Businesses today are challenged with keeping up with competition that can come from anywhere and at any time. It is no longer enough to be concerned about those companies in your industry and who make competing products, companies must now be concerned about companies anywhere in the world and that are looking for ways to deliver the products at the core of your business as giveaways or loss leaders to get customers to purchase other goods and services. With these issues causing anxiety and concern, businesses must do all they can to gain an edge.

Achieving and sustaining a lead-in any business sector requires a company to follow certain guidelines and winning strategies. One of these is to always offer the best products and services, another is to hire skilled and passionate employees with dedicated to your company’s success. Another key business element is to always remember that the customer is the priority and that your organization must always be customer leaning if it wants to be profitable. What supports all of these success factors is a specific focus by the company on research and development. Here’s why research and development is so important to an organization.

The Goal of Research and Development

The goal of research and development is to be a first step in fostering innovation within an organization. R&D sets a roadmap and creates a long term vision and strategy for a company seeking innovation. Innovations is the key to increasing efficiency and effectiveness within an organization and in the products and services it offers. When a company elects to make an investment in R&D it will allow for the organization to gain a better foundation, understanding, and future capabilities and potential.

Why R&D is important to Your Organization

Adopting a vibrant and healthy R&D strategy for your organization can gain you tremendous benefits. Here are some of the most important to your company.

Additional Revenue Streams

R&D can generate patents and other IP that when leased or licensed to other companies, can be a source of additional revenue for your company. Many organizations have a difficult time justifying the cost of R&D because they view it as an investment that does not directly generate revenues. However this is not necessarily the case because R&D should discover for your company ways to both generate more revenue and save costs on existing processes and procedures.

Additionally the costs of R&D can be defrayed or completely covered by innovative government programs like. Canada’s scientific research and experimental development SR&ED which is a government based program that provides rebated to companies investing in R&D in the areas of scientific research and experimental development, multimedia, e-business development (TCEB), film production or mining exploration. These rebates can cover much or even all of your R&D costs. Further, there are private companies like R&D Capital that provide SR&ED Tax Financing that provides revenue against these government rebates allowing your business to get capital much sooner. As a result your R&D efforts can be paid for independently.

Fosters a Favorable Work Environment

When you invest in R&D your employees will know that your business is dedicated to being an industry leader. R&D shows that you want to discover the best ways to create and supply your products and services and that you intend to be in the business a long time as a market leader. This will give your employees pride for your organization and cause them to dedicate themselves more.

Finally investing in R&D will also assist with recruiting the top candidates to your company because the most exceptional employees want to work at organizations focused on leading.

These are only a few of the most beneficial elements of investing in R&D. There are many others that make it a smart thing to do for any business.