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How to Fire Up your Business Plan with Research and Development (R&D)

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Discover how to use Research and Development (R&D) to your full advantage and completely strengthen up your Business Plans!

Research and development, known as R&D, refers to that part of your business plan that is your ability to gain knowledge in order to design, develop, and enhance your product, services, technologies, or processes. If your company is a high-tech firm, R&D is number one on the list of capabilities crucial to your long-term success.

Even if your company isn’t technology- or manufacturing-based, though, don’t assume that R&D isn’t a necessary capability. Even a one-person consulting business needs research ability to track the competitive arena, find out about prospective customers, and keep on top of industry and client news.

For example, a business that liquidates households for people who can’t do so on their own hardly seems in need of R&D capability. But, think again. The Internet now plays a starring role in the sale of antiques and collectibles — whether through online auctions or through specialized auction and antique sales sites.

And even if the business owners never go near an online sale, almost certainly they’ll use online resources to find out what people are paying for items like the ones they’re selling.

For other businesses, R&D is the key to enhancing business skills, enlarging product and service portfolios, and staying on top of customer, industry, and competitive research.

Ways to improve your R&D skills include:

  • Attending trade shows with research-related sessions
  • Taking industry-specific courses, in person or online
  • Participating in social media networks with people in your field who share findings, ideas, and advice
  • Subscribing to mailings from innovators in your industry
  • Completing certification programs
  • Updating your computer skills
  • Keeping up-to-date through trade journals and sites
  • Joining an industry group
  • Broadening your awareness of industry, market area, consumer, and industry issues and opportunities
  • Your business plan should include a section that addresses your R&D capabilities, including the following:
  • The importance of R&D to your competitive success
  • A description of your current R&D capacity (including a description of the expertise of staff and contract sources)
  • Your agenda for R&D over the next year
  • Planned R&D expenditures over the next year
  • Your long-term R&D goals

 

Now you are familiar with all these key pointers to consider when planning the Research and Development aspect of your Business Plan, be selective on which factors would suite your business the most and then use them to your full advantage. Good luck!

Are you already familiar with R&D and it’s importance within a Business Plan? Would you like to actively contribute to the growth of a thriving Business? Check out our latest job opportunities by following this link! 

 

– Steven D. Peterson

– Peter E. Jaret

– Barbara Findlay Schenck

UK’s Broadband Network Described as ‘Unacceptable’

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The UK’s Business Secretary has called the Country’s business broadband “unacceptable”.

Greg Clark, the business secretary, has said that major broadband upgrades are needed to support the government’s plans for industry. Speaking at the Institute of Directors’ annual conference, he said that the state of UK broadband was “unacceptable” for 2016.

Clark told attendees that he wanted entrepreneurs in the UK to be valued the same way that Olympians and Paralympians are, but that there were significant obstacles preventing British companies for achieving that – including the quality of broadband and mobile.

“We have new infrastructure like Crossrail about to open, but we have roads that are bottlenecked, trains overcrowded, and broadband and mobile coverage that is simply unacceptable in 2016,” said Clark.

“I believe it is time for our country to have an upgrade – an upgrade in our infrastructure so that we have smart and modern connections, physical and electronic.”

The government’s multi-million pound Broadband Delivery UK Fund has been driving fibre rollouts across the country, connecting 91% of the population to faster broadband already. It hopes to reach 95% by the end of next year, but that will still inevitably leave some areas without a decent connection.

Clark said that, while different parts of the country have different needs, government policy has treated everywhere as if it was the same.

Clark said: “It seems to me that helping Cornwall make the best of its future is as vital to a comprehensive national success as helping Birmingham – but what is needed in each place is different, and our strategy must reflect that.

“Many of the policies and decisions that form our industrial strategy will not be about particular industries or sectors, but will be cross-cutting.”

Clark likely found a receptive audience to his criticisms – the Institute of Directors has indicated that it wants a 10Gb broadband available to all businesses by 2030. Meanwhile, the government’s incoming Digital Economy Bill includes a universal service obligation of just 10Mb.

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– Duncan Heaney

Virtual Reality: Future of In-Flight Entertainment?

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Could the power of Virtual Reality make the tiny screens in the back of aircraft cabin seats a piece of history?

Virtual reality and streaming content from sites like Netflix is the future of in-flight entertainment, replacing tiny screens in the back of chairs that often have low quality movies, the aerospace industry’s biggest players told CNBC.

Companies had set up virtual reality stations around their stands at the Farnborough Airshow highlighting what the inside of their jets look like and how it feels to fly in one of their planes.

While these are mainly for airlines to experience what a manufacturer’s plane is like, aircraft makers are predicting virtual reality technology will be incorporated within cabins soon.

“The consumer market is taking off and people who are keen on this tech expect people like Airbus as industry leaders to be aware of this, and I do foresee in the near future an opportunity for our customers to potentially have this in their cabin,” Andy Anderson, deputy chief technology officer at Airbus, told CNBC in an interview earlier this week.

“For a passenger inside the plane, imagine being able to put on the headset and project a whole world across the roof of the cabin and allow them to fly underneath the stars, or allow them to see a movie, it’s a new platform for innovation.”

Anderson also said that VR can be used to help people who suffer from claustrophobia on planes for example, by projecting people into an open space.

The technology has already been tested by one airline. Last year, Australian airline Qantas trialed providing VR headsets to its first class passengers on select routes. New movies were shown as well as Qantas products for passengers to look at.

Virtual reality is taking off with a number of electronics makers from Samsung to HTC all releasing headsets recently. Total shipment of virtual reality hardware is expected to reach 64.8 million units in 2020, up from 9.6 million this year, according to IDC. Sales of VR hardware are expected to generate $2.3 billion of revenues in 2016.

Some companies are already working on plane-specific applications for VR. A virtual reality production start-up called Trillenium has been working on a project that could make “windowless planes” a reality. The company is working on using a stream from the cameras on the outside of an aircraft, then stitching it together into a VR experience that a passenger could view through a headset. It could also transport passengers into business class seats for example and be used to generate revenues for airlines.

“It will encourage and stimulate first class and business class upgrades prior to travel, while an on-board virtual first class will allow economy passengers to taste the first class menu, explore a wine list, and IFE (in-flight entertainment) in return for a paid premium usage of the VR headset wherever they are seated,” Hrvoje Prpic, chief executive of Trillenium, wrote in a LinkedIn post earlier this year.

Bring your own device

Airlines providing hardware is just one route that could transform in-flight entertainment. But the future could also be in increased connectivity within aircraft, given how much people are doing on their smartphones today. Airlines and plane makers are focusing on creating the infrastructure to allow internet on-board an aircraft. This is a big trend, one which could mean people are able to stream content.

“I think what is changing and changing dramatically is entertainment on the aircraft. You remember flying around on airplanes that have little screens that you can barely see, to now everybody has devices that they can bring on, as long as they can connect their device, then they’re off and running and I think that’s really going to be a dramatic change,” Keith Leverkuhn, vice president and general manager of Boeing’s 737 Max project, told CNBC on Tuesday.

“That’s not ten years from now, that’s today and that is something we are making sure the airplane is equipped with.”

– Arjun Kharpal

Brexit’s Potential Impact on UK Gaming Industry

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The gaming industry holds concerns that leaving the European Union will affect access to games development talent

The gaming development industry has expressed concerns that leaving the European Union (EU) will affect its talent pipeline.

Games developer network Tiga has claimed an exit from the EU may lead to harsher immigration rules, preventing European developers from contributing to games development in the UK.

Richard Wilson, Tiga CEO, said: “The UK video games industry is a technology sector that provides high-skilled employment for more than 30,000 people, including approximately 11,000 development staff, and which contributes £1.1bn to UK GDP.

“It is also export-oriented, with at least 95% of studios exporting. Following the referendum in favour of ‘Brexit’, it will be more vital than ever to strengthen – and avoid harming – those sectors where the UK has a comparative competitive advantage.”

Research by Tiga has found 15% of UK games development staff are from the EU, and the network claimed the government should take responsibility to ensure the games industry still has access to talent and funding.

Tiga highlighted access to finance, tax relief and intellectual property are among other areas of threat caused by jumping the EU ship.

The UK games industry was cited to grow significantly in 2016, with 70% of employers in the sector planning new hires throughout the year.

As it stands, the industry has access to funding through schemes such as Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) backed UK Games Fund, designed to promote growth in UK creative industries.

But Tiga expressed concerns that European programmes, such as Creative Europe and Horizon 2020, which support creative industries in the EU may no longer be open to UK applications post-Brexit.

The network called on the government to invest further in schemes such as the Video Games Prototype Fund to avoid growing industries being negatively affected by a potentially uncertain economic environment.

Wilson said: “For the video games industry, it is particularly important that policy makers ensure games companies have access to sufficient finance, benefit from video games tax relief and research and development tax relief, have clear and stable IP rights and can access highly skilled people from outside of the UK.

“Any new points-based migration system must not be onerous or complicated, otherwise the industry’s growth could be held back.”

The UK is currently part of the Registered Community Design regime, the EU Trade Mark regime and acts under the Unregistered EU Design Right, all of which are designed to protect the rights of those creating intellectual properly, such as video games, as part of the European Union. This means an exit from the EU could significantly affect rules around intellectual property for games developers.

– Clare McDonald

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