Role of Corporate R&D Labs

Some interesting thoughts on the role of corporate R&D labs …
Right after World War II, the government and many leading companies invested heavily in research and development. The results were spectacular. Bell Labs, for example, developed the transistor, Unix, the laser, and information theory. University research, heavily funded by the government, likewise generated breakthroughs, from computers to revolutionary drugs.
But as early as 1970, the innovation flow encountered turbulence. The nation was grappling with stagflation, high unemployment, and stalled productivity, while facing stiff overseas competition, especially from Japan. These bleak circumstances led to the downsizing of most major corporations. But because of credible evidence that an R&D dollar was more productive in a small company than in a large one, interest grew in the entrepreneurial model: startups formed around core innovations and sharply focused on bringing those innovations to market. By the 1990s, after several spectacular successes, this model was attracting increasing supplies of venture capital and other funding.
The rapid spread of entrepreneurial R&D (actually, RD&D, for research, development, and delivery), coupled with downsizing, led to the disappearance of many corporate R&D labs. The ones that remained lost much of their scope. Meanwhile, the startups put their sweat equity and uninhibited creativity into developing and implementing innovation. Entrepreneurs like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs became our heroes and role models.
The analogy that comes to mind is of ants carrying one egg (one innovation) at a time