You're aiming to excel in Product R&D leadership. What distinguishes successful executives from the rest?

Creating the vision is vital, and also convince the non-believers about the strategy and potential impact. Short term Wins will play crucial role in turning the non-believers into acceptors. Need to create the 'sponsors' with the cross functional leadership in the vision. In general the vision is accepted if the leader is accepted. Leaders need to keep their head in the clouds (aiming high), and keep their feet on the ground (keeping reality).

Os líderes visionários em Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento (P&D) s?o como navegadores em mares desconhecidos, guiando suas equipes rumo a um futuro promissor. Eles n?o apenas seguem o que está na moda, mas têm a habilidade de prever o que virá a seguir, moldando assim o próprio destino do mercado. Com uma vis?o de longo prazo, eles tomam decis?es estratégicas que alinham o desenvolvimento de produtos com os objetivos de longo prazo da empresa, garantindo que a inova??o seja o motor que impulsiona o crescimento.

A good technical leader should be a visionary and a detail oriented guy at the same time. S/he needs to see most, if not all the key hurdles in the entire product life, including technical, regulatory, market reception and competition from all possible sectors and industries. A CTO or CSO should ask all the important questions in the interview and layout the entire landscape during the first meeting with the VP of Engineering. The attitude that makes that possible is an insatiable intellectual curiosity, accompanied by the relentless pursue of knowledge.

Being a technical leader, solid grasp of the principles is important. If a leader is honest in informing about the weaknesses in certain aspects of the technology, it has been cheaply used against the leader. It makes the leaders to have at least a basic understanding of all aspects of the technology. The leaders should have the knowledge in connecting the dots - seeing and feeling the 'elephant while other technologists blindly seeing the parts of the elephant assuming they know the elephant' (reference to 'the blind people seeing the elephant' story).

Líderes visionários em P&D utilizam sua perspicácia técnica para antecipar tendências, assumir riscos calculados, fomentar a inova??o e garantir a competitividade futura de suas organiza??es.

One thing I found helpful is to have technical knowledge of what I'm talking about. Not too technical but detail enough that all in the room can make sense of it, and why is important for the customers and the company.

This is a real challenge - since it needs 360 support, and gets the opposition from the status-quo team members, with the 'don't tumble the apple cart' mentality. While the need in creating the innovation culture is touted across many organization as an important factor, a balanced approach of 'maintaining existing products (keeping the lights on) and innovation' will help to foster the innovation culture. The teams working on both sides of the products need to be appreciated and celebrated, so that there is no inherent competition and jealousy developed among the teams.

Esses líderes s?o como capit?es de um navio de inova??o, navegando pelas águas tumultuosas das novas tecnologias com suas equipes. Experimentar e criar protótipos é o p?o nosso de cada dia. Isso permite que eles deem uma espiada no futuro, vejam o que está funcionando e o que precisa de um ajustezinho.

Collaborative spirit can be fostered when the teams feel that, their ideas and contributions are heard and valued. The vision has to be shared among all the team members and leaders should openly hear the teams' opinions though some of them may contradict the vision. The failure has to be accepted and all the reasons for the failure have to be analyzed and removed.

Decisive action of the leaders is appreciated. The leaders need to listen to the team members and make sure that, all the info is in place before the decision is made. They should also open to acknowledge and accept if a wrong decision has been made and reverse the course. That needs courage, openness, integrity of the senior leadership, and sets them apart from the regular executives.

Continual learning is the back bone of any product R&D. In the dynamic world, consumer preferences and expectations evolve significantly. In the competitive world, you always stand one step ahead of the consumer. This would happen only if the company's infrastructure and employees skill set are perfectly aligned. You must revolve to keep your company's revenue moving. In this competitive landscape, the only thing that would remain constant is " Change". Change is the need of the market.