This report focuses on how Indian MNC R&D Centers are leveraging and partnering with tier 1 , tier 2 and non technical universities to gain access to high quality of talent as well as to innovate. It delves into the collaboration model that exists and also the feasibility of each model across different types of universities. An additional dimension of public - private partnerships as an enabler of university - industry collaboration has also been explored.

Please note: This report does not have a separate summary

The Government forms a critical part of the MNC R&D ecosystem in India. The public sector in India is unique and dealing with varying government agencies and enterprises requires a good understanding of the Governments structure, the existing culture and the implicit interaction opportunities. This report delves into the spending pattern of the Indian Government, the organization structures that exist and also aims to understand, bureaucrats, procedures for allocation of government projects and best practices in dealing with the multitude of government agencies.

Among the various enablers that help R&D centers move up the maturity value chain, relevant technical leadership is an important one. The type and depth of technical leadership varies across different maturity levels and across different project selection and transition phases. However, the fact that such deep technical expertise is required is not debatable. In the Indian R&D talent ecosystem, given the way it has evolved and the demand-supply equation, there is a deficit of good technical leadership. Many centers have come up with innovative and structured internal mechanisms to fast track the growth of existing talent and the attraction of the right talent. Initiatives such as encouragement for higher education, usage of senior expatriate talent to groom and build core technical talent and encouraging innovation within the organization have been explored by different companies with varying degrees of success. This report briefly examines this scenario and the company initiatives.

Note: There is no separate summary for this report

This report aims to assess the currently installed R&D talent pool in the US and best practices and trends relating to expatriate mobility across  major geographies like US, UK, France, Germany and Japan . The information is based on a survey carried out with 350 working professionals and students across these geographies as well as 50 interviews with key individuals with significant industry experience.

Matrix organizations are the norm at MNC centers irrespective of the reporting/organization structure. Based on this reality, Zinnov has propounded a model where it classifies all matrix organizations into three broad categories - Volatile, Stable and Effective based on key characteristics such as cost, consistency, frequency of communication, decision making ability etc. It explores with examples the current trends in reporting structures and how some companies’ matrix structures have evolved across these stages.

Note: This report is a part of both Global Leadership and Competency Creation categories

The University-Industry collaboration competency database classifies the engineering institutes in India into 3 tiers based on the R&D collaboration capabilities. For each of the 3 tiers, the list of focus areas of the university for research and an R&D competency matrix have been developed. The database is based on extensive primary interviews with the R&D deans of the initially shortlisted 40 universities and supported by secondary research. The spreadsheet also mentions the key challenges that were faced in information collection, especially for tier-2 universities.

 The Professional Services (PS) report traces the evolution of Services in general and PS in particular in product companies. It tracks the evolution, along with its drivers, to the current state where product companies are building their own Global Delivery (GD) teams to deliver PS. It also draws a typical PS value chain and identifies the phases typically delivered using the GD model. Given that building services organizations requires a different mindset and processes, product companies usually face challenges. Lastly, the report documents the best practices at various organizational levels in setting up a PS GD organization.

The scope of the study is to analyze the research and development (R&D) talent pool in India. While both MNC centers and service providers hold a share in the market, the vast base of installed talent pool is predominately split across key verticals such as Software, telecom & networking, semiconductors and others. The economic crisis had an impact on the growth, however, the talent pool has continued to grow in India. As more and more companies plan to globalize their R&D operations, India will continue to witness an increased demand for it's talent pool going forward. Hence, the report also brings in a perspective on the current supply of talent pool from engineering colleges, migrations from services industry and Indian software product companies. The report concludes with citing industry best practices for MNCs to attract this vast availability of talent pool.

Companies have always evinced interest in working with universities for the purpose of research. However, there are certain inhibitors – perceived or real – that have not let these collaborations flourish to their full potential. This deliverable lays out the landscape in the industry – academia research collaboration in terms of categories of universities (tier-1 tech, tier-2 tech, business, design), the focus areas and the nature of collaboration. Next, the major collaboration models that have been used for collaboration have been studied and classified, with specific examples. Further, success stories where such collaborations have resulted in startups or products have been given to substantiate the findings. Lastly, the challenges and best practices in such collaborations have been discussed.

NOTE: This report is also a part of the 'Innovation' sub - category