How do I plan/manage a large project?

In mid to large size companies, how do new product ideas, business opportunities and research directions, go from just an idea in some low level engineer's head, to an actual project or product? Is it more common for ideas to be "pushed down" from management vs "pushed up" from R&D?

• Answer:

  It depends entirely on the company and the culture - in the massive company that I worked for, the smaller business units were fairly autonomous, and if you were a part of one of those, your ideas could rather quickly be escalated, discussed, and vetted - and often could become "real" projects.  However, in the more "core" business units, there was a very strict "stage-gate" process of proposal and review before anything could be acted upon.  While ideas could come from anywhere, if you didn't have an "executive sponsor" to speak for your project at the higher levels, it wouldn't have any legs at all. Generally speaking, the larger the company, the more bureaucracy you will find, and the more help from executive-level management you're going to need to move something from idea to execution.