Making cost cuts stick

According to one recent study, 90% of the organizations fail to sustain cost savings beyond two years.  McKinsey quarterly has an interesting check-list to ensure cost cuts stick:

  • Assign accountability at the right level
  • Focus on how to cut, not just how much
  • Don’t let P&L accounting data get in the way of cost reduction
  • Clearly articulate the link between cost management and strategy
  • Treat cost management as an ongoing exercise
  • All very interesting points.  I think the first two are quite relevant in an R&D environment.  However, several are very difficult to implement in R&D.  I remember an old boss talking to me about his problems predicting R&D costs.  He remarked that when he went to get his car serviced, they had a pretty good handle on what different services would cost and how long they would take.  Why could we not do the same for R&D?

    Predictability normally comes with repeatability.  Unfortunately, finding repeatability in R&D is pretty tough – as R&D always involves developing something new.  In fact, it is more developing knowledge that can be used to produce that new item.  Without repeatability and associated cost data, it becomes very difficult to understand what things should cost to develop in the first place.  How do we define how much cost to save?  As we get to more and more complex devices, this will likely become even more difficult…

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    Quest for Innovation

    This 2006 American Management Association study “The Quest for Innovation” has an amazing amount of information and a lot of good metrics for benchmarking your organization.  Below are a few results that out found interesting:

    1. Customer and competitors drive innovation:  Top two factors (Page 69).
    2. Innovation strategy and plans are difficult: Lack of definition around innovation, an innovation strategy and plan are key impediments to innovation. (Page 70)
    3. R&D is not the driver: Only 27% of the executives surveyed felt innovation occurred in R&D (Page 74)
    4. Being good at innovation is hard: Only 15% of the executives believed their firms are good at innovation (Page 73)
    5. Collaboration is key: Collaboration with external entities and effective team work second most important factor in innovation (Page 66).
    6. Identifying and evaluating innovation is difficult: 46% of the companies do not have a standard process (Page 72)
    7. Rewarding innovation is difficult: 26% of respondents felt innovation is not rewarded.

    There is a lot more to the study (its huge).  Please check it out when you have some time.

    What are some of your observations around innovation and R&D in general.  One of the companies I worked at had a great process for assessing ideas and ferret out innovation, but there was no strategy or plan to drive it further.  Funding for innovative projects kept getting cut for near term fires…


    Recognition approaches (other than bonuses)

    Conference Board has another interesting list and a good reminder of what else can be used to reward team members (beyond bonuses):
    1. Tokens of Appreciation
    2. Public Acknowledgment
    3. Development Opportunities
    4. Perks

    Personally, I have found that all rewards work best when they are backed up by a thorough evaluation of the contribution.  Nothing kills morale more than recognizing people who have not really contributed.  Also, depending on the age (or experience level) of the employee, 2 and 3 work better than other. 

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