Retaining talent in R&D is a challenge in the pharma biotech space. Management of research and development is a challenge today while an R&D department is vital to sustain growth of business, opines Dr. Iyer V Sankar, vice president, R&D, Hikal Limited."In order to survive in a competitive scenario, the companies need to provide a free working environment where flexibility of work hours is mandatory to ensure that the staff generate productive work and contribute substantially to the company’s requirements,” he said. He was speaking in his presentation at the first session titled “Current challenges in managing R&D - Building R&D centres of excellence” during the two-day Forum for R&D leaders that is being held in Bangalore. It is important for the management of the company to develop methods for integrating R&D into their business operations as only then they would be able to translate R&D efforts into concrete results and garner substantial revenues from projects. The R&D heads must ensure to establish procedures, nurture a climate that promotes research. In addition, they need to utilise creative talent for the benefit of the company. A world class R&D centre is one where R&D and business managers have the same wave-length, he stated.
