Corporate R&D plays a critical role in driving new growth opportunities for the company. The process and equipment know-how generated by the R&D team has enabled GT to establish market leadership positions in our key served markets of polysilicon manufacturing, solar PV crystal growth and LED manufacturing. The key to our success is our ability to develop innovative new products and our rapid commercialization of these products. We have successfully competed with low-cost equipment providers because our equipment solutions deliver sustained value to our customers by lowering their cost of ownership. Our product architecture provides our customers with the ability to upgrade their systems to take advantage of performance and productivity improvements in each new generation by a simple upgrade to their existing equipment.
Corporate R&D helps Drive Strategic Development

GT's corporate technology organization is a high functioning team that is focused on evaluating new technology trends that can strengthen GT's position in current markets or open up growth opportunities in new markets. Time-to-market is critical. The R&D team evaluates new technology development that will leverage our core strengths and competencies to preempt a competitor's/copy cats attempt to use technology to disrupt or dislodge GT's market position.Sometimes we try to push the boundaries of the equipment/process envelope to find innovative solutions in a timely manner.

R&D Functional Goals
As a mid-sized company, GT does not have the resources to fund basic research that would lead to commercial success 10 or 20 years down the road. Instead, we focus on applied research that leads to innovative product delivery and revenue creation within a two-five year time horizon. Corporate R&D must listen to customers and understand the dynamics of the markets we serve and how technology adoption drives customer buying decision. The primary areas of focus in the R&D organization are intellectual property generation, deployment of new products,tracking the state of art, advising product groups, advanced hardware/process development, applied research, technology due diligence and technology acquisition, technology transfer from R&D to business units, mentoring the group members across the board, training business unit colleagues on advanced technology, and evolving cost of ownership models.

Time to market is the key for our organization. If internal technology development will take too long to meet a market opportunity, we will look at technologies being developed by universities and other organizations to pursue a faster path to commercial development. Corporate R&D will also support the due diligence process with mergers and acquisitions by evaluating patents, reviewing technical publications, and studying trade data to determine the value of the target company and to rank it against its competitors, and evaluate the synergies between the companies and the impact of integrating diverse technologies. We also support the company's external marketing programs atconferences, trade shows,in trade media, and participate in government, academic, and industry groups where thereare opportunities to promote the company's reputation and to capture valuable market data.

Leadership Roles of the CTO Organization

The CTO leads the technology development and research function within GT. The CTO and the corporate R&D team are a critical technology partner and advisor to GT's business units. Under the leadership of the CTO, the corporate R&D team looks outside the company to understand how promising new technologies can lead to new innovative product design that ultimately deliver value to GT's customers and drive revenue growth for GT. To achieve this level of success, the CTO must play multiple roles within the organization from functional day-to-day management of the R&D team to strategic advisor to senior management and business unit leaders.
Much of the effort that the R&D team brings to its projects ultimately results in delivering a new value-added product to market. These are moments to celebrate the hard work that goes into bringing complex technology to market. But sometimes development efforts do not go forward. It is often a sad situation to stop an ambitious R&D program in order to usethe development funds to achieve a different goal for the benefit of the company. Technology is a dynamic and ever-changing environment and adjusting to changing priorities is criteria for any corporate R&D team. The CTO must lead this change process and work hard to maintain a highly functioning and motivated team. In our organization we successfully handle change management scenarios by creating and communicating the vision, empowering others to act on the vision, establishing a sense of urgency, forming a powerful guiding coalition and consolidating improvements and producing still more change.One of our guiding directives is about protecting the interests of our customers in order to gain their long term confidence and loyalty with GT's products.

Recognition and Appreciation of Service

In today's dynamic technology environment it is critical to retain and mentor our team members. We recognize and motivate our employees through several incentive programs and provide opportunities for them to pursue continued skill development through higher education and other career development programs. Recruiting new team members and mentoring our staff to acquire new skills is at the core of our value system. One example is our GTAT FELLOW program where our most senior scientists and technologists are recognized and allowed to innovate and nurture new concepts while they mentor other team members.

Conclusion

The CTO and the R&D team are vital members of GT's team and play a key role in keeping GT at the forefront of technology leadership. Dynamic market conditions, global macro-economic changes, policy decisions, disruptive technology innovations contribute to the way in which GT's product roadmap evolves. It is important for the CTO organization to come up with new ideas and technologies that drive the GT's growth. As our CEO, Tom Gutierrezmentions, corporate R&D plants the seeds that open new market opportunities.