Capability Models
Research and Development Business Capabilities Model
A 200+ capability, industry-neutral R&D model — idea/portfolio management, stage-gate development, IP protection, technology scouting — the same structure whether R&D means drugs, chips, or jet engines.
What this capability model is for
A capability model lists what a business does, separate from who does it and which systems support it. Because it changes less often than the org chart or the application estate, it gives strategy, architecture and finance one map to plan against.
Teams use it to scope a transformation, to check which capabilities each application supports and where two overlap, to assign costs and owners, and to plan the integration after a merger.
It pairs with the buyer guide Product Lifecycle Management (PLM).
About This Capability Model
A detailed, multi-level capability map for the Research and Development sector, covering 200+ business capabilities organized across three hierarchical levels. R&D looks completely different on the surface at a pharmaceutical company, a chipmaker, and an industrial manufacturer, but idea management, stage-gate development, and IP protection are the same underlying capabilities in all three — this model is built at that level, not any single industry's version of it.
Why a capability model, not a prompt
A generic AI prompt for "R&D capabilities" tends to fail in one of two specific ways. Either it stays so generic — "research," "development," "testing" — that it's useless as a planning tool, or it unconsciously imports one industry's R&D process and presents it as universal: ask with any pharma context nearby and you'll often get a clinical-trial-phase structure (preclinical, Phase I-III, regulatory submission) that has nothing to do with a chipmaker's silicon design cycle or a consumer-goods company's formulation and testing process. What's actually industry-neutral sits one level up from the science: idea and portfolio management (capturing, scoring, and funding R&D bets), stage-gate development (moving a concept through defined go/no-go decision points), technology scouting and IP protection (finding external innovation and defending what you build), and R&D resource and budget allocation. Those capabilities are structurally identical whether the output is a drug, a chip, or a jet engine, even though the underlying science and gate criteria differ completely. This model is built at that industry-neutral layer on purpose, so a technology company and a pharmaceutical company can plan against the same capability structure without either one importing the other's process by accident.
What's Inside
- Capability Map — 200+ capabilities across Level 1 (strategic), Level 2 (tactical), and Level 3 (operational), in PowerPoint, Word, and Excel
- Capability Definitions — Clear descriptions at the most granular level for consistent interpretation
- Capability KPIs — Measurable indicators at Level 2 to assess maturity and performance
How Teams Use It
- Baseline idea-to-launch portfolio and stage-gate maturity before an R&D operating-model redesign or portfolio-management (PPM) platform selection
- Scope an innovation-management or R&D PPM RFP against actual portfolio and gate capabilities instead of a vendor's feature list
- Give R&D, legal/IP, and corporate strategy a shared vocabulary for technology scouting, in-licensing, and IP protection decisions
- Apply one consistent capability structure across business units or acquired companies that span different industries and different R&D processes
Who It's For
R&D and innovation leaders, chief technology officers, portfolio and stage-gate program managers, IP and technology-transfer teams, and enterprise architects standardizing R&D capability models across business units or industries.