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Leopold Demiddeleer, President of EIRMA
R&D managers outline top challenges for 2010
Post-recession planning, the impact of globalisation, and sustainability are among this year’s top priorities for a group of R&D managers interviewed on video by eIQ at a recent EIRMA meeting, which gathered Representatives from member companies.
Juoko Suokas, executive vice president of Finnish contract research organisation VTT, told eIQ that planning ahead was the key to emerging from the recession stronger than before.
“As we go out of the recession those who now are the early birds will get the best results when the growth starts, so it is of utmost importance to have a strategy beyond recession and to see which are the products, which are the services, which are the business models we need to have to be the winners after the recession,” he said.
Julio Danin Lobo, a group leader at ABB, argued that the recession had helped accelerate the pace of globalisation.
“During this crisis, resources were transferred into emerging countries, and now these countries are also interested in R&D – that’s one of the forces behind globalisation,” he said. “As a manager I have to question - should I have a team now in my Indian research centre to support me, to actually do the work? Should I move to that country and try to get a position there?”
David Leon, whose company designs workplaces that help R&D people be more effective, was also concerned about globalisation.
“I’m realising that the R&D community is moving on to a new place – to India, to China and other emerging markets. And I am thinking how does that affect me? Up to date we have been working mostly in Europe,” he said. “We have really got to try and adapt what we are doing to meet what our clients actually need – otherwise we’re just going to fall behind.”
Dietmar Theis, former head of strategic marketing cooperation, Siemens, suggested that globalisation made it even more urgent for Europe to get better at turning research into profitable products and services.
“The upcoming industries in China and India are stronger [in this respect] than we are in Europe and we have to fight this drawback we have,” he said. “The challenge for young people is to be a bit more entrepreneurial, try to convince people everywhere that innovation is something positive and make it clear that green innovation helps mankind everywhere.”
Theis suggested that Europe could capitalise on its strong position in green technologies such as the control of carbon dioxide emissions and general energy efficiency.
Leopold Demiddeleer, President of EIRMA and Solvay Future Businesses director, Central Management Research and Technology said his company is facing several of these challenges at once.
“As we have sold out a third of the company we will, by definition, buy something. So the main challenge will be to realign all of that because it means we will get new research centres, new R&D and new long-term research,” he said.
Solvay has also decided to start three research labs in Asia “and the challenge is the settlement of the three labs in Asia where we have to understand what is the value of putting our people there, what are the programs we can launch and what is the focus.”