Is it Real? Can We Win? Is it Worth it?

When the Pain of The Present Exceeds the Fear of the Future

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Watch the full discussion of how three newly formed companies created new sources of innovation and growth and how you can achieve similar benefits in your organization.

Alexa Dembek, CTO and Chief Sustainability Officer of DuPont, and Neal Gutterson, CTO of Corteva, recently appeared at Front End of Innovation in Boston to reveal how they navigated the spinout and re-engineered their organizations for growth. They talked with David Matheson about working with SmartOrg to introduce the tools and techniques of strategic portfolio management into their innovation operations, with spectacular results.

The “Merger of the Century” saw Dow Chemical and DuPont combine into a behemoth called DowDuPont, and then quickly divide itself back into three publicly-traded spinoffs:
  • DuPont (specialty materials)
  • Corteva Agriscience (seeds and crop protection)
  • Dow (materials science)
The newly created companies faced the challenge of leveraging their legacy of success to create new sources of innovation and growth.

Variations on a Theme from SmartOrg, Inc. (Left to right) Neal Gutterson, CTO of Corteva; Alexa Dembek, CTO and Chief Sustainability Office of DuPont; and David Matheson, President and CEO of SmartOrg.