Turning Grand Challenges into big markets

Its more formal, official name is the Corporate Discovery Campaign, but pressure cooker seems a more apt way to describe what happens when five or so staff from the Business & Technology Incubator and 10-15 members of departments including finance, manufacturing and marketing are brought together for 10 intensive weeks. Their task is to brainstorm ideas on a theme - or megatrend to use Dow Corning’s preferred term - selected by the company’s Executive Council.

“They’re put in a pressure cooker for 10 weeks to look at a megatrend, consider how society is viewing it, and ask ‘Is there anything we can do to mitigate the problems associated with this megatrend?’” Futter, Vice-President of the Business & Technology Incubator, tells me in a telephone interview from his Midland, Michigan office.

As a company that specialises in silicon-based technology, Dow Corning’s products are used in a wide range of applications, such as solar cell manufacturing, building insulation and thermal heat management for computers and other electronic devices. The topics tackled since the biannual Corporate Discovery campaigns were launched in early 2008, are urbanisation, renewable energy, water savings, ageing society and climate change.

While some sessions ultimately lead to marketable products, others fail to unleash the next big idea. One where the results were more modest was the ageing population session, which yielded, “Lots of small mitigating factors but not something that’s going to make a massive difference,” Futter said.

The head of the Business & Technology Incubator accepts that you’re not always going to be able to identify a “big and profound” solution, even though “the problems are always profound.”

And when you do hit on a brilliant idea, it takes time to bring to fruition. The whole process can take anything from 3-5 years to 10-15 years, Futter said, pointing out that it’s not just the time needed for Dow Corning’s research and development but also external factors such as securing approvals, registering products, or waiting for technologies to catch on and be accepted by society.

One idea that is moving along quickly emerged from the urbanisation session of autumn 2008. With more people moving to live in cities and legislation demanding that buildings meet greener standards, the group focused on how to reduce the energy consumption of buildings without having to use thick insulation-filled walls, given that space is particularly valuable in urban areas. The result was new thin insulation products that Dow Corning is currently testing.

Analysing the big challenges facing society is not just driven by a desire for a sustainable planet. It’s also economically attractive, Futter says. As governments define the policy areas that will be key in the future, it makes sense for industry to be looking to these fields as sources of income.

Solar technology is one area where Dow Corning prides itself on for having made significant advances. In the past five years, the company has announced investments of more than €4 billion to research, develop and expand the production of materials critical to the solar power industry. As a result of the company’s involvement, CEO Stephanie Burns is one of several industry executives to have met US President Barack Obama to discuss renewable energy policy. Burns and Dow Corning executives have also taken part in other discussions on solar energy policy with government officials.

There is “a massive catch-up” happening in the US under the Obama administration in the area of renewable energy and energy efficiency, said Futter, with a, “Chance of the US catching up and possibly overtaking Europe.”

Governments can play a big role in helping new technologies to take hold and establish themselves, Futter said. “Brand-new technology needs support. Renewable energy for example is competing with something that has been around for a hundred years,” he said. He points to tax incentives at an R&D level, as well as helping to bring consortia together as ways that governments can support industry.

“No-one wants to lose in establishing the most competitive framework in their region for generating and saving energy. It will be a defining field of policy for most of the world in - the next 20 years would be too short-term - probably in the next 50 years,” he said.

Futter moved to Dow Corning from Exxon 16 years ago, in order to make business development something he did “every day rather than occasionally.” He gets very excited talking about how improving the storage capacity of lithium-ion batteries used in hybrid and electric vehicles, could be the next big thing and how technology can make renewable sources more cost-effective and reduce energy consumption in all areas of life.

But then again this is the man who, given his energy for R&D and sustainability, considers himself to have, “the pinnacle job” in the company. There’s so much “corporate passion” for the Business & Technology Incubator, he says, joking that even the CEO had said to him that the one other job she’d like to do would be his. He’d better keep the ideas rolling.