of creativity and innovation we can support you with.
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