CREATING A WINNING R&D CULTURE-II

This is the second of two articles describing how a new approach to selecting, training and coaching people helped to improve the effectiveness of new business development at the Dow Chemical Company. Part I explained how key aspects of the approach, called Speed, delivered over $23 billion in cumulative value between 1991 and 2008 from the company's formerly commoditized Polyolefins and Elastomers (PO&E) business. Part II describes the implementation of Speed more broadly in Dow between 2005 and 2007. Dow Automotive R&D, for example, strengthened its culture of creativity significantly in less than one year. In 2007, Dow Performance Plastics and Chemicals business identified and coached six Rainmaker personality types in Business Opportunity Analysis techniques who then identified five breakthrough commercial opportunities with over $3 billion new revenue potential and $2.5 billion net present value. Speed can enable other businesses to also achieve the "Holy Grail" of strategy by enabling a firm to be both low-cost (with those parts of the business led by genetically-inclined Finishers), and innovative (with those parts of the business led by genetically-inclined Starters.)