Even though the title of the article sounds a bit weird, there are some interesting issues there: Best-kept secrets of the world's best companies. Especially the "best practices" in R&D, I found those two interesting:

IDEO: the "tech box," a freezer-size chest of drawers in each of its seven offices around the world. Inside each is the same library of up to 2,000 gadgets, materials, textiles, and artifacts that keep the creative gears of Ideo designers in constant motion. (...) "It's not a typical lending library," says Ideo designer Dennis Boyle, one of the company's principals and co-creator of the tech box along with Rickson Sun, Ideo's chief technologist. "People will pick out 20 items and bring them to a brainstorming session. We use the tech box to cross-pollinate every new project.

Corning: A few times a year, the company runs half-day brainstorm sessions at its New York headquarters to kick off the quest for innovations. First, managers from a special marketing group--a 15-person unit tasked with identifying $500 million-plus business opportunities--gather for several hours to listen to outside experts, from renewable-energy gurus to nanotech engineers.
The group then breaks into teams of five, each assigned to drum up ideas related to the talk. After that, the most promising ideas are handed off to teams of two employees: one with a marketing background, the other with technical expertise.

Why do I blog this? I find interesting these ideas about enhancing the R&D process.