DuPont Senior Vice President and Chief Science and Technology Officer Tom Connelly sat down recently and spoke about what he means when he says, "Integrated Science." It's an in-depth, insightful look at how we are leveraging our strengths to continue growing into the future.
DuPont has tremendous strengths. One that distinguishes us from other technology companies is the breadth of our involvement in, literally, everything from biology to traditional materials science to electronics and related applications. More and more we're recognizing that new opportunities are going to come at the interfaces of these technologies. Historically DuPont has been based in chemicals and materials and the related disciplines. For us, Integrated Science means adding biology capabilities to our traditional strengths. I stress that we're adding biology. It's not a question of trading our position in chemicals and materials for biology. It's bringing on that additional capability and then looking for opportunities where more than one science comes together. That's where we'll find our future opportunities.
Impact on Sustainable Growth:
Future opportunities don't necessarily come where you found your last opportunities. The discovery process requires us to look in new areas in order to grow.
Breakthroughs in chemistry and materials science characterize most of our 20th Century. And, we will continue to grow and prosper in those areas in the 21st Century. But, it is time to add new dimensions to what we do. That's where biology comes in. We'll look for opportunities where our capability in biology branches into our strength in materials and electronics. We will look for discontinuous, breakthrough-type technologies.
Sustainable growth has three dimensions. The environmental component – producing environment friendly products using safe technology. The market sense – producing differentiated products to compete in the market. And, the economic component – earn economic return so we can invest anew.
I see a need for technology in each of them. I see plenty of opportunities for Integrated Science to play out in our sustainable growth.
How is R&D Changing:
Number one, our R&D efforts are going to emphasize moving our technology capabilities closer to the marketplace. For this, there are two reasons. The first is answering the needs of our customers; the second is to better access the commercialization process. Being closer to market will help choose more relevant research topics for our efforts. It will speed getting ideas out of the lab and into the marketplace.
Our second focus will be getting faster. The best way to increase productivity is to reduce the time from conception to commercialization. Speed drives R&D productivity. We'll be working hard to streamline our innovation process.
The third focus is a more collaborative approach to research. Our largest and most visible example of this approach is our alliance with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the area of bio-based materials. We already have a number of smaller, but equally important, academic collaborations underway to develop new technologies. We will partner with people in our industries to develop technology, but also to commercialize products. We will work with customers to develop technology in downstream collaborations. We will be involved in government partnerships-certainly in semiconductors and biology.
Lastly, we will focus on being globalized. We serve a global customer base. We need to be able to understand and meet their needs. We ought to have an appropriate global presence for R&D facilities. We have to have global thinkers. We'll work on the most urgent global needs, not just those in the country where the researcher or lab is.
When you bring together a market need with world-class science you create opportunities for growth and profitability. Market need is the way we'll be going.
