There is more than one patent office in World. There are at least two websites that offer anyone chance to do a net search for patents. Taking an hour and using these resources can save a company millions of dollars.

Bankruptcy Technology

As DotCom Bubble Burst proves, most High Tech companies spending scare resources on R&D go broke. It's worth time and effort to see who has filed for bankruptcy. If they have nearly developed technology your firm needs, it will cost you pennies on dollar to own it.

Competitor's Technology

Let your competitor spend money for R&D. If they succeed in developing it, buy their company.

The SLAC Paradox

My mantra of Do An Extensive Literature Search Before R&D appeals to High Tech Company CFOs. The company's engineers usually oppose it. This conflict tends to create what I call SLAC Paradox. When U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) offered funding to Stanford University for a Linear Accelerator, Government wanted to spend least possible amount of money for High Tech project. An abandoned mine was found in Washington State that exactly met technical requirements for project. Using Washington State mine would have saved DOE nearly 90% of costs of developing Linear Accelerator. None of Stanford Physicists wanted to move to Washington State. The Physicists developed a complex set of invalid technical arguments against Washington Mine and DOE paid tenfold to build Stanford Linear Accelerator Complex (SLAC) on Stanford campus in California.

Sales Not Research is Goal of Business

The question is not will a literature search result in finding best technology in world. The question is will this low cost technology that was found in a literature search meet our needs and allow us to sell our new product? If answer is "yes," use low cost technology. Forget R&D.

To contact author: Visit Beowulf Investments website: [http://home.earthlink.net/~beowulfinvestments/] Or, visit Global Village Investment Club Website: [http://home.earthlink.net/~beowulfinvestments/globalvillageinvestmentclubwelcome/]

To breakeven on a US$100 taxable investment, you must earn US$10 in interest. State and Federal income taxes reduce your profit to US$6 for year. The US$106 will buy same amount of goods and services, as did US$100 a year earlier. That will be an actual breakeven, not a profitable investment.

Many limited-risk cash investments do not meet breakeven test. U.S. Passbook Bank Account interest rates are a prime example of an annual losing investment strategy against inflation and taxes.

Cash is a Position and a Good Measure of Risk/Reward

What you can earn with limited risk cash investments is a good guide to what ROI you should expect from high-risk investments. Here are a few current examples of limited risk cash positions.

1. Cash invested in a 401k Retirement Plan. It's in mutual funds operated by a major U.S. Insurance Company. The ROI is subject to deferred taxes. Current annual ROI is 22%

2. U.S. Dollar accounts in European Banks are paying between 11% and 15%. All these banks survived 1929 Crash and, later, 10,000+ bank failures of 1932.

3. Short selling OTCBB stocks has paid about a 32% tax free ROI for past decade. With a 98+% failure rate of OTCBB companies, there is less than a 2% risk of failure in such short sales. And there are ways to mitigate that risk to well under 2% risk. The potential reward is 100% and usually takes less than three years to achieve. However, you do need a significant cash reserve position to begin this investment game.

4. California Real Estate has shown a consistent 20% annual appreciation for past several years. When you put 20% down on a property, your annual ROI is 100%.

The GVIC ROI

The Global Village Investment Club (GVIC) risk is less than that of OTCBB short selling. If you assume GVIC member's profit is taken in 5.5 years, ROI is 100%/year.

Risk/Reward

You can usually determine risk of any investment by knowing failure rate of firms in that industry. Conservative investments like municipal bonds have low annual failure rates. Speculative Investments, like commodities and futures trading, have high failure rates. Once you know risk, you must adjust reward by inflation and taxes to find breakeven point for investment.

Many conservative investments are bad investments. Most high-risk investments are bad investments. If more investors viewed ROI as a favorable Risk/Reward ratio, there would be fewer wealthy people dying broke. And far fewer middle income people making terrible "bets" on stock markets.

To contact author: Visit Beowulf Investments website: [http://home.earthlink.net/~beowulfinvestments/] Or, visit Global Village Investment Club Website: [http://home.earthlink.net/~beowulfinvestments/globalvillageinvestmentclubwelcome/]