WHAT MANAGEMENT EXPECTS OF RESEARCH'" By R^¾•OND STEVENS Vice-Presiden, Arthur D. Little, Inc., Cambridge, Mass. Bv. voRv. o•x•o into the discussion of what good management ex- pects from research, let me first say what they do not expect. They do not expect their research departments to be quality-control laboratories. They ought not to expect them to spend any major portion of their time in trouble-shooting, or on routine changes and formulations leading to minor changes in their products. These problems often require excellent tech- nical ability, and they are important, even indispensable, but they are not research. Unfortunately, poor presentation by technical men has often limited in the minds of management the potentialities of research. Management ex- pects research to supplement its own activities in providing imaginative effort toward sound growth. They hope that thus the sales and profits of the company will be correspondingly increased, through a diversification of the company's interests by the development of new products, an increase in gross profits, entrance into fields where the profit margin is greater, and the maintenance of the company's competitive position. An organization cannot remain static, and unless it goes forward, it will go backward. We have found that successful and forwardAooking management expects far more from research than mere technical excellence. Research thinking that limits itself to mere technical contributions is inadequate and out- moded. Management looks to research as a responsible source of advice in high-levelplanning. It looks upon its research direction as it does on legal counsel for expert guidance in fields calling for specialized knowledge. Management contributes by providing facilities, for example, labora- tories, working space, and other necessary tools. These are important, but they need not necessarily be extensive. Within the last ten years one man launched a rather large new business with his wife's stainless steel saucepans and her kitchen and his garage as his sole initial laboratory facilities. As a result of his success with saucepans, his new business now employs a sub- stantial group at Arthur D. Little, Inc., as well as a research staff in his own organization. * Presented at the May 14, 1954, Meeting, New York City. 3O8

WHAT MANAGEMENT EXPECTS OF RESEARCH 309 More important than the physical facilities are the people who use them. The main problem we face today is finding good research personnel. We simply do not have any adequate yardstick by which we can measure an individual's potential value. However, some things we do know. Tech- nical background is necessary, and the more the better, but this alone does not qualify an individual. We sometimes wonder whether in obtaining a broad knowledge of basic physics and chemistry a man does not sacrifice something else. Management expects their top research personnel to have a rather intimate knowledge of their business, and, for example, not to embark on a long and expensive study of means for producing cheaper buggy whips. It is presumed that the research people will always be on the alert for new products which may come to their attention. This, too, is not always associated with pure scientific excellence. I understand that Professor Kipping spent many years studying the silicones and attempting to produce crystalline products which he could characterize. He felt that his work had been unsuccessful because all he was able to make were gluey, resinous ma- terials. Last year, these useless products were sold (with some modifica- tions) by the three producers to the extent of twenty-five million dollars. By contrast, a research worker disposed of his cigarette quickly when a visitor arrived--on a laboratory dish where it contaminated and was con- taminated by a chemical under investigation. When "allclear" was sounded, he resumed his smoking, noticed an unusual sweetness--and a new competi- tor of saccharin was discovered. What was admittedly poor laboratory practice was offset by a brilliant combination of observation, further investi- gation, and, in a word, creative industrial research. And this brings up the next point which I would like to make about industrial research personnel. Their effectiveness is dependent to a con- siderable extent on the broadness of their knowledge of industry. While they need not necessarily be experts in any field, an understanding of many industries and their problems can be tremendously helpful. Many useless gluey, resinous materials have a use if one has a wide enough range of inter- ests. One of our best industrial research men believes that the greatest single liability that the research man can have is knowing too much. An Ameri- can humorist--I think it was Josh Billings--once said, "It ain't the things we don't know what makes us so ignorant, it's the things we know that ain't so." In scientific discussions of papermaking, one usually finds a complete discussion of the structure of cellulose and the extensive work which has been done on this subject. But paper is not made of pure cellulose. Here again, exploratory technology may be hampered by knowing too much of what is in the books, worse still, uncritical belief in it, and still worse, allow-