Corporate projects development/changes

The period after the new corporate guidelines for office design were introduced and imposed contained somewhat low enthusiasm, more cynicism towards change and less of the wanted behaviour of creativity and participation, typical consequences of lack of positive reinforcement. Likewise the researchers perception of the work was influenced. A potent positive reinforcement for the engaged researcher initially would be to experience participation, development and enthusiasm from the employees. When this stopped we as researchers for some time increased in our efforts to restore and continue the process that had been so rewarding, before eventually partly withdrawing from the OD project, somewhat exhausted. 

The early development of the cephalosporins was affected by change in official policy in Britain. In 1949 the National Research Development Corporation (N.R.D.C.) was set up under an Act of Parliament to develop and exploit inventions in the national interest, and the Corporation decided almost from its creation that an involvement in the cephalosporin project might be rewarding. Adjustment to this situation required a volte-face on the part of some of us in Oxford. During the work on penicillin it had been the view of the Medical Research Council that those in academic medical research should make no attempt to obtain patent protection for discoveries that might have commercial value. 

The essential purpose of this restructuring was to ensure that the Company s Standards were prepared and enforced through a small group of expert engineers responsible for the whole life cycle of the assets. This matched a change in the Corporate organisation with the introduction of the Development Directorate to undertake the role of the internal business client for Project Work. 

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