Tag: Emerging markets

R & D 2.0: Fewer Engineers, More Anthropologists

by timbatchelder, posted in Knowledge Management

R&D 2.0: Fewer Engineers, More Anthropologists – Navi Radjou – HarvardBusiness.org.

According to an article in HBR version 1.0 of the global R&D model, still in practice, uses low-cost but high-quality technical talent in emerging markets to crank out products and services that either get exported back to developed markets or are targeted to middle-class buyers in local markets. But this 1.0 model will no longer be appropriate if MNCs like GE wish to cater their offerings to the 5 billion people who form the middle and the bottom of the economic pyramid in places like India, Brazil, and South Africa. Indeed, to effectively identify and address the explicit and unmet needs of the broader consumer base in emerging markets,   MNCs must adopt a new global innovation model. Let’s call it global R&D 2.0, This global R&D 2.0 strategy calls for a talent recalibration in MNCs’ R&D labs in emerging markets. Multinationals must begin to staff up with Anthropologists and ethnographers who study and interact with end-customers in their natural settings and allow Western firms to learn to tailor their business models and offerings to match users’ socio-economic and cultural context.

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