When the rubber hits the road: IP analysis of eco-friendly car tyres

The automotive industry is going green. Diesel engines, once hailed as the “clean” alternative to petrol, are falling out of favour—so much so that the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reports that diesel car sales fell by 37% in March 2018, compared with March 2017.

PWC predicts that electric and hybrid vehicles will account for 58% of all new car sales in Europe, the USA and China by 2025. But the negative environmental impact of the automotive industry isn’t limited to the fuels which power the vehicles —the manufacturing process itself is extremely resource-intensive. Scientific American reports that it can take 15 to 38 litres of petroleum to produce a single tyre. As well as the significant petroleum content of rubber tyres, most commercially produced tyres contain natural rubber from Hevea Brasiliensis, commonly known as the rubber tree.

The rubber tree is native to rainforests in South America, but importing this raw material from Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia creates a significant carbon footprint, and represents a serious supply chain risk. In the event of war or natural disaster, some manufacturers could find themselves without a viable supply of natural rubber.

They say necessity is the mother of invention and a glance at the patent data relating to natural rubber reveals a strong current of patent activity. In particular, it seems that many of the major players in the tyre industry are paying close attention to a plant which may give them the ability to source natural rubber in the United States—Guayule, formally known as Parthenium Argentatum, is a flowering shrub which is part of the Aster family.

Patent activity trend
The graph below shows that patent filing activity in relation to Guayule has been growing more or less every year, over the last 20 years—application rates even doubled between 2011 and 2013. Looking at global filing trends, we can see that nearly half (47.7%) of patents filed in this technology space were in the USA—likely the largest market for eco-friendly rubber.

Main Companies:
Firestone, Bridgestone and Sumitomo Rubber Industries are all represented in the list of top 10 patent filers. However, automotive companies looking to get ahead of the competition may be interested in the fact that 5 of the top 10 companies are not direct competitors—and two of them could even be valuable collaborators.

The owner of the largest number of simple families in this technology area, Ceres Inc, is a Californian biotechnology company that develops and produces seeds of genetically modified crops.

By grouping these companies on a 3D patent landscape, we can see that Bridgestone Corp has a cluster of patents (bottom right corner of the diagram below), which focus on ways of increasing guayule’s rubber yield through the application of enzymes to the base of the plant. This cluster of patents is quite separate from those in other major tyre manufacturers’ portfolios. The exception is a handful of patents owned by Goodyear, with whom Bridgestone has recently entered into a joint venture.

PatSnap’s new synthetic biology innovation report reveals that Danisco, a food company, has some interest in rubber. In fact, its second most highly valued patent in the area of synthetic biology is “US20160281113A1 Compositions and Methods for Producing Isoprene” (valued at $2,550,000)—the rubber tyre company, Goodyear, is a co-assignee.

This adds up since Danisco announced in late 2008 that it would be collaborating with Goodyear to develop a bio-based alternative (“bioisoprene”) for the typically Earth-unfriendly compound, isoprene. The recency of the 2016 patent linked above suggests some organisations with a similar innovation focus to Danisco’s, could find adjacent market opportunities by looking into trends within the Danish company’s overall portfolio. Companies like Michelin (focussed on bio-butadiene), Pirelli (focussed on Guayule) and Cooper Tire (focussed on guayule-based biopolymers) are already blazing trails down the same bio-based route taken by Goodyear.

A Chemscape (chemical patent landscape) analysis of an isoprene search reveals there are many areas of highly valued inventive activity. I’ve identified on the Chemscape some of the main players in this area—Goodyear (red), BASF (blue), Bridgestone (yellow) and Dow (green). The greenish-blue halo at the bottom of the pillar in the centre of the Chemscape, represents our target chemical (isoprene). High-valuation areas are marked with dollar signs.

Aside from the growing interest in the use of bio-based chemicals for tyre production, the other revelation here is the importance of exploring adjacent market opportunities if you’re an innovator working with chemicals.
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CIEX 2018 needs your help!

As you may well know, CIEX 2017 was a mega success. Leaders and experts from across the chemical industry’s value chain came together to examine the latest trends, priorities, challenges, and innovations. They armed delegates with valuable knowledge, ideas, and tools to strategically position themselves in a rapidly evolving industry.

We want to build upon last year’s success, and make CIEX 2018 even better! But to do this, we need your help… We would like to invite you to share your valuable ideas, and so we have created a platform where you can do exactly this. Please help us to create the most exciting and relevant conference by completing our 5-minute survey.

And a big thank you for your contributions that will make CIEX 2018 another success!

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Innovation Ecosystems for the Circular Economy

Because of its nodal position in many value chains, the chemical industry plays a critical role in the evolving circular economy: Without the chemical industry there will be no comprehensive recycling and reuse of molecules and materials – and the potential of full circularity will not be realized.

On the other hand, the chemical industry cannot act as a catalyst towards circularity alone – it needs close collaboration with its partners across the value chain. The industry needs to further expand and grow its innovation ecosystem together with other actors, which is an important reason why we need more accelerators, incubators and other forms of collaboration spaces. Spaces, where new innovation partnerships can form between chemical players, other players and most importantly start-ups that are pushing for new technologies and solutions on the interfaces between chemistry and other disciplines such as robotics, nanotechnology, genomics and artificial intelligence.

One of the first examples of such a new type of innovation ecosystem is the Chemical Invention Factory Berlin which is a project funded with over 10 million Euro, coming from the Federal Government and the Technical University of the city. Why Berlin? Because Berlin has the highest numbers of chemical start-ups in Germany and because Berlin has one of the highest university densities in Germany.

While we still have to wait and see how the Chemical Invention Factory will live up to the high expectations set into it, there is no doubt that the circular economy of the future will need catalytic spaces of this kind in order to make the transition a success.

CIEX 2018 is just a few months away! Join me on September 19 as I will be moderating a panel discussion on how to capture new global and regional opportunities across the chemical value chain. The panellists for the discussion include –

Alexa Dembek, Chief Technology and Sustainability Officer, Specialty Products, DowDuPont
Pierre Barthélemy, Executive Director Innovation, CEFIC
Eric Bischof, Vice President, Corporate Sustainability, Covestro
Sharon Todd, Executive Director, Society of Chemical Industry

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How Sharing is Innovating the Chemical Industry

When it comes to improving company performance, there are few better methods than the sharing of ideas. While business meetings, both formal and informal, are the mainstay for exchanging information, this approach is often between only two organizations or just a handful of individuals. But in today’s larger, more global business world, conferences are increasingly becoming the ‘go to’ method for sharing ideas.

Currently, the chemical industry is on the cusp of a new era, where ‘sustainability’ and ‘Industry 4.0’ are forging new paths for chemical companies. This makes the next few years a crucial time to share information to cope with these challenges.

It has become a crucial time to attend conferences.

Chemical Industry Sustainability

Take for example the 2017 Green and Sustainable Chemistry Conference that took place in Berlin last year. A 4-day event that focused on the chemical industry’s impact on the environment and how chemical companies can save money and be more ecological at the same time.

One attendee, Christina Välimäki, the VP of Segment Marketing & Research at Elsevier, noted how the sharing of ideas at the event gave chemical suppliers the best-practice methods to achieve the advantages of green and sustainable chemistry. Ultimately, they were able to establish common goals for the betterment of individual chemical producers, as well as the chemical industry as a whole.

As Välimäki notes, “The [conference] panellists all agreed on the importance of the following five principles for inspiring a more sustainable chemical industry:

* Green chemistry needs to anticipate the problems it aims to solve

* Green chemistry should not aim to justify negative perceptions of other elements of chemistry

* Break down the green chemistry silo

* Involve the circular economy into the product life cycle

* Inform the public and demonstrate the value of safe, sustainable chemistry”

Chemical Industry 4.0

Alongside the goal of sustainability, another key opportunity for the chemical industry is ‘Industry 4.0’; the notion that effective analysis of massive amounts of data can improve chemical innovation, production, supply, and sales.

In a recent interview, Sharon Todd, Executive Director at SCI, the UK-based Society of Chemical Industry, agreed that ‘big data’ has a big role to play. She noted that, “In the chemical industry in particular, data analysis offers the opportunity for vastly more efficient tools in research, formulation, and synthesis, as well as providing companies with unprecedented insight into the needs and wishes of consumers and industry.” Adding that, “Innovative strategies require that we be connected and make use of this capacity to collect and process untold amounts of data, and make these skills a part of the toolkit for every scientist entering industry.”

Interestingly, Todd will share her ideas at the upcoming CIEX 2018, being held in Frankfurt, Germany, as she will participate in panel discussions on topics such as ‘Unlocking Opportunities from the Bio-Economy’ and ‘Capturing New Global and Regional Opportunities’.

The CIEX 2018 event covers a wide range of topics affecting the chemical industry and includes speakers and panellists from key influencers such as BASF, Covestro, Cefic & DowDuPont.

When Todd was asked further about her eagerness to participate at CIEX, it became clear that she also believes in the value of conferences for exchanging ideas, as well as sharing the challenges (and solutions) facing today’s chemical industry.

Todd understands that a key part of rising to those challenges involves innovation, and she sees the CIEX event as a tool for exchanging novel ideas. As she states, “CIEX aims to explore cutting edge innovation in the rapidly evolving chemical industry and provides excellent opportunities for networking and learning best practices. It is critical to connect chemical producers and users to facilitate innovations to be commercialised successfully. Knowing your customer and having an intimate relationship with your supplier allows a collaborative and positive approach to new product development and launch.”

Adding that, “The high-quality innovation led programme showcasing developments & initiatives by leading companies combined with excellent networking opportunities make CIEX 2018 a stand out event.”

Clearly the exchanging of ideas remains essential for the wellbeing of the chemical industry, as all technological advances are based on the foundations of earlier research; ‘Standing on the shoulders of giants,’ as Newton put it. And when it comes to business, nowhere can this be done better than at an event such as CIEX 2018, because without sharing, chemical industry innovation stagnates.

CIEX is the premier event created for R&D and Innovation experts from the consumer, industrial and specialty chemical sectors. Every year, CIEX brings together all players across the value chain to create a unique platform for participants to learn, exchange ideas, and collaborate. This year, CIEX is scheduled to be held on September 19-20 in Frankfurt Germany.

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Connect, discuss and discover the most compelling ideas emerging globally with an unmatched group of innovators from companies such as Merck, DSM, BASF, Cefic, Lego, IKEA, DAW SE, Avantium, Evonik, Unilever, Covestro and many more!

Courtesy: SPOTCHEMI

CIEX 2018 – Chemistry is not the problem but the solution!

Innovation plays a central role in the chemical industry and innovation is about much more than new molecules. Innovation in the chemical industry is about finding solutions together with other partners across value chains to solve some of the most pressing challenges in society and environment. Our environment is challenged by climate change and pollution and we have to do everything in our power to reduce our carbon footprint and pollutant emissions.

The chemical industry in Europe has reduced CO2 emission by over 40% in the past 10 years and is strongly committed towards further substantial reduction by another 40% by 2030. New technologies play an important role here: it is about renewable feedstocks such as biomass, electrification of processes and about continuous improvement of efficiencies.

Innovation in the chemical industry is also about embracing new economical concepts such as circularity. Recirculating molecules and materials is expected to be an integral part of the circular economy of tomorrow. The chemical industry has a unique opportunity to contribute to new processes, molecules, and know-how to make this happening. Recyclability, durability, long-lasting performance are going to be success criteria for chemical products of the future to a much higher degree than today. We can also expect that digital technologies such as blockchain are going to be important enablers of circular business models involving chemical products. Chemical leasing and service offerings are already implemented today but we can expect blockchain to play a role in accelerating these models to spread much further in the future.

Finally, innovation in chemistry is about creating new materials and products for sustainable consumption as part of modern lifestyles. Future consumers in advanced economies are expecting sustainability and performance as integral parts of the value proposition. In developing economies, on the other hand, chemistry will be a key technology in the production of materials for housing, construction, infrastructure and basic consumer goods. Without chemistry, the pressing challenges in agricultural production, food preservation, sanitation & hygiene as well as health & nutrition cannot be solved.

Chemistry is not the problem but the solution! At the 2018 CIEX conference, industry leaders will discuss many of the above challenges and opportunities, including new models of collaboration, innovation strategies, and new technologies. Dr. Marcus Remmers of DSM will be sharing how to align purpose and sustainability with innovation strategy to find science-based, innovative solutions that tackle societal challenges and Michael Gamber of Merck Group will be revealing how to strategically drive fast innovation across corporate culture. View complete conference agenda!

CIEX 2018 brings together the most creative minds in the chemical industry on 19-20 September 2018 in Frankfurt. Connect, discuss and discover the most compelling ideas emerging globally with an unmatched group of CXOs, senior leaders, investors, and innovators from across the chemical value chain. Reserve your seat today!

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How Digitization is Transforming the Chemical Industry

Digital and technology transformation are two of the most popular buzzwords around today. However, beyond the industry jargon, there is a real need for next-gen technology that pushes businesses, industries, and boundaries. Known to be one of the most conservative and slow industries, there is a real need to innovate and produce outcomes faster than ever. In today’s digital world, speed has become a strong competitive differentiator that even chemical companies cannot ignore.

The chemical industry is known for their systematic approach to business and because of this, it faces a unique challenge to use strategically digitize their process and business model.

Did you know?

“Over 50 percent of chemical enterprises lack a digital strategy and transformation roadmap”

Source: Deloitte Global 2016 Global Digital Chemistry Survey

How digitization will benefit chemicals industry:

As per industry experts, digitization promotes innovation and thus it can transform the chemical industry. Digitization also enables faster innovation and predictive analytics could reduce costs – as enables less waste from trials, and less mistakes Currently, the chemical enterprises are struggling to streamline their processes and M&A activities. When backed with the right strategies and required digital capabilities, digitalization can provide significant value to the entire supply chain process. Here are some potential benefits that digitization can bring to the chemical industry:

Profitable operations

Manufacturers can upscale their operations and gain end-to-end financial visibility through digitally enabled chemical plants. Such integration offers further benefits including better waste management, optimization of production network and a better workforce safety. BASF is a great example who used computer modeling to reduce energy and waste. They developed software solutions to handle the complex requirements of batch and semi-batch systems. By building a detailed kinetic model of its batch expanded-polystyrene process and applying dynamic optimization techniques, BASF was able to achieve a 30% reduction in batch time that resulted in significant energy savings.

Better supply chain management

Managing the supply chain has always been a major problem for the chemical industry. However, with digitization, companies can enjoy unimaginable transparency. They can have an easy access to the sources of chemical supply and other intermediaries. The digital supply chain also benefits the suppliers by allowing them to reach customers in the new market and geographic regions.

Reach new levels of productivity

Digitization offers great opportunities to increase efficiency and productivity throughout the industry’s value chain. Today, with immense competition and margin pressure, operational excellence has become an important goal for chemical industry companies. To be specific, companies with structural cost disadvantages are bound to achieve operational optimization. Digitization promises to achieve operational excellence!

Innovation

Digitization enables faster innovation that assists companies boost their R&D productivity and design new offerings and solutions.

Digitization offers a bundle of opportunities for innovation, expansion and growth. The chemical industry is still lagging behind in adopting digital agenda due to its inherent cyclical nature and mostly commoditized existence. Companies are required to adopt operating models that synchronize their business plans and digital solutions. They really need to focus on streamlining processes and position their value chain in this new ecosystem to achieve higher levels of efficiency and transparency.

Be a part of The Chemical Innovation Conference (CIEX) 2018 which is scheduled to be held on September 19-20 in Frankfurt and find out how Next-Gen digitization is transforming the chemical industry. Hear from and discuss Innovative Business strategies with industry leaders, international experts, and innovative thinkers from around the globe.

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Accelerating science-led innovation – Interview with Dr. Michael Doyle of BIOVIA

“In today’s experience economy, the ability to discover, design, and deliver breakthrough innovation at the molecular level creates transformational value for science-driven enterprises of all industries, and has the promise to provide exponential value to consumers” – Max Carnecchia, CEO, BIOVIA.

Committed to speeding innovation for science-driven organizations, from product ideation through commercialization, Dassault Systèmes BIOVIA provides a scientific collaborative environment for advanced biological, chemical and materials experiences that help science- and process-driven companies develop higher quality products faster and more cost effectively. Ahead of his presentation at CIEX in Frankfurt on September 19th, we had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Michael Doyle, Senior Director Corporate Development and Principal Scientist of Dassault Systèmes BIOVIA.

Dr. Doyle’s informal title within Dassault Systemes, is “Innovation Wizard”! So innovation is directly important to him. BIOVIA, part of Dassault Systemes, has the mission to help improve products, nature and life through science and innovation-based understanding. The idea of innovation is also personally important to him, because his family came from a cotton weaving community in northern England and saw progressive innovation and modernization from hand to water driven, steam driven and then decentralized computer driven garment manufacturing.

He defines innovation as “the process by which societies and communities improve themselves in a sustainable way. Innovation can be about the next style, the next product, a new object, the next manufacturing approach for an object, or a complex combination of objects or materials, but most importantly innovation is about disruption.”

When asked about major challenges and opportunities facing the chemical industry and chemical value chain, he believes there are a number out there; it is sustainability, water, market volatility, increasing regulation, changing demographics and the shift to the east. To take these in order:

Sustainable products, processes and materials are critical aspects of both corporate and brand activities. Consumers want products, that are benign to the environment, that are safe to use and that provide the function or superior performance they expect.
Further much of the chemistry that constitutes or contributes to those products involves chemistry that occurs in a water. Water is the essential and key solvent in the modern chemical industry. Its ubiquitous availability, cost and safety have made it a good historical choice. However, with population growth and increasing demands on water resources for food production, this creates a questionable set of assumptions for the future. Sustainability is now mandating the development of alternative chemistry processes.
Market volatility, is disruptive both to the largest factor in the chemical industry i.e. energy costs, but also to the raw materials prices, and the economic consumer environment.
Finally, as we enter the era of specialty, performance, nano and additive manufacturing processes, the tailoring of niche advanced materials for micro-segmented markets will drive and enable a new wave of innovation in materials science and engineering.

Talking about the challenges impeding scientific innovation, Dr. Doyle explains: “Approximately 90% of the information we generate in chemical company laboratories is not used for any knowledge mapping. It is used for a certificate of analysis or a documentation process. This lack of use of in-house data inhibits the innovation process through modelling. In addition, many companies are seeing a dramatic increase in the amount of testing, the cost of testing, the regulatory needs for testing and the sustainability requirements, all of which take cross team and cross functional data. Converting so called dark data into information and knowledge helps with the reduction of experimentation, the accuracy of production and the compliance to procedure.”

The scientific innovation process is intrinsically multi-scale. It spans the micro scale of chemical atomistic attributes, through to the meso, voxel, bead or representative volume element to the macro scale of bulk materials, systems performance as well as laboratory, process and QAQC testing. This information then forms a feed into the product lifecycle management approach which in turn feeds systems such as financial forecasting, scheduling and supply chain models. In other words, a true platform approach is a derivative of a product lifecycle staged approach, a multi-scale simulation approach, a scenario planning approach and an open system integration approach. Therefore it is important to manage and connect scientific innovation processes and information with other product lifecycle systems.

We are currently at a convergence of high-throughput analytics with super-computing, and Dr. Doyle finds it very exciting: “Not only have unsupervised algorithms become so sophisticated, the availability of large domains of both structured and unstructured data allow some very complex and indirect models to be built. For example, Jennifer Goldbeck’s classical view of predicting someone’s IQ by their Facebook like of curly fries. These models, are not mechanistically deterministic but data deterministic, so they can be used to predict many important attributes and even people’s liking of a product however they cannot be used to screen a range of compounds or ingredients. In summary I am a strong believer in consensus modelling where the different strengths of large/big data models as well as other categories of models are combined to give the most stable and widest range of prediction capabilities.”

We asked Dr. Doyle how chemical industry can support innovation and sustainability with a unified solution and if it is possible. He said: “Innovation and sustainability make in my opinion similar calls on our predictive sciences. While it is true that sustainability is a more macroscopic model approach and innovation is often more microscopic, this is not always the same. Innovation is about insights leading to new approaches and new entities. Sustainability is about new approaches or reducing the impact, cost, complexity, variability of processes and products. However the two converge when you consider the designing for re-cycling or the circular economy. Mercedes for example has product processes and corporate plans to drive 80% recycling and reuse of parts within their products. This requires compromises in product design and in addition requires modifications and optimization of the product recycling process.”

Finally, when asked about one key point that CIEX attendees should take from his talk, he summarized: “It has been over 85 years since the book “Brave New World” was published. The rate of change and complexity required in the innovation process has never slackened or decreased. It is this relentless pressure on materials and chemical innovation that drives newer virtual and real ways of working. And the systems are here now.”

Along with BIOVIA, several international brands such as Air Liquide, Avantium, BMW, Evonik, Henkel, Honeywell UOP, Oriflame, P&G, PatSnap, PepsiCo are confirmed to speak at CIEX to explore innovation strategies and processes across the chemical value chain. Full details of the event can be found at ciex-eu.org.

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How to enhance innovation workflows – Interview with Dr Ali Hussein of PatSnap

“Current chemical data analysis is currently too isolated, requires too much training, or is limited to manually reading through journals. A scalable solution means more brains can find more scientific nuances and design more solutions that tackle more problems, which disrupt more markets.”

R&D is full of unknowns. By the time you learn that a competitor has brought a new product to market, your team could already be months – or even years – behind. At the ideation stage of R&D, your team might pursue thousands of potential projects. How can you tell which one will be your next blockbuster? Moreover, The pressure to deliver positive, measurable ROI for innovation activity has never been more intense. But as with every challenge worth taking on, there are game plans that make winning immeasurably more likely.

By making patent search and analysis accessible and usable for non-IP experts, PatSnap provides scientists with a new source of information for use during research. The company has brought together the biggest IP dataset in the world – more than 120 million patents – which also includes licensing and litigation data, economic data, patent valuation, image and chemical formula search, trademark recognition and more. Moreover, by making this data accessible and relevant to all – whether expert in IP, or completely new to the world of intellectual property – scientists can follow the latest developments and multiple strands of previous research, and avoid wasting time on previously unsuccessful avenues.

Dr. Ali Hussein, Product Director of PatSnap has a deep focus on unlocking the insights that big data and empowering decision-making workflows for the “citizen innovator” by simplifying the analysis of big data. He is passionate about upgrading innovation workflows, and the application of disruption innovation that software can empower across technology areas. We spoke to him ahead of his presentation at CIEX – Chemical Innovation Exchange in Frankfurt on September 20th.

How do you define innovation?
Innovation is the entrepreneurial drive to understand the ‘consumer’ problems with current capabilities in the market, followed by inventing and marketing new concepts and inventions to advance towards a solution. Innovation is not limited to products, but can therefore be extended to business models, economic mechanisms, and social attitudes.

Where does innovation stand among your priorities and responsibilities?
We believe, like many others in attendance I’m sure, that innovation is of the highest importance to ensure long-term success, or even survival of our vision. By remaining in an innovation-centric mindset, companies continue to advance towards their visions and redisrupt their markets – providing more lucrative rewards and long-term stability.

As much as there are examples of how companies have fallen due to not continuously redisrupting their markets and innovating (Blackberry, Kodak, Blockbuster, etc.), there are examples of highly profitable companies that have continuously redisrupted markets and reaped rewards (Apple, TEVA, Amazon etc.).

What are the major challenges and opportunities facing the chemical industry / chemical value chain in 2018 – 2019?
One of the main opportunities within the chemical industry is learning from faster growing industries, and translating practices over. The history of the chemical industry is full of stories of serendipitous discovery of secondary uses for chemicals and the discovery of lucrative chemicals. A major opportunity, which many chemical companies present are already tapping into, is driving product development and discovery with the exponential data resources available.

How and why is it essential to bring together innovation data and scientific information into one single and easily searchable interface?
In short: Capacity, but in an innovator’s time, attention, and memory. When the workflow of chemical research is split across tens of databases with different designs and different database structures, understanding the bigger picture is incredibly difficult.

What is the one key point that attendees should take from your talk?
The key obstacle to letting engineers innovate bigger and faster is scaling this empowerment to as many of them as possible. Current chemical data analysis is currently too isolated, requires too much training, or is limited to manually reading through journals. A scalable solution means more brains can find more scientific nuances and design more solutions that tackle more problems, which disrupt more markets.

Along with PatSnap, several specialty chemical companies and consumer brands such as Air Liquide, Avantium, Biovia, BMW, Evonik, Henkel, Honeywell UOP, Oriflame, P&G, PepsiCo are confirmed to speak at CIEX 2017 on Sep 19-20 to explore innovation strategies and processes across the chemical value chain. Full details of the event can be found at ciex-eu.org.

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Japanese pioneer in anti-ageing skincare to speak about innovation at CIEX 2017

The beauty industry thrives on innovation. With global sales expected to exceed US$131 billion in 2019, skin care remains the beauty industry’s biggest category. Asia Pacific will be the one of the most important region in both value terms and as the key origin for skin care trends. Emerging markets in this region, including China, account for nearly 60% of absolute value growth in skin care products by 2019.

The industry has experienced a growing interest in natural and organic beauty products due to increased curiosity among consumers about the specific ingredients used. Meanwhile, consumers’ desire for high-efficacy skin care has helped niche brands to growth quickly, since they are seen as specialists in their field.

One of these specialists, Forlle’d is a high-technology professional cosmeceuticals company from Japan with leading products in anti-ageing and skin restructuring. Founded in 2004, the company has become a pioneer in developing and producing low molecular substances which are able to cross skin barrier and regenerate skin at dermal level.

Ahead of his presentation at CIEX – Chemical Innovation Exchange on September 19-20 in Frankfurt, we spoke to Dr. Mazen Raydan – R&D Director of Forlle’d about innovation and the future of the skin care industry.

Dr. Raydan defines innovation as the milestone of research and development, and sees it as a wide and diverse process that focuses on two main areas:
• Meeting customer needs, and
• Introducing new know-how that impacts positively the quality of life of an individual.

He adds: “As life is preserved through evolution, companies cannot grow and develop without sustainability – for which innovation is one of the main drivers. Hence, innovation naturally tops all priorities and responsibilities.”

Consumers in Europe and worldwide are more conscious of the effects and impacts of their purchasing choices. This allows them to make buying decisions with a knowledge of raw materials. The market also requires the highest levels of effectiveness and innovation in the value proposition. Consequently, companies are working on developing natural materials that overtake the performances of conventional ones.

Dr. Raydan says: “As developers for skin care products, we always face challenges related to developing new actives, delivery systems, product forms and enhanced product quality and texture. However these are common challenges. If we look into the question globally, the main challenge lies in the lack of fundamental research that can open the door to new areas, impact skin health and quality immensely and take the industry to another level.”

He continues: “At present, the industry is moving very fast and time plays a very crucial role. In order to develop high quality products that fill a niche in the market and meet customers’ demand, R&D must work closely with marketing and sales departments; have good networking; search for, increase and exploit accessible resources. Encouraging the R&D team to take initiative, share and introduce new ideas or concepts has always paid well for Forlle’d.”

When asked about what makes a good product a successful one in the market, Dr Raydan narrows it down to 4 key factors:
1. Efficacy
2. Product properties
3. Presentation
4. Market Needs

Given the outlook of the chemicals industry and global mega-trends, Dr Raydan’s strategy to increase Forlle‘d‘s innovative position is through focusing on implementing new approaches that make R&D work fast, enhance and maintain these 4 key points.

He believes that at the present, the skin care industry is passing through a static state and that competition is high. To be more successful and minimize risks, Forlle’d will focus its R&D department to work faster, study the market and introduce products that cover a niche or promise high growth potential. At the same time the company keeps an eye on the future by encouraging the research team to address new skin concerns, introduce new approaches and search for new actives.

Dr. Raydan concludes: “At CIEX, I will be highlighting the question how we can move the skin care industry, and mainly anti-age science, to another level. Hence, I am looking forward to hearing the opinions from our partners in the industry, share ideas, and seek opportunities for future collaboration.”

Along with Forlle‘d, several international brands such as Air Liquide, Avantium, Biovia Dassault, BMW, Evonik, Henkel, Honeywell UOP, Oriflame, P&G, PatSnap, PepsiCo are confirmed to speak at CIEX to explore innovation strategies and processes across the chemical value chain. Full details of the event can be found at ciex-eu.org.

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Innovation is about the ability to spot opportunities and take advantage of them

Image courtesy of Merck

Merck, the world’s oldest operating chemical and pharmaceutical company, as well as one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, has been around for almost 350 years. Its 50,000 employees in 66 countries work together on innovative solutions and the newest technologies. In 2016, the company invested a total of 2 billion euros in research and development.

Prof. Dr. Klaus Griesar

Our latest interview features Prof. Dr. Klaus Griesar, Head of Science Relations department at Merck whose responsibilities include strategic partnerships and cooperation with leading universities worldwide, start-up companies and research institutes. His portfolio also includes the elaboration and analysis of science & technology based megatrends.

He is a member of numerous scientific and industrial committees (President of the Association of Chemistry & Economics (VCW) within the German Chemical Society (GDCh) and a Member of the Editorial Board of Angewandte Chemie) and author of more than 50 publications in the topics of innovation management, business development and strategy.

How do you define innovation?
Innovation is always driven by the ability to see connections, to spot opportunities and to take advantage of them. Moreover, innovation is a result of curiosity. When one is willing to undertake risks, create change, and “shake-things up” due to curiosity, that will lead to innovation and therefore, unravel new markets. However, innovation is not just about opening up new markets, it can also offer new ways of serving established and mature ones. Consequently, innovation represents the core renewal process in any organization.

Where does innovation stand among your priorities and responsibilities?
Innovation is the key question for management. Every company has its own culture in which they define the level of innovation and the connection between success and innovation. Proper management of innovation will result in building and improving new/current routines over time. It is of great importance to manage and incorporate innovation into daily tasks, responsibilities, and essentially make innovation a part of your routine. Innovation is a process, not a single event, and needs to be managed as such, and therefore the influences on the process can be manipulated to affect the outcome.

What is the relationship between R&D expenditure and new developments?
R&D expenditure exhibits a significantly positive effect on the long term economic growth and therefore, new developments. At the firm level, R&D contributions are associated with the willingness to collaborate and create networks. On the one hand, with increasing novelty of the innovation more R&D input is required, but it is associated with greater market uncertainty. On the other hand, novel innovations are those that bring new developments to the surface.

How important are employees and cooperation for innovation?
Organization of innovation is more than just a structure or a process, it is a cohesive set of components that work together to create and strengthen the type of environment which stimulates innovations to flourish. Innovation is about learning, embracing change, and accepting the risks, costs, and disruptiveness. Moreover, innovation cannot be achieved without the ‘people’, the employees and members of other cooperation. Innovation is increasingly about teamwork and the creative combination of different disciplines and perspectives. Therefore, it is essential to coordinate the right teams together in order to be on the right and most efficient path towards innovation.

What are the major challenges and opportunities facing the chemical industry in 2018 – 2019?
Society experiences a rapid change from an industrial to a knowledge-based focus. For the chemical society, this transformation results in a shift “from materials and molecules to systems and solutions”. Hence, the challenge lies in the incorporation of material with complementing services, or even in creating new business models that back away from being a pure product manufacturer to become a value-creating solution provider.

As the often-cited Harvard chemist George M. Whitesides stated: “This prolific era is over, and chemistry is now facing classes of opportunities, and obligations to society, that are even more interesting, but entirely different.” (“Reinventing Chemistry” in Angewandte Chemie, 2015). With this statement, he predicted the ongoing shift from pure component and material innovations towards integrated system and novel all-in-one solution development. This alteration, of course, involves certain challenges but offers ample potential in re-creating a new chemical industry with the objective to become an integrator of the entire value chain.

Given the outlook of chemicals industry and global mega-trends, what is your strategy to keep and increase your company’s innovative position?
Innovation in our company already takes place on a level of integrated solution creation rather than single component or molecule development. To further amend this process, we need to concentrate on the value proposition of our innovations in an early phase. This can be done by early, strategic segmentation and efficient market selection. Often, the real value of the product is not the most obvious property of the material but a combination of characteristics which is beneficial for a specific market segment. Conducting this segmentation rigorously will help to improve the product’s value proposition and penetrate markets systematically.

What do you think your company should next focus on regarding innovation?
Our CEO, Stefan Oschmann indicated a significant business advantage: “If you think about the healthcare, then we’ve already got everything at Merck that Google would love to have.” (FAZ, July 4, 2016). Trends like personalized medicine, where treatments can be perfectly aligned with the patients’ needs, require novel technologies like Big Data analysis and self-learning algorithms. Also, in the laboratory business, the systematic digitalization will provide pioneering innovations regarding the interconnected workspace. Our mission is to further develop and sensibly apply novel technologies to foster digitalization throughout all our businesses and thereby enable groundbreaking innovations.

Prof. Dr. Klaus Griesar will be speaking at the upcoming CIEX 2017 Conference on September 19-20 in Frankfurt, Germany. He will talk about “The 4Ps of innovation: Old wine in new bottles?“.

Along with Merck, several international brands such as P&G, PepsiCo, BMW, Oriflame are confirmed to speak at CIEX. Together with leading pharma and specialty chemical manufacturers, they will explore innovation strategies and processes across the chemical value chain. Full details of the event can be found at ciex-eu.org.

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