DuPont o como hacer rentable la ciencia [DuPont or how to make science profitable] 5/19/2009 11:41:36 AM From the laboratory to the market. The bicentennial multinational company is a leader in chemical patents. It is reborn every half century with new businesses. At present, these are the biofuels and polymers.
Some inventions cause a furor. One of these was Nylon, announced in 1938 as a material that was "as fine as a spider's web but more elastic than any other commonly used natural fiber." It began as a toothbrush, but two years later the famous nylon stockings were introduced. Other inventions surround our daily life, hidden among paintings and plastic components for computers, cell phones or skate wheels. What do Teflon pans, Lycra clothes, air conditioning, supermarket refrigerators, Corian sinks or Nomex fiber that protect against fire and are made in Asturias (Spain) have in common? All came from the minds of DuPont scientists, the second chemical company of the world and the first in patents.
"Touch it if you want." Ian Hudson, president of DuPont for Europe, Middle East and Africa, extends his arm to the speaker and invites him to observe the texture of his elegant blue suit. It seems comfortable; it is made of a new material developed by the company. Also the shirt. It is called Sorona and contains a biodegradable polymer, created with the fermentation of cornstarch. His suit resists stains and the sun’s rays, it is more flexible than the Nylon that made DuPont famous in World War II and it does not wrinkle. "It is an incredible technology. I am not a scientist, so that the way we do it seems to be a miracle to me."
The method defines this multinational that has a cruising speed of two patents a day, that billed 19,000 million Euros in 2007 and that has 59,000 employees, 1100 of whom work in the Asturias (Spain) factory. For Hudson (Yorkshire, Great Britain, 1957), it is not only that DuPont investigates but also that DuPont's success is due to "its capacity to bring science to the market. It is the generation of the entire innovation process: listening to the consumers, working in certain areas of innovation, packaging the results in the way you want to bring it to the market and making money with it. "
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