What is R&D?
In this post, John Battelle shows us a Microsoft slide showing how MS expenses outsells his competitor (mainly Google and IBM). John then states Google engineering department operates as a R&D lab.
This raises an interesting question, deeply rooted in today’s questions what is R&D? Should we separate (as we do in France) fundamental research and applied research? What is the best way to do R&D?
If we look at the past’s big names, we can see how much those questions are somewhat falsely named. For instance John Von Neumann invented both computer and game theory (and a lot of other research). Metcalfe invented Ethernet and founded 3Com… Basically, all those human beings have done everything and did what they wanted to.
On an organizational level, this question is way more complex to answer: how should R&D be handled, what is expected from it? Papers? Products? New way of understanding reality?
