GUSTAF AHLENIUS
Gustaf Ahlenius was formerly a Manager at Arthur D. Little Nordic’s Automotive & Manufacturing practice. He currently holds a position as Manager Business and Finance Development at Swegon AB in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Creating the Optimal R&D Organization
Driven by the need to respond to global hyper-competition and the increasing clock speed of technological change, companies are relying heavily on their R&D functions to accelerate innovation while maintaining tight budgets. However, organizational structures for R&D in large international companies are often sub-optimal and act as a major barrier to performance improvement. In order to successfully optimize R&D’s contribution to business value, companies need to address the three key dimensions of structure, governance and process. From our extensive work with the R&D functions of leading global companies, we have identified eight imperatives to ensure a successful transformation across these dimensions.