As the ICIS Innovation Awards 2011 builds towards the entry deadline of 4 July, it's good to see our key sponsor Dow Corning getting coverage for its innovation strategy - this time in McKinsey's quarterly bulletin.
The US consultancy has interviewed chairman Stephanie Burns and chief technology officer Gregg Zank - a regular judge on the ICIS awards for the last eight years - about new product and new business model innovation.
Dow Corning's online approach to selling commodity silicone products through its Xiameter busines unit gets its usual plaudits.
The company's use of mega-trends to direct is longer term innovation effort also gets an airing. Says Zank: "We want to focus on areas that are driven by large societal trends and needs in the world--megatrends--because we know those trends are going to drive discontinuities in the marketplace.
"There are a number of areas we are particularly interested in. These include health care and personal care, renewable energy, construction, and electronics--where we are looking at the ever-expanding demand for devices and the merger of electronics with other areas such as photonics and biotechnology. And we are watching how megatrends--such as energy scarcity, urbanization, and others--interact with these.
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