Practice

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I became an academic in part from a concern that prevailing innovation prescriptions were degrading companies' R&D capability. The key breakthrough was a reliable measure of R&D capability: RQ (short for research quotient). Because RQ has an economic foundation, it predicts the growth and market value from R&D, and identifies the optimal level of R&D.

The concern turned out to be valid — companies' RQs have declined 65% over the past few decades. My goal is to restore companies' RQs and revive economic growth. The book, How Innovation Really Works, documents insights from two NSF-funded studies about how to do that.

executives

resources

investors

When I began working with companies to improve their R&D, I got pushback: there's no way we can do that — our investors would kill us. That triggered parallel efforts to educate investors about RQ. They have become a powerful force for company adoption of higher RQ practices.

resources

policymakers

Innovation is the primary engine of growth. Unfortunately US growth is stagnant, because R&D productivity has declined dramatically since the mid-1980s. I believe the decline stems in part from innovation policy, which tends to focus on research (done principally by universities and government labs), rather than development (done principally by companies). This is true even though 70% of R&D is performed by companies. I hope to shift innovation policy toward greater consideration of corporate R&D.

resources

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