R&D

Tap creative people from analogous fields.

In fact, we’re already seeing signs of a new era dawning.

And how to overcome them, according to a new study.

Tactics for empathizing with users.

Author’s note: Alistair Hanna, Michael Reopel, and Stuart Flack, all of McKinsey & Company, contributed to this article. The U.S. defense industry is struggling to reorganize itself for growth, if not for survival. The disappearance of the communist threat and the desperate need to revive the U.S. economy have taken the defense industry for a […]

Offering nothing is better than a small prize.

The study: Henrich Greve and Marc-David Seidel studied the role of first-mover advantage in determining which technologies get adopted and which do not. They tracked the sales history of two wide-body jets: the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar. The researchers concluded that the DC-10’s one-year head start contributed to its greater success […]

Navigate even the most complex projects with confidence and resilience.

For even the toughest of R&D problems, there are often people out there with innovative solutions already on their shelves or in their back pockets. The trick for corporate executives is finding and gaining access to those individuals. Our research with a company that broadcasts technological problems into the ether—and gets back solid results—has given […]

How companies like Microsoft and IBM achieve their staying power.

There's not a lot of good news coming from the business side of newspapers these days, and nowhere is the situation more grim than at the Tribune Company,...

"General-purpose technologies," such as the internal combustion engine, have been the fundamental drivers of economic growth for 250 years. Artificial...

The aim of strategy is to master a market environment by understanding and anticipating the actions of other economic agents, especially competitors....

Disruption isn't the only approach.

R&D has long been a costly and inexact process. Now some companies are trying a radically new approach, giving customers the tools to design and develop their own products.

One of only a handful of African-American CEOs in the Fortune 500, Frazier gained widespread attention when he withdrew from President Trump's business...

America's health care system underperforms. Here's why.

It's pretty widely accepted that people's innate intelligence doesn't change much. Youth, health, and a positive environment can help people make better...

A study of U.S., Japanese, and European companies shows that, contrary to the claims of some corporate critics, large companies can be as technologically...

Countries must deploy a coordinated strategy based on science, not politics.