# §Corporate R+D Constraints Follow innovation through bell labs * Run into problem with “the system” - can’t fit enough calls into a single cable. More cables are expensive. Want people to make more, better, calls. Problems constantly coming down from the top and * * Follow Innovation through GoFaAmSoft * Politics * [[Internal incentive structures within a large organization work against high quality R&D labs]] * [[R&D orgs are always on the side of an org chart - The lab is always separated from the mothership]] * [[Rewards in a big company operate on one timescale and R&D happens on another timescale]] * The most valuable research for a company tends to be systems-level improvements. But [[Problems that require system-level solutions often require massive teams]] while [[Research tends to work best when it can be done by small teams]]. * Risk aversion * [[Asymmetric career risk]] * [[Asymmetric career risk impacts corporate R+D]] * Incentives * [[The incentives inherent to corporate R&D mean that researchers motivated by money leave and those who are motivated by glory are not the best in the world]] * [[At the organizational level corporate R&D labs either cause brain drain or don’t have the best people]] * [[Corporate R+D orgs are expensive]] * [[R+D orgs are answerable to shareholders both in scope and timescale]] * [[Companies want R+D to be off of their balance sheets]] * [[The siloization that tends to happen in large corporations hamstrings applicability and serendipity]] * [[Big companies cannot start small things]] * [[Expensive research needs to address an existential threat eventually at an organizational level to maintain support]] * [[There are several macro-economic analyses of both why and whether there has been a decline in corporate R+D]] * [[Corporate R+D orgs experience a tension between Research and Development]] * [[Corporate R+D orgs have a lot of momentum]] * [[Healthy corporate R+D requires a trifecta of conditions]] * Trends [[Corporate Innovation has four main options: partner, R+D, corporate venture capital, and venture building]] <draw 2x2 box> * Externalize R&D through startups and universities * Internal startups via Red Box at Swisscomm or Area120 at Google * “Innovation Arms” * Grants ## Related * [[§Startup Constraints]] <!-- #index --> [Web URL for this note](http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/§Corporate+R+D+Constraints) [Comment on this note](http://via.hypothes.is/http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/§Corporate+R+D+Constraints)