In search of best-in-class R&D organizations

By EETimes

April 18, 2011

Competition among semiconductor companies has become super-heated, and R&D excellence has never been more important to establishing competitive advantage. But how do you know if an organization's performance is best-in-class, especially that of a competitor? Such accolades are often anecdotal and based heavily on perception, a few unsubstantiated metrics or the halo created by the company's strong financials. High revenue masks much and distorts even more.

Although digging deeply into the numbers seems like the best way to get confirmation, most semiconductor companies do a poor job of tying R&D costs of projects and product lines to corresponding sales figures. Even with good cost-accounting, revenue numbers are easily skewed by the impact of a strong sales force, heavily financed marketing campaigns and long-term customer-vendor relationships. Financially successful companies often have all three working in their favor, which obscures the true efficacy of their R&D organizations.

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