The Horizons Tracker

JUNE 2, 2020

Sectors such as chemicals, food and drink, and textiles were among the most enthusiastic shifters. The very act of diversifying trade patterns itself does not come without any risk, as transport costs are likely to grow, and companies are forced to operate in unfamiliar markets with unfamiliar bureaucracy. Tariff barriers.

Supply Chain 83

Supply Chain Hedge Credit Risk Bureaucracy 83

Joseph Lalonde

JUNE 1, 2018

We know how crucial it is to having talent who love working for us and who will offer discretionary effort and innovation. It will lose the license to operate from key stakeholders. That’s much more motivating than saying, “I’m going to go to work today and I’m going to sell a can of chemicals.” Don’t you think?

CEO 161

CEO Short-term Learning-by-Doing Blanchard 161

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 3, 2016

A new set of relationships is being formed within companies around how people working in data, analytics, IT, and operations teams work together. Data and analytics represent a blurring of the traditional lines of demarcation between the scope of IT and the responsibilities of operating divisions. Data and analytics embedded in IT.

Operations 8

Operations Agility Chemicals Supply Chain 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 21, 2018

Corporate directors and executives alike recognize that today’s pace of change continues to accelerate and that firms need to innovate to stay ahead. But are boards doing enough to support innovation, as they should? We found that, overall, innovation does not rank as a top strategic challenge for the majority of boards.

Innovation 10

Innovation Short-term Telecommunications Long-term 10

Marshall Goldsmith

FEBRUARY 8, 2018

Co-founder of Rose Park Advisors—Disruptive Innovation Fund. A leading thinker on strategy and breakthrough innovation. a holding company that operates seven distinct business. Operations Group Baring Private Equity. Formerly a leader in the automotive, retail, restaurant, media innovation and consulting industries.

Executive Coaching 70

Executive Coaching CEO Magazine Banking 70

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 20, 2012

Intelligence should drive better innovation, but unless it is strategically collected and used, it functions like a summer beach novel — an engaging distraction. Thoughtful companies intertwine customer intelligence throughout the three phases that characterize most successful innovations. Want more intelligent innovation?

Innovation 15

Innovation Chemicals Price Learning-by-Doing 15

Harvard Business Review

MAY 21, 2014

Governing boards might seem like the last place for innovation. But new strategies and structures are squarely in the board’s domain, and we have seen any number of governing boards innovating with, not just monitoring, management. Some boards have taken the principle further by forming their own innovation committee.

Innovation 8

Innovation Committee Charan Technology 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

In 2008, Dr Reddy's acquired Chirotech, Dow Chemical's R&D unit, for $32 million, and in April 2011 relocated it to a new 33,000 sq. Besides Dr Reddy's, several leading Indian firms are pioneering polycentric innovation: Tata Motors. Polycentric innovation won't work in organizations that promote groupthink. and the U.K.

Globalization 9

Globalization Innovation Decentralization Chemicals 9

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 27, 2013

Innovation success stories are all strikingly similar: a bright idea, supported by a zealot-innovator who sees it through. This is especially true for business model innovations — when the new idea is not a product, service, or technology but a different way of engaging with the customers and earning revenue from them.

Business Model 8

Business Model Innovation Company Chemicals 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 10, 2018

From targeted online advertising to more precise recommendation engines, consumer markets are bursting with innovation around machine learning and advanced analytics. Starting from explosives and farming chemicals, these B2B companies have embedded their expertise in powerful software platforms to expand beyond the traditional products.

B2B 8

B2B Chemicals Venture Funding Engineering 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 4, 2015

I’ve been in contact with Heiny and her team at Target over the last year about the program she helped build to drive product innovation and more sales. The list of no-no ingredients is long — 1,600 chemicals tracked or regulated by NGOs and governments around the world. So why are sustainable products surging now?

Productivity 8

Productivity Products Chemicals Retail 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 11, 2011

Many of Dow chemical's products, such as its insulation and solar shingles , are energy intensive to make. But an explosion of IT tools is making it easier for companies to get an ultra-high-resolution (and high-altitude) picture of the upstream and downstream resource use associated with their products and operations.

Supply Chain 15

Supply Chain Chemicals Energy System 15

Harvard Business Review

MAY 26, 2016

Operating margins for firms publicly listed in the US show a substantial and sustained rise. Firms engage in political “rent seeking”—lobbying for regulations that provide them sheltered markets—rather than competing on innovation. Profits are up. Corporate valuations are up as well.

Pharmaceuticals 10

Pharmaceuticals Politics Price Chemicals 10

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 17, 2018

Sarah Williamson is the CEO of FCLTGlobal (formerly Focusing Capital on the Long Term), an organization cofounded in 2016 by BlackRock, CPPIB, Dow Chemical, McKinsey, and Tata Sons to encourage a longer-term focus in business and investment decision making. Small Firms Are Not More Innovative.

Long-term 10

Long-term Innovation Technology Stage-Gate 10

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 4, 2017

But I think the interesting part comes when they start to see it as an opportunity for innovations that are financially beneficial as well as socially beneficial. For example, installing a rapidly deployable flood barrier around your campus can help keep your buildings operational during megastorms. The result will be innovation.

Project 8

Project Advice Henderson Short-term 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 26, 2017

“He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator,” stated Francis Bacon. As with many clusters, a university sits at its center: founded in AD 1088, the Studium of Bologna was the major educational innovation of Europe’s second millennium.

Education 8

Education Pharmaceuticals Innovation Industry 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 22, 2011

Miniature wells patterned onto the paper contain chemicals that react with samples of blood, urine, saliva, or sweat, which causes the paper to display a reading with a change of color. Diagnostics developed for emerging markets must be rugged, resistant to wear and tear, simple to operate, and temperature-resistant.

Marketing 11

Marketing Chemicals Resistance Guidelines 11

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 16, 2015

The issues in each of these buckets require new leadership, or at least a rethinking of it in the highest ranks of companies, and deep operational changes. We’re starting to recognize that this relatively new situation has important ramifications for how businesses operate, and we’re making some progress. Insight Center.

Constraint 8

Constraint Supply Chain Resources Operations 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 20, 2014

In chemicals, energy, technology, beer and more, you can see a multi-decade trend toward the consolidation of behemoths. When a company had dozens of potential competitors in various geographic regions, there was an incentive to innovate before the other guy does. In the guitar business , too.

Pharmaceuticals 11

Pharmaceuticals Banking Chemicals Trends 11

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 20, 2015

The most frequently cited motivation was the mitigation of business risk from potential disruption of operations, supplies, or reputational damage, cited 38% of the time, followed by the motivation to adhere to industry norms of transparency, traceability, environmental responsibility, and other accepted standards, cited 27.6% of the time.

Goal 8

Goal Supply Chain Development Globalization 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

Some innovative and determined professionals working in world's largest and most complex corporations are choosing to stay put and use their corporate platforms to lead change. James is using his expertise as a chemical engineer to develop new business models for base-of-the-pyramid consumers. Some are recent graduates.

Real Estate 8

Real Estate Constraint Entrepreneur Restructuring 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 16, 2017

How can you make core business operations more sustainable? Chairman & CEO, Dow Chemical. Regardless of your views on the who, what, when, and why of climate change, the pursuit of sustainable processes up and down supply chains can translate into immediate savings — and opportunities for innovation. Marc Benioff.

Project 8

Project Henderson Supply Chain Short-term 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 6, 2015

Continuous light interface production , or CLIP, uses chemical reactions to better control the transformation of liquids into solids. This technology starts with a plastic or metal powder, but instead of solidifying the powder with a laser, it uses chemicals sprayed from 30,000 tiny nozzles at a rate of 350 million dots per second.

Chemicals 8

Chemicals Technology Industry Film 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 29, 2016

For example, it increased both the number and status of safety personnel, and it strengthened safety operating procedures. After the 2005 explosion, the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board pushed BP to focus more on safety. But learning waned as avoiding launch delays became increasingly important.

Organization 8

Organization McCombs Pharmaceuticals Learning-by-Doing 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 17, 2016

In everything it does, the company pays as much attention to its growth engine — its ability to manage innovation and launch consistently valuable products — as in any particular garment or device it sells. Haier’s engine for growth developed over years; it is the heart of the company’s identity.

Company 8

Company Engineering Apparel Survey 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 21, 2016

This can disrupt a firm’s ability to operate on schedule and budget. Of the respondents, 72% said that climate change presents risks that could significantly impact their operations, revenue, or expenditures. Fostering innovation. Investing in sustainability is not only a risk management tool; it can also drive innovation.

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain Price Loyalty Efficiency 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

On January 19, 2012, after 131 years of operation, the Eastman Kodak Company filed for Chapter 11 protection in U.S. Kodak had built a successful enterprise producing cameras, film, and photographic paper and chemicals, but what people wanted was images, and so when a better way to get those images was found, its customers followed.

Health Care 15

Health Care Levitt Film Chemicals 15

The Horizons Tracker

JULY 23, 2020

They argue that while chemical cleaning products are effective at cleaning such surfaces, it’s a highly labor intensive task to ensure they are cleaned repeatedly, especially in larger facilities. Uncertain terrain. Given the advances made by the technology since Amazon bought Kiva in 2012, this shouldn’t be a major hurdle.

Banking 84

Banking Environment Chemicals System 84

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 21, 2011

Nevertheless, companies that live and die on operational excellence — such as Amazon.com, FedEx, Southwest Airlines, and Wal-Mart — must continually improve their key processes. A chemical company identified seven key process performance measures for each of its seven "value chains."

Process 15

Process Supply Chain Balanced Scorecard Engineering 15

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 13, 2017

I talked with Rita McGrath, a professor at Columbia Business School, who together with Ian MacMillan, of the University of Pennsylvania’s business school, developed this classic methodology for planning innovation. McGrath recalls the painful experience of working with a big chemical company that wanted to diversify its business.

Planning 9

Planning Benchmarking Project Competitive Advantage 9

Harvard Business Review

MAY 17, 2011

Led by people with expertise in disaster relief, around 200 volunteers, mostly students, have fanned out in teams to visit every rescue shelter in northern Japan to identify needs and ensure that the shelters operate efficiently. Then students in college, they started talking about the need to create a society with a new value system.

Crisis 14

Crisis COO Chemicals Transportation 14

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 25, 2016

Automobile manufacturers, for example, create products that rely on metals, chemicals, oil, and gas, which are among the most energy- and water-intensive industries. There are frameworks emerging and opportunities for companies to work with others to understand the value of water relating to reputation and operational continuity.

Energy 8

Energy Price Telecommunications Industry 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 23, 2016

For example, while we were one of the early companies to develop an ‘order online, pick up in store’ service capability, it took us years to launch because of the fear we’d slow down store operations. I understood the concern of our store operators, but customers were asking for the service.”

Metrics 8

Metrics Business Model Retail Automotive 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 26, 2013

Attacking "other" greenhouse gases , those that can be much more powerful warming agents than CO2, such as methane (which comes from animals/farms, natural gas leaks, and landfills) and HFCs (the class of chemicals used in refrigerants). Talk about our deep need to change how we operate fundamentally, but for the better.

Payback Period 8

Payback Period Energy Politics Efficiency 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 22, 2016

A few years later, she joined a start-up called BioAmber, producing chemical intermediates using sugars instead of fossil fuels. This was followed by an eight-year “plateau” in her thirties, running training for the French operation, when she had her three children.

Career 8

Career Real Estate Learning Curve Education 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 13, 2011

If CEOs are going to operate for stakeholder value — rather than just for shareholder value — then their pay ought to be structured in a way that supports them doing so. This blog post is part of the HBR Online Forum The CEO's Role in Fixing the System.

TSR 9

TSR CEO Incentives Long-term 9

Harvard Business Review

JULY 15, 2016

Today the company has annual revenues above $20 billion, competes in healthcare and electronics operations and derives significant revenues from document solutions. ” For Kodak, that’s the difference between framing itself as a chemical film company vs. an imaging company vs. a moment-sharing company.

Technology 8

Technology Film Gilbert Business Model 8