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Forschung und entwicklung: Planung und kontrolle
Technovution. 9 (1989) 115-I 16 Publishers Ltd. England-Printed in the United Kingdom
115
Elscvier Science
BOOK REVIEW Forschung Planning pages.
und Entwicklung: and Control),
Planung
und Kontrolle
by Klaus Brockhoff,
(Research and Development:
R. Oldenbourg
Verlag,
1988, 289
One should hope that this text, currently accessible only to those who read German, will also appear in an English version, for it is one of the best of its genre. The author, Professor of Management at the University of Kiel, has managed judiciously to combine the relevant elements of the economic theory of technological change with an excellent summary of the state of the art in R&D management. In doing so. he has provided a welcome relief from the uncritical ‘cookbook approach’ that marks so much of the field’s teaching literature. Indeed, for this reviewer, the work’s most appealing feature is its cautionary and questioning stance with respect to the purely technical aspects of strategy formulation and decision-making. After two preliminary chapters, one covering definitional material and the other empirical evidence on R&D activities for the German Federal Republic. Brockhoff turns to the main subject, which he presents under five chapter headings (the translations are mine): conceptual planning, strategic planning, operational planning, tactical planning and the controlling of R&D. Each of the chapters proceeds from the general and theoretical to the particular problems of implcmcntation. I found the material on conceptual and strategic planning especially interesting; models here arc presented as ‘guides to orderly thinking,’ with no pretense that they can bc used and operationalized in a mechanistic fashion. In a sense, these two chapters contain Brockhoff’s most original contributions. Quite understandably, the presentation of formal approaches to operational and tactical planning covers more familiar ground, including some straightforward applications of operations-research methods. Even here, however, the reader acquainted with the material will find the treatment refreshingly new and thorough; students should certainly be able to learn and understand what it is they have learned. Several themes, obviously derived from the author’s long experience as a researcher and consultant, run throughout the book. Most important among these is the firm belief that, despite the high degree of uncertainty beclouding all innovative undertakings, a rational approach to planning is always preferable to executive whim and political infighting as motivators of R&D decisions. Nevertheless, readers are also made aware that such an approach will succeed only if it proceeds within the less easily specified framework of an organization’s values, meta-goals, and nontechnological strategies. It is a reflection on the current gap between much of normative theory and the ‘real world’ of R&D. that neither of these points is likely to strike practitioners as especially novel, whereas many theoreticians and all management students desperately need such reminders.
A second theme has to do with the estimations and measurements necessary for the implementation of planning models. Brockhoff provides detailed methodological guidance, but he always carefully evaluates the promises and pitfalls of various techniques. Indeed. one sometimes wishes he had been a bit less fair-minded in these evaluations,
revealing more of his own opinions and preferences.
He is at his
best when he deals with such topics as the methods for influencing and assessing the global efficiency of an organization’s R&D. On the other hand, his treatment of project selection and project management, in the chapter on tactical planning, is of necessity somewhat cursory; after all, entire books have been written on that subject alone! The third theme is provided by an essentially Schumpeterian view of the process of innovation. This implies that hovering in the background of the discussions of formal and rational decision aids there is an appreciation for the highly personal and idiosyncratic role of the innovator-entrepreneur as the driving force behind technological advances,
regardless of a firm’s size and complexity.
done, organizational cultures and managerial unleash or stifle this individual’s creativity,
techniques
When all is said and
can do no more than to
The usefulness of the work as a learning device is enhanced by a seventeen-page guide to the relevant literature, covering German-language sources very thoroughly but also giving a fair representation of British and American contributions. A topical, rather than an alphabetical, arrangement of such a large number of books, articles, and papers might have been even more useful to students, but this is quibbling over minor details. For better or for worse, contemporary management has borrowed many of its terms and concepts from the military arts. Certainly normative theories about strategy and tactics, as they apply to the planning and execution of organized R&D in a competitive economy, have drawn intellectual sustenance from these arts. Thcrefort, I can think of no better way to recommend Brockhoff’s book than by obscrving that it fully meets the standard set by von Clausewitz in his famous, On War: ‘Theory exists so that one does not have to start afresh every time, sorting out the raw material and plowing through it, but will find it ready to hand and in good order. It is meant to educate the mind of the future commander, or, more accurately. to guide him in his self-education, not to accompany him to the battlefield.’ Gerhard
Rosegger
115
Elscvier Science
BOOK REVIEW Forschung Planning pages.
und Entwicklung: and Control),
Planung
und Kontrolle
by Klaus Brockhoff,
(Research and Development:
R. Oldenbourg
Verlag,
1988, 289
One should hope that this text, currently accessible only to those who read German, will also appear in an English version, for it is one of the best of its genre. The author, Professor of Management at the University of Kiel, has managed judiciously to combine the relevant elements of the economic theory of technological change with an excellent summary of the state of the art in R&D management. In doing so. he has provided a welcome relief from the uncritical ‘cookbook approach’ that marks so much of the field’s teaching literature. Indeed, for this reviewer, the work’s most appealing feature is its cautionary and questioning stance with respect to the purely technical aspects of strategy formulation and decision-making. After two preliminary chapters, one covering definitional material and the other empirical evidence on R&D activities for the German Federal Republic. Brockhoff turns to the main subject, which he presents under five chapter headings (the translations are mine): conceptual planning, strategic planning, operational planning, tactical planning and the controlling of R&D. Each of the chapters proceeds from the general and theoretical to the particular problems of implcmcntation. I found the material on conceptual and strategic planning especially interesting; models here arc presented as ‘guides to orderly thinking,’ with no pretense that they can bc used and operationalized in a mechanistic fashion. In a sense, these two chapters contain Brockhoff’s most original contributions. Quite understandably, the presentation of formal approaches to operational and tactical planning covers more familiar ground, including some straightforward applications of operations-research methods. Even here, however, the reader acquainted with the material will find the treatment refreshingly new and thorough; students should certainly be able to learn and understand what it is they have learned. Several themes, obviously derived from the author’s long experience as a researcher and consultant, run throughout the book. Most important among these is the firm belief that, despite the high degree of uncertainty beclouding all innovative undertakings, a rational approach to planning is always preferable to executive whim and political infighting as motivators of R&D decisions. Nevertheless, readers are also made aware that such an approach will succeed only if it proceeds within the less easily specified framework of an organization’s values, meta-goals, and nontechnological strategies. It is a reflection on the current gap between much of normative theory and the ‘real world’ of R&D. that neither of these points is likely to strike practitioners as especially novel, whereas many theoreticians and all management students desperately need such reminders.
A second theme has to do with the estimations and measurements necessary for the implementation of planning models. Brockhoff provides detailed methodological guidance, but he always carefully evaluates the promises and pitfalls of various techniques. Indeed. one sometimes wishes he had been a bit less fair-minded in these evaluations,
revealing more of his own opinions and preferences.
He is at his
best when he deals with such topics as the methods for influencing and assessing the global efficiency of an organization’s R&D. On the other hand, his treatment of project selection and project management, in the chapter on tactical planning, is of necessity somewhat cursory; after all, entire books have been written on that subject alone! The third theme is provided by an essentially Schumpeterian view of the process of innovation. This implies that hovering in the background of the discussions of formal and rational decision aids there is an appreciation for the highly personal and idiosyncratic role of the innovator-entrepreneur as the driving force behind technological advances,
regardless of a firm’s size and complexity.
done, organizational cultures and managerial unleash or stifle this individual’s creativity,
techniques
When all is said and
can do no more than to
The usefulness of the work as a learning device is enhanced by a seventeen-page guide to the relevant literature, covering German-language sources very thoroughly but also giving a fair representation of British and American contributions. A topical, rather than an alphabetical, arrangement of such a large number of books, articles, and papers might have been even more useful to students, but this is quibbling over minor details. For better or for worse, contemporary management has borrowed many of its terms and concepts from the military arts. Certainly normative theories about strategy and tactics, as they apply to the planning and execution of organized R&D in a competitive economy, have drawn intellectual sustenance from these arts. Thcrefort, I can think of no better way to recommend Brockhoff’s book than by obscrving that it fully meets the standard set by von Clausewitz in his famous, On War: ‘Theory exists so that one does not have to start afresh every time, sorting out the raw material and plowing through it, but will find it ready to hand and in good order. It is meant to educate the mind of the future commander, or, more accurately. to guide him in his self-education, not to accompany him to the battlefield.’ Gerhard
Rosegger