In my last post I talked about Wallace Carothers, the DuPont inventor of Neoprene and Nylon. These inventions created whole new industries. The question is, how did that happen? In 1927, DuPont decided to fund fundamental, pure research: research not deliberately aimed at the development of a money-making product. At the time, Dr. Carothers was an upcoming researcher and instructor of organic chemistry at Harvard University. DuPont executives successfully recruited Carothers and he began working at the DuPont Experimental Station in Wilmington, Delaware in February, 1928. The Experimental Station is responsible for some astonishing breakthrough polymers like Nylon, Neoprene, Teflon® (polytetrafluoroethylene invented in 1938) and Kevlar® (para-aramid synthetic fiber invented in 1965). These novel new polymers lead to the creating of multiple industries and ultimately to new jobs. Think about Bell Labs, IBM Research, Texas Instruments, and others. Decades ago they invested heavily in basic research and their breakthroughs led to new industries.
This brings me to the key question; where are new industries being created today? Mired in the midst of a colossal recession, are companies investing in innovation or hanging-on for dear life? While the profit performance of many companies has been off-the-charts recently (mainly due to cost cutting), there is an alarming slowing of top-line growth. If companies don’t innovate and develop new products, how will they grow the top line? You can’t cut your way to growth. The US lost approximately 7 million jobs in this recession, so where will job growth come from? Clearly, some of the jobs lost will never come back, but where will new industries be created to put people back to work? Alternate energy (solar, wind, and fuel cells) is getting a lot of press. Creation of radical new technology requires a significant investment in time and resources, is not predictable and hard to calculate a ROI (return on investment).
Over the next few weeks I will discuss some of the key issues required for successful innovation. Before we start, let me define innovation. My former employer, National Starch and Chemical, defined innovation as the “Successful Commercialization of Invention.” That’s a pretty good definition since innovation really is the delivery of customer solutions that satisfy unmet needs. Innovation starts with the customer and ends with the customer. The main goal of innovation and product development is to add top-line growth with improved profitability. There is a lot of work in between, but that’s what makes innovation fun and those companies that have invested in innovation are poised to reap the benefits.
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