incubator that we use to develop new technical platforms.
We try to keep our ear very close to our markets, our customer base, and that’s the driver. At the same time, it’s a bit of an art rather than pure science to try to figure out what’s really compelling enough for our customers to drive our activity.
And we have a new product development process that involves a management pro- cess that helps us determine the potential success of a particular project. We think we have way more opportunities than we have people to work on them. So it’s about prioritization as to where we put our resources and what our best bets are.
Tere can be different opinions inside the company on that. And we have a pro- cess for working through that, to figure out how best to make sure that we don’t spend a ton of money on failures—try to fail early, you know.
Army AL&T: What could the Army learn from the way Arkema develops require- ments? Or from the way that Arkema conducts R&D?
Dirkx: It is hard for me to say because I don’t have a lot of insight into how the Army does this. Tere are many studies on market pull versus technical push. My experience says that you need a combina- tion of both. Very often the market doesn’t know what is possible when they’re asked what is needed. If you talk to many of the commercial
folks, ideally everything is
market pull because they see that as the lowest risk in the marketplace, they’ve got a guy that’s ready to buy.
When you ask your customer what they’re looking for, they’ll answer based on what they think you can bring. For example, I was in business for four years, and during
BAND OF SCIENTISTS Arkema’s products include hydrogen peroxide for cleaners, detergents and oral care products, components in lithium ion batteries for cell phones and photovoltaic solar panels, nutrients for chicken feed and polymers for vehicle engines. Ultimately, collaboration and teamwork are a criti- cal part of the company’s R&D success.
that time I took on some very technical businesses. One was a catalyst business. And I was talking to a polymer guy who used our catalyst to make a polymer. I asked him, “What are your needs, what’s the next great thing we can do for you?”
He said, “Well, when we use this cata- lyst, the polymer comes out a little bit yellow. We don’t really like that yellow color, and our customers don’t like that yellow color. We’d really rather see it on the blue side.” And I thought, “I think we know how to do that.” We went back to our laboratories, and by adjusting the chemistry we came back in some months—it wasn’t quick because we wanted to demonstrate it ourselves— we put it in their hands and they went through studies and evaluations. And, son of a gun, they got a polymer more on tone toward blue than yellow.
Tey didn’t order a single pound. And I went back and I said, “Excuse me, but this was exactly what you were looking for. I
thought we hit it right on the money.” He said, and remember we’re now up the supply chain, “Well, it turns out our cus- tomer really wants no color.” And I just spent
six or eight months deliberately
designing blue because that’s what he said he wanted. I could have spent the time developing no color and probably could have hit that target. His comment to me asking for blue was because he knew that it was probably possible to deliver blue.
Tat’s a very simplified example. Now think of if you translate to much more complicated systems and questions and multiple suppliers, it can compound the issue. It’s very complex. But it’s a great example of how their question is framed in what they think you can deliver. Tey look at the hammer you have and they give you an answer based on that. And you can chase your tail. Did we know that we needed a camera in our phone before it was developed?
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ASC.ARMY.MIL 89
CRITICAL THINKING
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