R&D*

Did you know that Ford is the biggest spender when it comes to R&D? According to Standard and Poor's, they spent $7,400 million US in 2004! On the top ten list were:

1. Ford Motor Co., US
2. Daimlerchrysler AG, Germany
3. Toyota Motor Corp., Japan
4. Pfizer Inc., US
5. General Motors Corp., US
6. Siemens AG, Germany
7. Microsoft Corp., US
8. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Japan
9. Glaxosmithkline PLC, UK
10. Johnson & Johnson, US

Another part of the report that was interesting was the percentage of money spent on R&D compared to sales. With this figure, Nortel Networks Corp. in Canada with 20.3% was first. Nortel was 52nd in the most spenders list. However, Amgen Inc. spent the most per employee, $141, 000 and appeared 49th on the most spenders list. May be that's something to keep an eye on when you are looking for not-boring work!

*I took the data from the table published in the recent IEEE spectrum and I didn't read the article so no liability ...