About
About ResearchParc
The inspiration
Investing in original research is true value creation. Firms and nations step up from importing and repurposing technology to becoming net contributors as they develop. In India too, independent and original research in the private sector is gaining traction and interest. The mission of ResearchParc is to deliver this transformation.
Our inspiration comes from a variety of organisations such as Bell Labs, Xerox PARC, 3M Central Research Lab, Philips NatLab, Bosch Research, and Toyota Central R&D Labs. It's where far-sighted businesses invested in research around uses and capabilities where they operated. The resulting gains, in knowledge, materials, and technologies, over the years helped create real value for customers, shape entire new industries, and build some of the world's most valuable firms.
R&D spend: by Intensity and Business-sector participation.
What research-led firms went on to produce
Years are shown for each country: 2024 for all listed countries except India (2020–21). OECD averages are for 2024. Business share means R&D performed by business enterprises as a share of total national R&D.
Examples include research contributions, technologies and associated company outcomes; attribution does not imply sole invention by a single lab.
Sources: OECD MSTI; DST GoI / NSTMIS; NBS China; Korea MSIT / KISTEP; company histories from Nokia Bell Labs, Xerox PARC, 3M, Philips, Bosch and Toyota.
The context
Corporate research complements the wider and more foundational work done at universities, research institutes and government labs. Since the 1980s, R&D investment by the private sector has started to outpace others across sectors such as chemicals, life sciences, semiconductors, communications, electronics, software, renewable energy, transportation etc. It has become central to national competitiveness, and at our stage of growth, it is a necessity.
The traditional form in which a company's R&D is organised, however, has limitations. Ideally, it will have strategic independence to pursue long-range bets with tactical engagement to monetise gains from time to time. It is centrally consolidated to pool and build on cumulative capabilities, maintain strategic alignment with the company's interests and to secure leadership support necessary for sustained investment over the long horizon.
Our purpose is to create long-range future value for companies through scientific research.
We do that by helping private enterprises, conglomerates and family groups establish their independent corporate research centre and by increasing their investments and efforts in R&D.
We advise clients to ideate the concept, develop the strategy, and build the institution as the cornerstone of their relevance, reputation and legacy.
Our Approach
How we engage with you
Companies routinely face threats from competitors, substitutes, new technologies and changing trends. The common response of improved products, lower costs, increasing capacity or diversification, while offering some respite is ultimately limiting.
We take a different approach. We help companies use research and scientific capabilities to build their future businesses. We do this in four steps: Explore Ideas, Build Capability, Enable Opportunity, and Create Lasting Value.
01
Explore Ideas
What do we know, and where else could it matter?
We work with management and technical teams to bring out what the company knows deeply about its raw materials, processes and products. The knowledge, in the form of scientific properties, process insight, engineering know-how, innovation etc., is less tangible than factories or brands, but is its most strategic asset. The products mature eventually but knowledge can be recast.
We use this understanding to explore scope beyond the company's current business. It includes extended applications, adjacencies, new uses, evolving customer needs, etc., and across a portfolio of strategic options. The research shapes what the company can become tomorrow, not merely improve what it is today.
For this, we employ long-range planning that lends strategic independence whilst having sufficient sphere of action to deploy capital efficiently and extract gains early.
02
Build Capability
What must we build now to pursue these possibilities?
Our approach is to shape an institution and not just build a facility. An institution that is able to generate, absorb and apply new knowledge over successive cycles.
We put together a roadmap for our clients to bring together the necessary ingredients. It spans hard infrastructure, talent, capital, research ecosystem, governance, operating principles, and a culture to explore possibilities of uncertain outcomes for long periods.
Planning ahead is, therefore, vital. It takes time to create genuine research capability. Importantly, it must start early when the core business is healthy and able to invest. The company must pursue multiple scientific pathways in parallel than bank on a single longshot. As some pathways will close and others not immediately viable, how we manage the portfolio becomes the gamechanger.
03
Enable Opportunity
How to move promising research from the lab to the shop floor and markets?
Knowledge is built cumulatively, in a gradual, accretive cycle where deeper scientific understanding opens technical possibilities & new applications. Improved engineering capability and market presence adds scale, changes product economics and uncovers new business areas. Every successive cycle of research to commercialisation builds on and consolidates these gains.
The work beyond the lab is critical for this. We work with clients on the innovation ecosystem on pilots, supplier development, academia & startup partnerships, technology alliances, engagement with early users and industry bodies, and market development.
Not all research programs will follow the same path. Some may improve the current products while others monetise in partnerships and joint ventures, or licensing arrangements. Most, however, go to build the knowledge base to become blockbuster applications not known today. We work with clients to provide promising research the best pathway to realize its potential.
04
Create Lasting Value
How to ensure the capability continues creating value over time?
Corporate research operates over a longer horizon which requires strong processes, tailored analytics, and tactical engagement compared to conventional investments.
We help clients create stage-gate processes and metrics. At an early stage, these could be the body of knowledge created, technical issues addressed, patents and IP registered, partnerships and collaborations signed on. As it advances, we measure the prototype performance, manufacturability, quality, customer response, economics, scalability, and financial returns. This gives management an updated and objective basis to continue or explore alternate development models.
Tactical engagement helps seize on the early signals and insights gained from research and tap into the more immediate benefits of tinkering, knowledge gained, and spin-offs generated.
Our work across these four themes (Explore Ideas, Build Capability, Enable Opportunity, Create Lasting Value) is designed as a proactive response to the inevitable disruption of current business.
Its purpose is to help our clients:
- Keep pace with change by shaping their own technological future
- Build capabilities and create new markets that do not yet exist
- Accumulate intangible capital
- Acquire global reputation and leave behind a legacy
The Corporate R&D is key to this. We help build capability that generates and translates scientific knowledge into future business.
People Involved
Photo placeholder — Kameswara Rao headshot
Kameswara Rao
Founder and Director, ResearchParc
Kameswara (Kami) advised business houses, policy makers and development institutions on large multi-year programs. The work reshaped and restructured many industries, and improved their ability to compete, attract capital, and reliably service customers.
Many of these projects were first-of-its-kind, and required putting together engineering, regulatory, commercial, market factors from first principles. He advised clients on bid response to large projects, led large acquisitions in India and overseas, and helped establish platforms.
Kami was a Partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers and COO of India Advisory Business. He led the national Management Consulting business, GRID SBU (Government & Infrastructure) and was Energy sector leader. He was the Global Relationship Partner for the ADB and a member of the Global Resources sector Leadership and the India Advisory Leadership Group (2011-2025).
Talk to us about your research strategy.
If you're running a private industrial group and wish to shape your future through original research, this is the conversation to have.
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