A major pesticides producer faced pressure to improve the efficiency of its R&D investments. The existing investment decision process, which had been driven almost exclusively by science, had no mechanism for adequately quantifying risk, and had little credibility at the executive level. Gaining agreement on prioritizing development compounds required much time, effort, and emotion, for little value.

SDG helped the client design and implement a process for quantifying the value and risk of widely disparate assets. We also trained client staff to lead, participate in, and use the output of the process.

This process provided management with a basis for setting effective priorities and improving project development plans. The client has since used a similar approach to valuing acquisition and divestiture targets.