01 Align with the Company’s Strategy and Objectives

The R&D Director, as the first person responsible for the department, must first undertake the company’s strategy and objectives.

Based on the company’s strategic direction and overall goals, the R&D Director should develop practical and achievable departmental plans and objectives, ensuring that the department’s development direction remains aligned with the company’s overall strategic layout.

The R&D Director is the primary person responsible for departmental performance evaluation.

02 Build an Effective Departmental Organizational Structure

To achieve departmental objectives, the R&D Director should establish a reasonable organizational structure to support the implementation of the department’s strategy and goals.

Within the organizational structure, different roles should take responsibility for different key tasks: some people ensure contract signing, some are responsible for delivery, and others focus on future product development.

Therefore, under the R&D Director, it is recommended to establish three Deputy Director positions:

Deputy Director of Pre-sales;

Deputy Director of Delivery;

Deputy Director of R&D.

For deputy directors, senior engineers, project managers, assistants, and other key positions, the company should implement the “Six Definitions”:

Define positions;

Define responsibilities;

Define objectives;

Define plans;

Define solutions;

Define incentives.

Just as steel plants have technical directors, production directors, equipment directors, department heads, and supervisors, a company cannot rely solely on the general manager to accomplish everything. Instead, the entire management system should share responsibilities, achieve goals together, and jointly undertake performance evaluation.

03 Select People Based on Positions

According to the responsibilities and requirements of each position, the department should select suitable candidates internally or recruit externally, placing the right people in the right roles.

For example:

Employee A has flexible thinking and strong communication skills, making them suitable for pre-sales work.

Employee B has comprehensive technical capabilities and strong professional skills, making them suitable for the position of R&D Director.

The principle of “selecting people based on positions” should be followed, allowing employees to maximize their strengths in suitable roles.

04 Establish Departmental Systems and Processes

The organizational structure exists to achieve the company’s strategy and objectives.

However, without systematic processes and management systems, the organizational structure would become merely an empty framework.

The department should establish:

R&D management processes;

Quality management processes;

Cost control processes;

Technical communication processes;

Installation, commissioning, and acceptance processes;

Customer delivery processes;

Talent development processes;

Cross-department communication processes.

We should learn from Huawei’s “Iron Triangle” model, with a particular focus on learning its process management system.

The organizational structure is the “skin,” while processes and systems are the “hair.”

As the saying goes: “When the skin does not exist, where can the hair attach?”

Only through the coordination of organizational structure and management processes can the company’s objectives and strategies be effectively achieved.

05 Select Project Managers and Product Managers

Different types of products require different types of project managers and product managers.

Products should be classified into:

Mature products;

Completely new products;

Semi-new products.

Different objectives and evaluation standards should be established for each category.

Why has our project manager selection process been relatively inconsistent?

Because we have applied the same selection criteria and evaluation standards to three completely different types of projects.

For different product categories, we should select project managers and product managers with different characteristics and capabilities.

06 Continuous Innovation

The R&D Director should develop plans for new product development and technological upgrades of existing products according to departmental strategies.

The company should respect and recruit technical experts, cultivate and promote employees with innovation capabilities, and encourage everyone in the department to pursue bold innovation.

Every year, the department should launch new products that meet customers’ latest needs, continuously upgrade existing products, improve departmental performance and employee income, and maintain strong competitiveness and innovation vitality.

07 Implement Layered Management for Experienced Employees, Core Employees, and New Employees

Experienced Employees:

They possess rich experience.

On one hand, the company should fully utilize their experience advantages; on the other hand, it should strengthen their sense of responsibility and reignite their passion and motivation.

Core Employees:

Employees who have worked in the company for 2–3 years should become the backbone of the department.

They should receive focused training and be provided with opportunities for career development.

New Employees:

For employees who have been with the company for less than one year, the department should establish a systematic annual development plan, including:

Onboarding training;

Mentor guidance;

Skill development;

Professional quality training.

Their growth should be reviewed according to planned milestones.

Employees with outstanding performance should receive promotion and salary increases.

Employees who fail to meet expectations should receive support and guidance, while those lacking responsibility should be eliminated, ensuring the department maintains vitality and competitiveness.

08 Establish and Improve the Incentive System

be designed based on project management processes. It is a key factor in motivating employees’ enthusiasm and creativity.

The evaluation criteria should include:

The completion rate of key milestones in the R&D process;

The final results achieved by projects;

Employees’ work attitude and contribution.

The establishment of an incentive system should follow the principle of fairness:

Do not let hardworking people be disappointed;

Do not let honest employees suffer losses;

Do not allow opportunists to gain advantages;

Do not reward those who simply make the most noise.

The company should comprehensively evaluate the contributions of directors, deputy directors, project managers, and team members, and distribute bonuses fairly and objectively.

This ensures that employees’ efforts are matched with corresponding rewards, creating a positive and competitive working environment.

The gap between rewards should be appropriately increased, with incentives tilted toward outstanding employees.

A larger reward gap reflects stronger competitiveness within the department.

A healthy and sustainable organization requires a continuous flow of talent in and out, maintaining a reasonable dynamic balance.

A department should not become like a Pixiu (a mythical creature believed to only absorb wealth but never release it), where employees only enter but never leave.

10 Establish a Fair Evaluation System and Continuously Improve It

In addition to achieving company strategies and objectives, building organizational structures, establishing management teams, completing tasks with quality and efficiency, and developing systems and processes, the R&D Director has another important responsibility:

Establishing a fair evaluation system and continuously improving it.

We should learn from Huawei Basic Law:

“Establish a fair and objective value evaluation system and continuously improve it, so that the value distribution system becomes fundamentally reasonable. The ultimate criteria for evaluating whether value distribution is reasonable are the company’s competitiveness and achievements, as well as employees’ morale and sense of belonging.”

The R&D Director should not view employee evaluation merely as a basis for salary increases.

It is directly related to the company’s competitiveness and achievements.

Different departments have different characteristics, so salary evaluation cannot follow a one-size-fits-all approach.

Each department should establish its own unique salary evaluation system.

Through communication and experience sharing among departments, companies can integrate advanced ideas and methods, learn from each other’s strengths, and ultimately build diverse and effective evaluation systems to support sustainable development.

11 Communication and Coordination

The R&D Director should take the lead in communication and coordination, cultivate employees’ communication awareness, improve communication skills, and enhance departmental efficiency.

Communication includes:

Internal departmental communication;

Communication with senior management;

Communication with subordinates;

Cross-department communication;

Communication with customers.

12 Strengthen Employee Belonging Through Welfare and Care

The three major components of an enterprise compensation system are:

Salary;

Bonuses;

Benefits.

Employee welfare is also an important way to strengthen employees’ sense of belonging.

Welfare is not only material support, but also a symbol of collective honor and belonging.

For example, awarding experienced employees with honorary titles such as:

“Role Model of Lei Feng Spirit”;

“Outstanding Contributor”.

Such recognition strengthens employees’ identification with the company, enhances their sense of belonging, and improves departmental cohesion.

13 Promote Employee Learning and Growth

The R&D Director should lead employees to continuously learn new technologies and lean management methods through various approaches, including:

Training;

Reading;

Knowledge sharing;

Project reviews.

These activities help improve employees’ professional skills and overall capabilities.

Through learning and training, employees can achieve comprehensive improvement in multiple areas:

Awareness;

Behavior;

Work habits;

Capabilities;

Skills;

Knowledge level;

Judgment ability;

Overall quality;

Multi-skilled capabilities.

14 Department Team Building and Culture Development

Team-building activities are an important part of cultural development.

They can strengthen emotional connections among employees and improve teamwork.

The R&D Director can organize activities such as:

Outdoor team-building events;

Group dinners and barbecues;

May Day themed activities;

Family participation activities during Children’s Day.

Through these activities, the company can communicate management philosophy, strategic direction, and important corporate developments.

They also encourage innovation, boost morale, demonstrate the company’s promising future, inspire employees to overcome challenges, strengthen their sense of ownership and responsibility, and help employees’ families feel connected with the company.

Under the guidance of a unified corporate culture, employees can work toward the same vision with shared commitment and effort, driving sustainable development of the company.

15 Employee Departure Management: Caring for Former Employees

Former employees are an important part of the company’s talent ecosystem.

Paying attention to employees’ reasons for leaving, career development after departure, and feedback about the company is also a reflection of corporate competitiveness and employee belonging.

True employee belonging means that even after leaving the company, employees still speak positively about the organization and feel proud of having worked at RAMON.

The numerous likes and comments from former employees on my Douyin and WeChat public accounts are strong evidence:

“I once worked at RAMON. It was a great company, the leader was outstanding, and I am proud of that experience.”

Even employees’ family members actively share their recognition of RAMON’s strength and leadership.

Many former employees have returned to the RAMON family after one year.

The recognition from former employees and their families is the best demonstration of RAMON’s unique warmth and strong organizational cohesion.

With the R&D Director’s job responsibility description in place, it becomes much easier to define the responsibilities of deputy directors, senior engineers, project managers, assistants, and other positions within the R&D department. The only requirement is to break down the responsibilities of the R&D Director into specific roles.

The job responsibility descriptions of other departments can also be developed by referring to this framework.

The fifteen major responsibilities of the R&D Director are closely connected and mutually supportive, together forming a complete and integrated management system.

Only by systematically and comprehensively managing every aspect can the company build a department that operates efficiently, remains energetic, and maintains strong competitiveness, providing solid support for achieving corporate strategies and objectives and ensuring long-term, stable development.