Companies that rely on winning based on product leadership require top quality R&D labs. These R&D labs allow them to test out various ideas and bring the best of them to the market. The most innovative companies do a great job with sustaining high quality R&D wings. Failure in the market can be very expensive and, thus, not investing enough in research can cost companies who want to be innovative. Just ask any of the pharmaceutical giants.
So, let’s apply this to our own company – Me, Inc. How can we go about creating our own R&D labs?
The essence of research and development is to think of an idea that you believe will add a lot of value down the line, to find the cheapest and most effective way to test it and then to execute.
So, let’s say you believe learning how to build a mobile app will add to your future earning potential. The R&D based approach would be to pick up a book or two on app development, to invest in the necessary app development tools, and to just get started building an app.
In some ways, every side project you choose to spend your time on is an example of an R&D lab. The big questions, then, are – are you intentionally thinking about the ideas you want to test/the skills you want to learn? And, are you building an R&D infrastructure that allows you to test different kinds of ideas/skills?
The great companies of tomorrow will be built off today’s weekend research projects…
A Learning a Day 