Corporate Spotlight Interview: Evonik Corporation

May 15, 2015 03:11 PM EST By: Regina Ramazzini

TechConnect Innovation News speaks with Sanjay Gupta, Vice President & Regional Head, Evonik Corporation

  Evonik Sanjay Gupta

What are technology/solution areas that you have a primary interest in?

Innovation is a key driver for Evonik, as one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. New products, processes, and solutions secure profitable growth for Evonik. They open up new business areas and strengthen our leading market and technology positions. Innovative strength and efficient R&D are already hallmarks of Evonik. We are continuously working on these strengths: by improving our global innovation activities, networking and internationalizing our research, through forward-thinking and openness to external ideas, and by continuing to invest in creative minds.

Growth fields of Evonik include cosmetic ingredients, additives for food and animal feed, medical devices, biotechnology, new catalytic processes, membranes, composites and electronic materials.

What level of commercial maturity do you typically look for in technology partnerships?

Evonik Industries is stretching itself farther in innovation to stay ahead of the pack in trends and scientific advancements. In order to participate in the latest research findings, Evonik cooperates with leading universities and industrial partners around the world. Evonik supports start-ups with its know-how and infrastructure, and in return, hopes to receive inspiration for its own innovation work. We invest in both early stage technologies typically coming from universities as well as mid-to-late stage start-ups and young companies with innovative technology and high growth potential in the field of specialty chemicals.

Please describe your company’s Innovation model and how this model helps to find new innovations.

The innovation landscape of Evonik has a decentralized structure and requires interdisciplinary cooperation. Some 2,500 employees from numerous professional fields contribute to our global innovation network at over 35 sites. The optimization of existing products, applications, and processes in our operative segments and business lines is referred to as incremental innovation with a short-term to mid-term time horizon. Creavis, the strategic innovation unit of Evonik, develops completely new products and technologies. Creavis researches disruptive, mid-term to long-term innovation topics, which have the potential to introduce substantial changes to technologies, industries, and our society. We combine the competencies of Evonik in the areas of specialty chemicals and process technology & engineering in the early innovation phases, which allows for the quick implementation of new processes to create efficient industrial production. Our innovation team cooperates intensively with marketing and our international sales team. This ensures that our innovations closely match the requirements of our customers, whose competitiveness is enhanced by our new or improved products and applications.

We support the growth strategy of our business lines by increasing our expansion of R&D in the emerging regions—especially in Asia. Our aim is to strengthen the competitiveness of our customers in these regions through research and applications technology and technological services geared specifically to local needs.  Successfully implementing a growth strategy requires more than just money. Evonik as one of the world’s leading providers of specialty chemicals brings additional strategic capabilities to the partnership.
• Technological expertise and infrastructure
• Market experience and access
• A global distribution network
• Expertise in patent strategies and on issues of industrial property rights

We focus of our global investments on Europe, the U.S., and Asia.

Why work with TechConnect and the National Innovation Summit as a technology prospector? Who are you looking to meet with?

The National Innovation Summit provides an opportunity for Evonik to connect with new and upcoming prospective entrepreneurs, innovators from universities and start-up companies. We look forward to the opportunity to meet with government agencies, academic institutes, small start-ups, and potential research partners.

 

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