Absolutely. I would argue that we invest far too much in R and D. Our universities have become warehouses of innovation. The problem is that we can't get it out. Roughly speaking, about 2% of what is warehoused in universities is actually commercialized. We put very few dollars against the commercialization of what we already have. To me, the balance is way out of whack with respect to what we're spending on R and D and what we're spending on commercialization. Just look at the numbers, look at the success rate, or the lack of a success rate, and, gee, maybe there should be just a little better balance there. That's kind of a “doh” statement, at least from my perspective. You raise an excellent point.
On May 15th, 2008. See this statement in context.