CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 34

STRAIGHT TALKING

REACHING BEYOND A BUSINESS'
BOUNDARIES DOES NOT MEAN LETTING
GO OF THE NECESSARY LIMITS TO KEEP
R&D wITHIN SET BUDGETS.
sites around the world. You wouldn't
want to have researchers in Shanghai
duplicating the same research done
by a team in Denmark. But without
communication between them, that
could happen all too easily.

gaps, and work with possible existing
solutions. They look into relevant
university research projects and engage
with other companies, including startups.
Partnerships with other companies extend
to three levels of engagement:

To avoid the potential for wasteful
replication of effort and to increase
collaboration and agility, the teams
scattered around the globe were brought
together. By having them share their work
on a common platform, you don't end up
reinventing the wheel ten different ways.
You can invent it once and come up with
ten different applications for it. That way
we make the most effective use of our
in-house brain power.

*	 Working	jointly	to	bring	a	solution	to		
customers, typically through a joint
venture.
*		 Investing	in	startups	through	Aster			
Capital, Schneider's in-house
investment arm.
*	 Acquiring	companies	when	there	
is value in making them part of the
Schneider family.

T

HE CONCEPT OF OPEN
INNOVATION

To really unleash the potential
of innovation, however, you have
to reach out to find creative, new ideas
and not restrict yourself to your own
organization. While Schneider has a lot
of smart, talented people in-house, you
can deliver innovation much faster if you
take advantage of what's going on outside
Schneider-at startups, vendors, suppliers,
and universities. That's why the company
has adopted open innovation, the positive
face of "not invented here."
The open innovation program has
representatives from each of the key
businesses. They come up with strategies
for what to look for, identify strategic

34

Reaching beyond a business' boundaries
does not mean letting go of the necessary
limits to keep R&D within set budgets.
Setting limits in terms of time, expense,
and personnel allocated for a particular
project is essential to keeping results
on track.
That's why it's important to scope R&D
projects and come up with a realistic
estimate of the money, time, and people
each project requires. If you aren't
disciplined about this process, inevitably
the project will go over budget and miss
its deadlines, particularly if developers start
adding features for possible future needs.
The solution to that problem is to take
a minimalist approach and build the
absolute minimum needed for a workable
product. Then you proceed to testing
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3
