Description
The goal of this ROR has been to discover best practices for establishing a long-term vision for R&D that is tied to business strategies and how to use this vision to influence the strategy and direction of the firm. The team’s hypothesis was that R&D leaders must often make investments that extend beyond the normal business planning cycle, however, insights to guide these longer term R&D investments are often challenging for organizations. While organizations may have many of the pieces needed to form a long-term vision – such as market trends, voice of the customer, and customer and market insights – they lack critical pieces that will inform and justify longer term investments. The team will report on how companies are filling those gaps in long-term insights and how they are bringing the pieces together to form a compelling vision and translating this vision into actionable steps to guide long term R&D strategy.
Contributors
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Kent Young, Senior Director of Technology, Sherwin-Williams Company
At Sherwin Williams, Kent leads a number of teams supporting the company’s innovation and growth initiatives. Kent leads the raw material teams and product development teams for architectural coatings globally supporting the Sherwin Williams’s Brand and Consumer Brands Businesses. In addition, Kent has responsibility for Sherwin Williams' internal polymer research, development, and supply activities, as well as the Innovation Resource Center team providing product platform innovation supporting all business units of Sherwin Williams. Kent leads the teams supporting Sherwin Williams’ Open Innovation and External Technology functions including university partnerships, Government initiatives, and start-up ecosystem activities supporting Sherwin Williams’ innovation and growth strategies.
Born and raised in Canada, Kent Young received his B.Sc. degree with First Class Honors from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for his work on the photochemistry of reactive organometallic species. Kent began his career at Polaroid working on development of new instant film imaging solutions, and later at Parker Hannifin Corporation where he led the development and commercialization of new materials for telecommunications, electronics and specialty applications. -
Terry Rosentsteil, Director for Partnerships & Innovation Pipeline, USG Corporation.
Terry’s focus is on the front end of the innovation pipeline, using trends, user insights and outside partners to identify & develop new transformational platform opportunities. Holder of eight patents, he has been with USG since 1978, with experience managing various product laboratories at the R&D center, including those for ceilings, gypsum products and performance surface treatments. Terry has a Bachelors degree in Chemistry from the University of Illinois and a Masters in Engineering Management from Northwestern University.
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Pamela Henderson, CEO, NewEdge, Inc.
Pam pioneered Opportunity Thinking™ principles, a new approach to innovation that helps organizations create sustainable growth. Organizations are adopting Opportunity Thinking™ as their corporate innovation strategy for long term growth.
Formerly on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University, Pam later worked with the national laboratory system and Washington State University to commercialize early stage technologies. Pam speaks internationally and has published widely on market insight, business and innovation strategy, and design and has received recognition in the Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, and NPR.
Pam is also the author of a new book on Opportunity Thinking, titled You Can Kill An Idea, But You Can’t Kill An Opportunity! How to Discover News Sources of Growth for Your Organization, now in its second publishing by Wiley, a trademark of John Wiley & Sons.