TEXT D
All R&D executives have two major responsibilities: (1) they must ensure that the company is supplied with technically successful projects, and (2) they must select the most promising schemes and ideas for the expenditure of R&D resources. This work is complicated by numerous uncertainties, inasmuch as commercial research and development must be based on market forecasts.
If R&D management can provide a regular flow of new and updated products, the company will benefit in a number of ways. First of all, it will be able to make full use of expensive departmental resources, development engineering and available marketing capacity. In addition to that, a flow of new market winners will provide the business with steady growth income and profits. This can also be important psychologically, for it is often on this basis that those outside the company assess the quality of its management.
The R&D department's job is made more difficult because of the length of time required to complete its research. In the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, for example, it may take five to ten years before a product is a technical success and a further six to eight years before it reaches full commercial potential.
To achieve results, R&D must define both the areas that should be investigated and the objectives that should be achieved in each area. For this reason, the R&D department must take an interest in all aspects of design, application, efficiency, and use of appropriate materials. There is a difference, however, between the development of new consumer products and the development of new industrial ones. In specific need, and development is tailored to meet it. In many industrial markets, product development is the result of work down in the research laboratory. This work is often aimed at a general need, such as a new kind of medicine or higher operating speeds for machines. When the new industrial project has been developed, its performance can be analyzed in terms of customer needs.
76.How long does it take in some industries before a product achieves full commercial potential?
A. From five to ten years.
B. From six to eight years.
C. From seven to eleven years.
D. From eleven to eighteen years.
77.From the passage, we are told that consumer products are developed to _____.
A. make use of appropriate materials
B. assess the management of a company
C. meet a specific need
D. meet a general need