Lab management would suffer without the multiple perspectives and experiences afforded by a diverse workforce. The key to innovation, in economic terms, resides inside the heads of peoplethe more diverse the better.

Laboratory managers and team leaders, because of their knowledge of how research on a project unfolds, often play critical roles in deciding inventorship issues. Correct inventorship has to be considered whenever one or more of your staff members submit an invention disclosure to be considered for filing as a patent application.

Staff reductions and corporate restructuring frequently result in fragmentation of high-performance work teams. Because they are often a cost-effective means of accomplishing corporate goals, some of these teams need to be reconstructed.

Instituting economical ways to save electricity could save about three quarters of the electricity consumed in the U.S. at an average cost of about one cent per kilowatt-hour, according to Amory Lovins, chairman and chief scientist of Rocky Mountain Institute.

Today's laboratory workforce includes an increasing number of scientists, engineers and technicians for whom English is a second language. Writing in a second language poses challenges for them. How can laboratory managers help these professionals improve their written communication skills?

“Invention and innovation are quite different things,” declares John Dr. Lienhard. To promote invention, a lab manager has to devise methods of instilling a sense of freedom in the research staff.

Research skills are only part–albeit a critical part–of what lab managers need to succeed. Fortunately, scientists are learners and as such can put this skill to work in developing management techniques and tools to run their labs as businesses.

A new trend in product introduction matches technical needs with technical solutions from external sources.

Employing contingent workers offers laboratories staffing flexibility without long-term commitments.

Companies that do a better job of attracting developing, and retaining their talent can boost their performance dramatically.

It is becoming increasingly expensive to both obtain patents and defend them in lawsuits should the need arise. An alternative is protecting your right to commercialize an invention through the strategy of defensive publications.