Engines of Tomorrow: How the World's Best Companies are Using Their Research Labs to Win the Future

Engines of Tomorrow: How the World's Best Companies are Using Their Research Labs to Win the Future
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Origins, Attitudes, and Personalities of Research

Insightful; Fantastic

Insightful!

Review of current R&D cases

Informative, exceptionally well presented, reader friendly.

Engines of Tomorrow: How the World's Best Companies are Using Their Research Labs to Win the Future
Robert Buderi
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0743200225

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Engines of Tomorrow, by former Business Week technology editor Robert Buderi, is a serious look at the role corporate research plays in long-term business success. Despite a perception that such activity has been dramatically scaled back in recent years, Buderi says, the opposite is actually true among today's global business leaders; in truth, he notes, there are now almost 13,000 corporate labs in the U.S. alone, employing some 700,000 scientists and engineers who spend about $150 billion annually. And, he writes, this is "the prime venue where New Knowledge is converted into Useful Products, and where success and failure can be most plainly gauged in terms of patents, market share, sales, stock prices, and the like." To support his contention, he goes inside more than two dozen facilities at nine of the biggest innovators in the U.S., Europe, and Japan--IBM, Siemens, NEC, Lucent Technologies, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, Intel, and Microsoft--where he examines "management philosophies, funding paradigms, incentive programs, and all the rest" employed by the leading labs. Recommended for anyone interested in the underlying factors that actually drive corporate growth. --Howard Rothman

Book Description

THE FUTURE'S SECRET WEAPON

From the author of The Invention That Changed the World comes this fascinating, in-depth look at the technological innovations and cutting-edge research that are paving the way to increased economic growth and prosperity now and for decades to come.

In Engines of Tomorrow, Robert Buderi takes us into some of America's most successful companies -- as well as top European and Japanese competitors -- and describes in compelling, accessible detail their groundbreaking work in science, technology, and the management of innovation. Focusing on the fast-paced areas of communications, computers, and electronics, he profiles leading thinkers on these subjects and explores the vital role of research in determining business strategies, including:

Why IBM's eight labs around the world loom large in Lou Gerstner's plan to achieve consistent double-digit growth
Why Xerox's famed Palo Alto Research Center has sent anthropologists into the field and is beefing up the social sciences to help revive the company's lagging fortunes
How the October 2000 federal court decision to break Microsoft in two will affect ten-year-old Microsoft Research, the company's high-octane internal lab

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The U.S. economy is the envy of the world and the key is technological innovation. The author of "The Invention That Changed the World" now turns the spotlight on corporate research and the management of innovation that is driving our unparalleled growth.

Customer Reviews:

Origins, Attitudes, and Personalities of Research.......2003-08-16

This book provides a fascinating overview of the emergence and evolution of research as a method for creating new products. The opening chapter describes the beneficial effects of research on companies and countries. It is very interesting to see that the debates over the roles of pure and applied research began almost as soon as research laboratories were formed.

The second chapter describes how chemists' searching for new cloth dyes created a wide variety of new industries -- dyes, industrial chemicals, and pharmaceuticals.

The rest of the chapters are devoted to the history and projects of major research labs like those at Bell, IBM, Seimens, HP, Microsoft, and Intel.

Fascinating read for everyone involved in the business of research.

Insightful; Fantastic.......2002-10-24

Engines of Tomorrow by Robert Buderi provided a wonderful account of the historical developments in the Research and Development (R& D) industry. A diverse range of details was presented for the period of time encompassing the early days when Germany's, Bayer developed and controlled (by patent) numerous chemical related products/processes through the period that gave birth to IBM's massive portfolio of patents and research literature. I was rather enlightened to find out that the German dye industry of the mid 1800's was considered to be the seed in which research and development methodology began to grow from. The author surmised during that point in time many chemist and other innovators were seeking new formulations of dyes to color (silk) garments. It was noted that the methodology was predominately trial and error but the evaluation of formulation failures spurred further use of a methodical approach to development of new dyes and other byproducts. Specifically, individuals utilized many different elements and plants in their attempt to create a better lasting and/or new colored dye. As an indirect result, from the widespread efforts, useful chemicals were discovered, thereby giving rise to the pharmaceutical industry. It was the culmination of these events relating to the German dye industry that indirectly gave birth to the R & D industry of today.
Throughout the book fascinating details were revealed about the organizations and scientists that were instrumental in development of landmark technological innovations in R & D. For instance, there were several European companies like BASF and AGFA that developed chemical based products as a result of their pursuit of developing dyes. As mentioned earlier, Bayer was one of the prominent companies, which is known today for its aspirin and photographical products. A myriad of accounts from a variety of R & D leaders were given, a few, detailing the management decisions and strategies involving the early pioneers like Germany's Adolf Baeyer and several of IBM's notable research leaders Ralph Gomory and Thomas Watson. Information was given and the circumstances that contributed to the scientific advancements of other U.S led organizations like Bell Labs (AT&T); General Electric, Xerox, and General Motors; were discussed.
The discussion also related the economic, scientific, and strategic environment of the 1850's to the late 1990's to the R & D industry. Numerous highlights on the reasoning behind the creation and operations of the now famous global R & D labs were discussed. The author provided adequate information by devoting a chapter for discussing Intel; and Microsoft and devoting several chapters for the early organizational pioneers of R&D like IBM; Siemens; NEC; GE; BellLabs (AT&T); Xerox. The later chapters focused on Intel and Microsoft and their current undertakings in R & D. This provided a lead to the future of R&D as well as a contrasting approach of past economic and scientific innovations.
Overall, a comprehensive and interesting background was given. The historical facts were overwhelming but quite intriguing because the author maintained a dynamic pace. He continually alternated and elaborated on historical events, descriptions of industry leaders management philosophies, and discussing the details of significant innovations in the Research and Development Field. The historical information was very comprehensive and gives the reader a foundation and appreciation of the challenges that the past and present scientific and technological companies have and will face. On a practical note, the description about the past decisions made by the leaders offers lessons for the future.

Insightful!.......2001-03-20

Robert Buderi has produced a work of impressive detail - a thoroughly documented account of the workings of the world's leading research labs. The book carefully follows the financial swings of the R&D effort, and closely examines the increasing pressure on researchers to turn a quick buck. The history of this critical economic component is probably unknown to most readers, and Buderi tells an engrossing tale. The book's one inescapable shortcoming, however, is the fact that Buderi finishes his story without a mention of the vast innovation currently sprouting from sources far afield of the Fortune 500. In addition, little mention is made of what makes some research efforts flourish while others fade. Nevertheless, we at getAbstract highly recommend Engines of Tomorrow as a book that rises beyond a simple corporate history to a study in human innovation.

Review of current R&D cases.......2000-11-27

Buderi explores the recent change of focus in research conducted in the U.S. American research during the 1950s and 60s enjoyed an unprecedented level of funding and latitude in pursuing projects. Basic research was lavishly funded by government agencies and many large corporations built ivory tower research organization that produced Nobel Laureates but not many commercial products. Corporate management has since taken a closer look at the R&D division; cost cutting and downsizing have dramatically changed top managements' perception of R&D. The days of the ivory tower are over and Buderi explores the radical mission changes at many R&D labs across the country. Through interviews with research managers the author gains some valuable information about how these business leaders view R&D, its role within the organization and their style of managing it. The author gives a detailed history of the corporate research division and discusses the attitudes and associated cultures being created at IBM, Siemens, NEC, GE, Bell Labs (Lucent), Xerox, HP, Intel and Microsoft.

Informative, exceptionally well presented, reader friendly........2000-08-03

Robert Buderi's Engines Of Tomorrow tells how companies are using research labs to make discoveries which drive their businesses and industries. Buderi shows how companies encouraging research in communications, electronics and computer science are propelling their industries into the 21st century, providing chapters which document trends and studies.

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These cases are designed to be used in advanced undergraduate corporate finance courses or Graduate/MBA corporate finance courses. They are available bound as one casebook through January 2005, they are also available online to create your own custom casebook at http://www.textchoice2.com.

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In 1996, Louise Arbour was appointed by the Security Council of the United Nations as Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Reflecting on these experiences, she argues in War Crimes and the Culture of Peace that the level of public awareness and understanding of the significance of these events is minimal in part as a result of the way in which international criminal law is practiced.

Justice Arbour contends that previous efforts to unite concepts of international law and criminal law in the practice of these tribunals are evolving, and suggests that the ties between personal criminal accountability and peace should be central to the decisions made in the future concerning procedural models for the permanent International War Crimes Tribunals. As a result, the public might better understand the context and causes of such crime, and the notion of crime as a breach of the peace would be made central to these trials.

Justice Arbour delivered War Crimes and the Culture of Peace as the fifth annual Senator Keith Davey Lecture at Victoria University at the University of Toronto in January 2001.

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The book describes the excess supply of nutrients and manure to agricultural lands and the resulting problems of groundwater contamination and surface water eutrophication. It reviews these practices in the main EU countries and in North America and proposes a new sustainable approach for dealing with this environmental deterioration.

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"In the last twenty years or so there has been an upsurge in the study of Palaeozoic fishes for solving geological problems, both in areas of biostratigraphy and biogeography. This has resulted in an explosion of data, much of it so new that it will take years for all the recent discoveries to be published. This book has resulted to fill the need to provide up-to-date summaries of global work in progress showing the application of both macroscopic and microscopic remains of Palaeozoic vertebrates to geological correlations, and to refinement of global palaeogeographic reconstructions."--from the Preface.

This book offers the first detailed treatment of palaeozoic vertebrates for use in correlations and in biogeographic studies. With thirteen chapters of systematic analysis of biostratigraphic and biogeographic data, it includes invaluable summaries of current research as well as new and significant contributions to the fields of geology and evolutionary biology. With charts and figures that show many of the important fossils discussed in the text, as well as stratigraphic, location, and taxonomic indexes, the book will interest palaeontologists, stratigraphers, and other earth scientists concerned with the early history of life on earth.

Physics for Scientists and Engineers, Pt. 1 (Third Edition)
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Physics for Scientists and Engineers, Pt. 1 (Third Edition)
Douglas C. Giancoli
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The latest of Michael Allen's distinguished studies of the Renaissance Neoplatonist, Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), presents a difficult, fascinating text. Late in his career, Ficino wrote a commentary on the intractable passage in Book VIII of Plato's Republic that concerns the mysterious geometric or "fatal" number. He was thus the first modern interpreter of this famous passage, and Allen is the first in our era to translate and elucidate his remarkable commentary.
Allen's critical translation of Ficino's analysis of the fatal number passage shows how it develops philosophical, psychological, numerological, astrological, and prophetic themes that had a particular resonance at the end of the fifteenth century.

Nuptial Arithmetic: Marsilio Ficino's Commentary on the Fatal Number in Book VIII of Plato's Republic.: An article from: Renaissance Quarterly

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Nuptial Arithmetic: Marsilio Ficino's Commentary on the Fatal Number in Book VIII of Plato's Republic.: An article from: Renaissance Quarterly
John M. Headley
Manufacturer: Renaissance Society of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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This digital document is an article from Renaissance Quarterly, published by Renaissance Society of America on September 22, 1996. The length of the article is 1004 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Nuptial Arithmetic: Marsilio Ficino's Commentary on the Fatal Number in Book VIII of Plato's Republic.
Author: John M. Headley
Publication: Renaissance Quarterly (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 1996
Publisher: Renaissance Society of America
Volume: v49 Issue: n3 Page: p671(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization, Volume 6: Early Modern Europe: Crisis of Authority (Readings in Western Civilization)
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University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization, Volume 6: Early Modern Europe: Crisis of Authority (Readings in Western Civilization)

Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization (nine volumes) makes available to students and teachers a unique selection of primary documents, many in new translations. These readings, prepared for the highly praised Western civilization sequence at the University of Chicago, were chosen by an outstanding group of scholars whose experience teaching that course spans almost four decades. Each volume includes rarely anthologized selections as well as standard, more familiar texts; a bibliography of recommended parallel readings; and introductions providing background for the selections. Beginning with Periclean Athens and concluding with twentieth-century Europe, these source materials enable teachers and students to explore a variety of critical approaches to important events and themes in Western history.

Individual volumes provide essential background reading for courses covering specific eras and periods. The complete nine-volume series is ideal for general courses in history and Western civilization sequences.

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Kurt GÃ¶del, together with Bertrand Russell, is the most important name in logic, and in the foundations and philosophy of mathematics of this century. However, unlike Russel, GÃ¶del the mathematician published very little apart from his well-known writings in logic, metamathematics and set theory. Fortunately, GÃ¶del the philosopher, who devoted more years of his life to philosophy than to technical investigation, wrote hundreds of pages on the philosophy of mathematics, as well as on other fields of philosophy. It was only possible to learn more about his philosophical works after the opening of his literary estate at Princeton a decade ago. The goal of this book is to make available to the scholarly public solid reconstructions and editions of two of the most important essays which GÃ¶del wrote on the philosophy of mathematics. The book is divided into two parts. The first provides the reader with an incisive historico-philosophical introduction to GÃ¶del's technical results and philosophical ideas. Written by the Editor, this introductory apparatus is not only devoted to the manuscripts themselves but also to the philosophical context in which they were written. The second contains two of GÃ¶del's most important and fascinating unpublished essays: 1) the Gibbs Lecture ("Some basic theorems on the foundations of mathematics and their philosophical implications", 1951); and 2) two of the six versions of the essay which GÃ¶del wrote for the Carnap volume of the Schilpp series The Library of Living Philosophers ("Is mathematics syntax of language?", 1953-1959).

Customer Reviews:

Brilliance in obscurity.......2004-03-23

Godel has shown that truth is not identical to provability, and reality is not identical to consistency as imagined by logical positivists who tend to be rather easy-going about metaphysics. That is the view he challenged, or let us say instead, eliminated. He in fact worked on philosophy for a very long time, trying to construct a world view consistent with his mathematical results. Even before he obtained the celebrated incompleteness theorems, he says that he had a philosophical motivation and that he never looked at the Vienna Circle with much sympathy. In view of his mathematical results, he considered the realist implications of his work most likely among others. Rodriquez argues in the book that although many philosophers "borrowed" their most important ideas from Godel, Godel's realist philosophy does not seem to follow directly from his mathematical theorems. He could have argued against realism starting from the same logical premises. In particular, Godel believed in a deity and the existence of mathematical objects resolutely. It was hard to give up on these ideas no matter what he found in metamathematics.

He did, however, show that conventionalism had fatal flaws. Not simply minor flaws that could be patched later, but flaws which erased the unsatisfying metaphysics of conventionalism. He argued against Carnap and others but was hesitant to publish his papers, because he found his philosophical work incomplete, being a perfectionist he wanted to be absolutely sure he had the final answer. That is one of the reasons his philosophy remained in obscurity. The other is that no other Godel came.

In these essays he argues for a metaphysics in which mathematical objects exist in a realm of their own, and their perception can be achieved only through indirect means, by mathematical intuition which operates on a kind of data that is not the same as sense data. He also offered a disjunctive proposition which claimed that either the mind is infinitely more powerful than a computer, or there are such propositions that are absolutely unsolvable by a computer. He contends that both possibilities will frustrate the materialists, for either the human mind is not mechanical, or there is a realm of abstract objects. Throughout the essays, the most persistent idea is that mathematics cannot be reduced to syntax, and that mathematical truth is not our creation: it exists independently.

These ideas should be taken seriously because they originate from the same person who has shaken the world of 20th century mathematics with his foundational results.

Rodriquez exposes this dramatic turn of events in the first half of 20th century in a vibrant and rigorous fashion including Godel's completeness theorem and incompleteness theorems. The first half of the book is dedicated to laying out the background for Godel's two unpublished philosophical essays. In this part, Rodriquez summarizes the history of developments which have led to Godel's philosophical work and the philosophical views of Godel and his contemporaries. A very detailed and scholarly analysis of Godel's philosophy, including a lucid description of his ontology and epistemology are being presented. One wonders how much work must have gone into deciphering Godel's work and establishing the relationships which Rodriquez uncovered. The second part of the book contains the essays, edited from Godel's unpublished manuscripts. The essays are most striking, and they are written in an almost mathematically precise language and they are dense with argument in every sentence. The first essay is the script of his famous Gibbs lecture, which he read to an audience only once. The second essay is a response to Carnap's "The Logical Syntax of Language". Both essays have been revised significantly by Godel over the years, and Rodriquez does his best to provide a complete account of Godel's work.

I think, then I live! This is what Godel revealed........2003-02-06

I read this book in Japanese translation. Godel mentioned gvitalismh only once in it. But I think this word is what he wanted to say most about the incompleteness theorem. Mathematicians learned the form of the theorem, but ignored the meaning of it. This book is a precious clue to answer the question: What is mathematics?@I am now trying to depicting mathematics from the start of thinking to the end. This book is a reliable navigator for me.

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The Laguna del Tigre National Park--a critical reservoir of wetland and tropical dry forest habitats--is currently threatened by human encroachment, out-of-control fires, and hydrocarbon exploitation. This rapid assessment of the region reveals a freshwater reef, two new species of fish, and range extensions for an endemic deer mouse and an aquatic snake, as well as providing detailed observations of the endangered Morelet's crocodile and the first species list for ants and phytoplankton in the park. Of special significance are toxological studies of DNA damage to two fish species, drawing international attention to the potential effects of hydrocardon operations on the park's ecosystems.

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