R D team manager

This part of the book is restricted to a consideration of the skills that an effective R D team manager will need to deploy. These are specifically leadership skills, the management of creative groups and last but not least the ability to manage one s own career. The various additional aspects of team working, especially the organisation of project teams will be examined in greater detail in other Sections. 

In our innovation project examples we have focused on generic needs and requirements, and our associated customers are the pharmaceutical R D team members, managers, and operators in various industries. 

A pharmaceutical company requires a postgraduate chemist in order to boost the level of synthetic chemistry in an R D team working on drugs for use in a particular therapeutic area. After a few years in this role the person will be expected to become a team leader and then possibly move into R D line management. 

The R D Manager must ensure that the cost for the analytical support is in the budget for each project. Monitoring the cost and the use of analytical services is an essential task in budgetary control as it is easy for an R D team to run into overspend rapidly. It helps if data is provided to team leaders and chemists on the cost of the methods available in the analytical services group or from the outsourcing agency. 

The outcome was that the R D team was charged to develop an implementation plan for further review embodying the changes suggested by the business managers who now strongly supported the proposal. 

Informal sensory assessment is a very common situation in many FMCG companies. During project meetings, team members often evaluate sets of prototypes, of varied recipes in order to select different options (to set process parameters, to select ingredients, etc.). Important decisions can be made on the basis of these evaluations. Participants may include R D team members as well as members from other departments (marketing, quality, purchasers and top management). Sometimes, suppliers also participate in such evaluations (e.g. from flavour houses). 

The successful accomplishment of a development project also requires cooperation between engineers and technicians in the development team and between engineers in R D, design engineering and in management. All this will require some common background, clear reporting, and much patience. 

As R D spending increases to a record share of revenue, many R D management teams have started to appraise their own performance in decision making. None of the following simple recipes seems like the easy answers that they appeared to be to many companies (and consultancies) over the past 15 years ... 

In summary, the current emphasis in R D management circles seems to be upon reducing risk, improving pipeline quality, and improving team accountability and communications between functional specialties and units. 

S. Kathy Edmond Rouan, Ph.D. Vice President, Cardiovascular and Urology Project Team Leadership and Management, Project Management and R D Strategy, GlaxoSmithKline, Collegeville, Pennsylvania... 

Research Scientist / Sr. Scientific Manager, Team lead in Research Development after doctorate degree from Premium Indian Institute of technology, India and more than 5 years relevant industrial experience in R D from bench Scale to Pilot scale till plant scale in (Thermoplastic/ Thermoplastic elastomer) elastomers / SBR (Styrene butadiene copolymer)- Solution,... 

Thus, an R D program can be readily accelerated by tapping into your technology platform and internal network to select focused team members. Commonly, there is little or no physical movement although a program manager will have authority and accountability for the entire team. With this foundation, a well-designed team can achieve a rapid start and accelerate development. 

---