220 THE PATH OF SCIENCE 



The actual direction of industrial research is a matter of 

 great importance and one on which there is much difference 

 of opinion. The fundamental problems are what researches 

 are to be done, along what lines is work to be started, how 

 long is it to be kept going when the prospects for success 

 look bad, when is loss to be cut and the work abandoned? 

 These problems are at the heart of the whole matter, and the 

 decisions with regard to them constitute the direction of 

 research. 



As business managements have become familiar with the 

 use of science and its importance to industry has increased, 

 manao^ements have tended to become more and more inter- 

 ested in the actual direction of the scientific work. They no 

 long^er feel that the research director can be left to initiate 

 work along the lines that he thinks are likely to be profitable, 

 to exploit his idiosyncrasies, or even to play his "hunches." 

 They consider it necessary to operate the research and de- 

 velopment sections because the future of the business depends 

 upon it. The research director must expect to receive direc- 

 tion and instructions from the management of the company, 

 and must expect to have to justify the plans that he puts for- 

 ward. This tendency is common among almost all the com- 

 panies in which industrial research has been successful. 



As a result of the anxiety of management to supervise the 

 work of the research department, there has arisen a system of 

 control that is sometimes known as the project system. Ac- 

 cording to this, the research manager proposes a plan of re- 

 search divided into a large number of individual projects, to 

 each of which are allocated certain definite funds. This plan 

 is considered by various groups and, finally, by a special com- 

 mittee of the executives of the company assigned to the task, 

 and is approved both in whole and in detail. The work done 

 is reported periodically, and the expenditure on each project 

 is considered in relation to the original allocation of funds for 

 that purpose, new funds being allocated as necessary, and each 

 project being finally closed either as a success or as a failure 



