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SRIC-BI has a long consulting history of serving the management, technical, and business needs of chemicals, materials, and related industries. An important SRIC-BI strength is our ability to combine the insight of senior strategy-consulting professionals with specific industry and market domain knowledge when delivering the work. SRIC-BI has firsthand worldwide knowledge of the chemicals, petrochemicals, industrial polymers, inorganic materials (including minerals), food additives, advanced-materials, and fabricated-products industries. We have been providing our objective perspectives on changing business and technology landscapes for decades. We continuously monitor and scan a wide range of issues affecting both emerging and mature industries, and we advise clients about emerging opportunities and threats.
Case Studies
Technology-Intelligence System for a Major Chemical Company
In this assignment, SRIC-BI worked with a major chemical company to develop a technology-intelligence process that we tailored to the company's needs and integrated within related existing business and technology-management processes. The key issues in the context of technology intelligence for the company included:
- What decisions are affected by technology intelligence?
- Who is making and influencing those decisions; what technology-intelligence reports do these managers need?
- What technology-intelligence-gathering and -dissemination processes make sense, given the company's structure and business and technology-management processes?
- How should technology-intelligence procedures and interfaces effectively and efficiently integrate together and into the company's technology-management function?
The general framework for the assignment was based on SRIC-BI's model for technology intelligence. The approach included determining the technology focus areas and monitoring priorities, designing the technology-intelligence system and processes, developing a process for implementation, and conducting technology-intelligence training for the company's staff. |
Comprehensive Plan for Installing Best Practices in Technology Management
A global player in the refining and petrochemicals business included the delivery and application of "leading-edge" technology as a primary element in its corporate vision. Its chief technology officer engaged SRIC-BI to perform a comprehensive audit of all its technology research, development, sourcing, transfer, and application practices and then create a strategy and phased implementation plan for installing the best practices that fit its culture, resources, and long-term business strategy.
SRIC-BI conducted a series of interviews (250) that cut across the entire organization, from CEO to lab-research supervisors, with balanced representation from both technology providers and users. At the same time, SRIC-BI bolstered its technology-management knowledge base by conducting a broad-based benchmarking exercise that included 12 of the world's leading companies in petroleum, chemicals, electronics, pharmaceuticals, and consumer products. Through a series of strategy and planning workshops, we worked with the client's technology council to select, prioritize, and tailor best practices to form building blocks for a companywide implementation plan. The final deliverable was a joint SRIC-BI and client multiphase plan for installing a unique technology-management process backed by a transparent set of findings, options for improvement, and a rationale for choices. |
Recent Projects
- Precommercialization Assessment of a New Material. SRIC-BI assisted a U.S. materials research company to identify promising commercialization opportunities for certain intermetallic, amorphous, and soft magnetic materials.
- New Business Opportunities in Optoelectronics. SRIC-BI carried out an analysis of the client's core competences followed by an opportunity workshop that focused on areas of active and passive organic optoelectronic materials and devices and the development of short opportunity profiles for the most attractive choices.
- External Change Effects on Plastics. For a European chemical company, SRIC-BI developed scenarios of the future for a plastics business unit, drafted action plans based on the scenario implications, and developed a tracking system for systematically following up on issues and forces as they developed.
- Carbon Nanotubes: An Overview of Technology Developments and Potential Market for Applications. SRIC-BI developed a preliminary list and short descriptions of applications in the emerging area, identified some of the organizations working on each application, and summarized market predictions.
- Opportunity Workshop. A Japanese manufacturer developed two new materials with novel properties. SRIC-BI facilitated an opportunity-search workshop that generated nearly 100 ideas in four focus areas of interest to the client, which we clustered and ranked on the basis of criteria relevant to the client.
- Demand for Ceramic Materials in U.S. Armor Applications. SRIC-BI contacted key U.S. military branches to determine whether they would consider purchasing ceramic armor products from a non-U.S. supplier or establishing performance standards that could be met only with material from a non-U.S. source. SRIC-BI identified military branches likely to be interested in the client's material and agencies that set performance standards for the client's material and suggested next steps for bringing the material to the attention of interested parties.
- Strategic Business Planning. As part of the client's ten-year master plan, the objective was to develop a strategic plan for the petrochemicals and polymer businesses and identify business opportunities in specialty chemicals and develop business profiles for the top 15 selected opportunities.
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