Most management books are a waste, but two classics stand out as worth another look this summer if your manage R&D; “Third Generation R&D” and “The Living Company”. You can download pdf’s of both and take them to the beach. Time has distilled the wisdom in both of them.
Here’s one: if you missed Arie DeGeus’ classic “The Living Company” when it first came out, it’s been cited so often by other so-called experts that you’re probably familiar with it message: companies that survive over the long haul are ‘tolerant’, i.e., they adapt by learning and listening—the essence of R&D.
Before he taught at MIT, the Dutch DeGeus was head of strategic planning at Royal Dutch Shell where he organized a remarkable study to look at long-term survivors and figure out what made them stand out. He dug deep, and the secrets he learned were subsequently turned into popular works like “Built to Last” and others. But DuGeus is the original. Take a look. It’s also a wise and beautifully written book.
DeGeus, A. “The Living Company” (Harvard Business Press, 1997)
The other classic is “Third Generation R&D by Roussel, Saad & Erickson. When it first appeared it was far ahead of its time. But these days, connecting R&D to corporate strategy is everybody’s mantra and it turns out Roussel et al got it right. The authors started a very successful practice at Arthur D. Little (the legendary contract R&D firm that spun out of MIT 125 years ago and is still going strong outside the U.S. If you’re visiting Cambridge, Massachusetts this summer you can drive by their original headquarters along the Charles River on MIT’s campus).
“Third Gen” dug into the troubling area of how to apply management metrics to R&D performance. The authors were way out in front on this one—but what could be more timely now? Roussel P., Saad K., Erickson T, “Third Generation R&D: Managing the Link to Corporate Strategy,” (Harvard Business Press, 1991)