BIG R&D spenders

"A select group of the world’s 1,000 largest corporate R&D spenders perform significantly better than their competitors over a sustained period while spending less on R&D than their industry rivals"
http://www.innovation-america.org/index.php?articleID=243

I thought software industry invests R&D most, but the fact is that auto and pharmaceutical companies are the highest investors.
(However, actually, Microsoft was No.1 last year.)

RANK COMPANY R&D SPENDING HEAD- INDUSTRY R&D/ 2004
(in Millions) QUARTERS % SALES RANK
1 Ford 8,000 U.S. Auto 5 3
2 Pfizer 7,442 U.S. Health 15 2
3 Toyota 7,178 Japan Auto 4 5
4 Daimler-Chrysler 7,019 Germany Auto 4 4
5 General Motors 6,700 U.S. Auto 3 6
6 Siemens 6,546 Germany Industrials 7 7
7 Johnson & Johnson 6,312 U.S. Health 12 10
8 Microsoft 6,184 U.S. Software 16 1
9 IBM 5,842 U.S. Computing 6 9
10 GlaxoSmithKline 5,700 U.K. Health 14 11
11 Samsung 5,428 S.Korea Electronics 7 17
12 Intel 5,145 U.S. Computing 13 12
13 Volkswagen 5,071 Germany Auto 4 13
14 Sanofi-Aventis 5,025 France Health 15 31
15 Matsushita 4,989 Japan Technology 6 8
16 Novartis 4,846 Switz. Health 15 18
17 Nokia 4,753 Finland Electronics 11 15
18 Sony 4,698 Japan Electronics 7 14
19 Roche Holdings 4,578 Switz. Health 16 19
20 Honda 4,508 Japan Auto 5 16
Source: Booz Allen Hamilton Global Innovation 1000

Outrageous Optimism

What is the most important thing for a successful entrepreneur? The answer is today's title, Outrageous Optimism.

I am reading a book, which has the same title and was written by Jack Roseman, who was a professor in Tepper Business School. Actually, the book was one of the reading assignment in Entre class which I took in Mini3, but I hadn't finished reading it yet by the end of Mini3... Thus, on the way and back to Paris, I read this book. It was easy to read and interesting.

Too much eat

Today, I don't feel very good. My stomach was giving me trouble and my wife felt the same thing. Apparently, this is because of too much eating. We were too excited to eat French.

Actually, we took full-course lunches at a small restaurant in St-Germain des Pres yesterday. Then we ate sweet crepes before dinner. In addition we took full-course dinners. Today, we went to the same restaurant in St-Germain des Pres for lunch because that was amazing and I wanted to eat a scallop salad at the restaurant and then we ate a ramen, a Japanese noodle...

When we went to Korea last year, we did the totally same thing. Traveling foreign makes us to eat too much. We have to learn something.

Pittsburgh to Paris

I came to Paris yesterday. I wanted to go to Spain or Brazil because I have been to Paris already. However, my wife is pregnant and she wanted to go to Paris because she was a bread making teacher and she is really interested in cooking. This might be our last trip before giving a birth and thus I prioritized her preference. Anyway, so far, Paris is amazing. Beautiful buildings, people, foods... I cannot eat anymore today.