Think DIF this Earth Day

Editor's Notes

1. Slide 1: Catexel exists to find and deliver cleaner, faster and safer ways of working, for industry. Our science has helped remove potential carcinogenic substances, save water, reserve energy and replace bleach. In other words, through enabling chemistry we make positive change possible.   In November 2016 we were privileged to be invited to take part in The Disruptive Innovation Festival (DIF). An initiative aligned with Ellen McArthur’s circular economy foundation. This Earth Day (22nd April 2017) we want to take the opportunity to revisit some of the themes discussed during that session. Helping heavy industry to explore an alternate viewpoint that could lead to operationally and commercially viable solutions that support a more sustainable future for us all.
2. Slide 2: Earth Day is a long-standing global, educational movement that aims to put a spotlight on the ways in which individuals can help counteract the ever present climate change threat. But how can heavy industry take this ‘big picture’ thinking and make it work at a practical level? The onus is on all organisations to take a robust sustainability stance but in capital intensive arenas – with stringent regulatory policies in place - making positive change possible relies on many different parameters.   Here we seek to breakdown the thought barriers that so often prevent industries involved in areas like pharmaceuticals, speciality chemicals and food and beverage processing from achieving their environmental aspirations. By presenting paths that can avoid systemreset and lead to systemic change in a more manageable way…
3. Slide 3: So often the stimulus for step change can come from the most surprising sources. Wider reading on topics outside of your expertise, for example, could trigger that ‘lightbulb moment’ – as well as careful observation both inside and outside of your industry.   Indeed, the most successful R&D managers tap into external thinking, networks and collaborations to create the opportunity to see things differently, which can lead to illuminating revelations and new directions. Looking to parallel industries and even completely unrelated disciplines can help determine a route that was there all along but that research teams were just too close to unravelling the problem to see.
4. Slide 4: Read-across is a powerful lateral thinking tool and taking inspiration from other sectors can be a shortcut to success. Just as biomimicry celebrates solutions borne from studying nature, there is an art to interrogating other areas and seeing a plausible link – be it a chain reaction, ingenious load-bearing structure or emissions saving technology. Finding and fine-tuning solutions for alternative applications is innovation at its commercial best – resourceful. At Catexel, we call this methodology of building on scientific and commercial success in other areas, ‘circular innovation’. In Summer 2016’s MIT Sloan Management Review a new paper was published that mirrors a very similar ethos - talking about taking a lower-risk, lily pad approach to innovation that applies especially to IP-rich, heavily regulated and capital intensive industries. The lily pad strategy encourages innovators to explore links between their current capabilities and solutions to the needs of potential users of other applications who are ready to adopt them. The article explores how, by looking beyond what’s in front of you, it is possible to make lateral leaps to achieve disruptive innovation. Their thinking presents an alternative to investing everything into a single ‘moonshot’ application – realising that evolution over revolution is often more realistic in certain sectors. Finding a lower risk path to high impact innovations – Joseph V.Sinfield & Freddy Solis (published in the Summer 2016 issue of MIT Sloan Management Review magazine)
5. Slide 5: The coatings sector is a case-in-point. Only by spotting a link between the bleaching of tomato-oil stains and the mechanism of alkyd paint drying were we able to answer the industry’s ongoing cobalt replacement challenge. Today, we’re working alongside the wider supply chain to devise and optimise so-called ‘disruptive’ technologies to give the sector more options in the face of regulatory reform – a potentially game-changing initiative inspired by spaghetti sauce.   Similarly, another example of cross over between different applications is the realisation, after reading papers on using catalysts to form chlorine dioxide from chlorite as an alternative way to produce chlorine dioxide, that our catalysts could also be used in situ together with the substrate that needs to be oxidised.   Valuable insights gathered from investigating this track have opened up new, much wider opportunities within water treatment. With two new patents to protect our activities in this area - and other anti-microbial applications too – water is about to become a key strategic focus for Catexel and the water saving and water treatment possibilities this presents could represent a huge breakthrough for a broad set of industries.
6. Slide 6: Our own journey, driven by lateral thinking and encapsulated in our “Circular Innovation” model, is a perfect example of how, by linking new technology platforms with market opportunities through a series of seemingly small but game-changing developments, positive change is possible.   Without thinking differently about the suite of assets at Catexel’s disposal, we would never have got beyond using bleaching catalysts for detergent and cleaning applications, for example. Laundry led us to exploring other opportunities within cellulosic substrates, which led us to developing a low temperature bleaching technology for the textiles industry – a platform that fundamentally changed the treatment of raw cotton. And one that is proven to result in significant energy and water savings, reduces chemical load and processing time and delivers secondary benefits for the end product.
7. Slide 7: But it’s not just having the ideas; it’s crucial from an R&D perspective that these ideas go on to succeed – and ultimately, translate into a commercial context – as our low temperature bleaching technology has done in the world’s textile mills.   Building, understanding and leveraging an effective ecosystem is an important step in avoiding #systemreset: an inconceivable prospect, on many levels, for capital intensive, IP rich and heavily regulated industries.   To this end, input from inside and outside any organisation is important for fertilising market-ready ideas and finding focus. Risk assessment is a critical part of R&D strategy and it should involve a range of stakeholders – not just the core research team – to ensure a more objective view. Bridging the gap between technical and commercial departments informs more rounded decisions and helps determine earlier on in the process if a platform has future scope from a scientific and operational perspective.   Graduates too bring new thinking to the fore. Dismissing new entrants on the grounds of inexperience is exceptionally short-sighted. While organisations will seek advice from academia and customers as a matter of course – getting input from the wider team into the decision making process is also vital.   Indeed, fast-track strategies for successful R&D outputs rely on a readiness to involve others and a willingness to put ego aside – always remembering, in Kenneth H. Blanchard’s words, that “none of us is as smart as all of us”.
8. Slide 8: System reset: the act of changing the way we think, live, organise society and do business, to ultimately lead to a more regenerative economy.   The Disruptive Innovative Festival’s (DIF) definition of system reset is inspirational, but not always obtainable for heavy industries. As part of our open mic session for the event, we discussed how some sectors simply have to take a different approach to innovation.   Here, we use our experience to highlight five lessons learned for implementing game-changing technology while avoiding system reset:   Speed Build, don’t ‘bolt’! Being first to market can be an attractive proposition to have the competitive point of difference in the short term, but longer term, higher impact long lasting solutions are often the result of a series of sequential gains, achieved through small steps instead.   Focus While it sounds like strange advice, focusing on failure as much as success can be helpful in finding the right innovative technology. It’s not just about being able to spot opportunities, you need to know the best time to stop investing in ideas, as persisting along the wrong path could be counter-productive, especially in terms of the mis-deployment of limited resources.   Flexibility Stay flexible, both in terms of resourcing and choice of route to market. Technical, intellectual property and regulatory considerations can vary between territories, so looking at this early on in the innovation process will ensure freedom to operate.   Plan B Make sure to have a contingency plan. Inevitably, it will take you twice as long, and cost twice as much as you think, but persevere (with the right idea) and the returns could be twice as great.   Collaboration Accept that you can’t know everything and invite outside support to offer further ideas. Have an open mind and establish a strong ecosystem, whether it’s academic research, investors or institutions to partner with and springboard ideas. At Catexel our IP is our greatest asset but our strength is in the ecosystem that surrounds us.
9. Slide 9: Being a disruptive innovator means staying ahead of the game by seeing things others simply don’t see. How? By building an effective ecosystem with a team of lateral thinkers at its core. Without investment in R&D, it is impossible to be truly future focused. Tools for scouting technologies are only as good as the quality of the input and that rests with working with the right people, with the right aptitude, with the right knowledge to find, progress and even quash ideas.   Affecting real change requires an ongoing commitment to R&D that covers both short term and longer term objectives. Clever R&D strategies find a way to feed a pipeline that spans both ends of the spectrum. Working on the basis that it typically takes one-to-two years to implement a so-called “drop-in” solution and anywhere between three-to-five years when reprocessing is the only answer, organisations operating in heavy industry simply can’t afford to take a stop-start approach.
10. Slide 10: To conclude, science can support in finding socially responsible ways forward that are both cost acceptable and operationally viable. Strategies that avoid #systemreset and the huge disruption and expense this can incur are the optimum answer. But arriving at a resolution takes short, medium and long-term innovation. Google may be going for the ‘moonshot’ but innovation in slower paced pockets of industry is more likely to occur by linking together a series of smaller but significant breakthroughs that build toward the ‘optimum answer’. It’s time to think differently and Earth Day is an opportunity to recognise the constraints that so many corporates face so that, together, we can overcome them.