From the Top--Technical Issues in the Cosmetic Business

By: Kazuo Tokubo, Shiseido Co. Ltd.

Posted: February 28, 2006, from the March 2006 issue of Cosmetics & Toiletries.

Editor’s note: This column is the first in a series of quarterly columns covering the challenges faced by R&D managers. While business concepts such as the Valley of Death and Darwinian Sea (see sidebar) are obstacles that can hinder basic research from developing into viable business, Management of Technology (MOT) is a means to overcome such obstacles. MOT has emerged as a business practice used to capitalize on a company’s research and development (R&D) investments. The concept of MOT was introduced in the 1980s as a collaboration between industry and academia, as a means to generate more revenue. Since then, major universities and colleges have incorporated MOT education into their MBA programs, and there are more than 200 such courses available today at universities such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology; University of California, Berkeley; and University of California, Los Angeles. In this industry, MOT has played a pivotal role in restoring competitiveness to the United States, especially in the 1990s during a national trend encouraging the introduction of information technology (IT) to support business strategies. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in Japan adopted the MOT idea at the dawn of the economic recession in Japan, also in the 90s. The recession brought about the realization that technology alone was not enough to be successful. The adoption of this business strategy paid off to a certain extent and encouraged many Japanese universities to offer MOT courses.

This is only an excerpt of the full article that appeared in Cosmetics & Toiletries, but you can purchase the full-text version.