When Ellen Kullman became DuPont’s 19th Chief Executive in January 2009 and its Chairman later that year, she immediately began championing what she calls “market driven science.”
The idea is to use DuPont’s formidable research capabilities, along with its power to innovate, and to focus them on the needs of the world’s growth markets. By doing that, Ellen Kullman, President, Chair and CEO of DuPont is continuing the company’s evolution from a manufacturer of gunpowder, two centuries ago, to a chemical producer, over the last century, to something with a much larger portfolio of activities that now includes agriculture, nutrition, health, biotechnology, engineered materials, and many other business areas. In today’s DuPont, with just under $34 billion in revenue, the chemicals business accounts for only about 20% of revenue, well behind agriculture, the company’s largest segment. Kullman has been pushing DuPont into new areas that more closely track with the big trends (and needs) of the world. To explain how she is making DuPont a more innovative, science-driven company, Kullman spoke with the Korn/Ferry partners Andy Talkington and Jim Aslaksen, and with the Briefings Editor-in-Chief, Joel Kurtzman, at DuPont’s corporate headquarters in Wilmington, Del. What follows is drawn from that conversation.
Q. You recently gave a speech at the Detroit Economic Club in which you discussed the world’s megatrends – the big changes and challenges everyone faces. You tied those trends to your business. How does that link work?
Ellen Kullman (EK): If a company needs to grow in order to satisfy shareholders and create returns, then you have to understand the trends that are facing the world and how they affect your business. Now, we don’t understand where the world’s actually going to end up, but there are a lot of things that are clear and one of them is that we have seven billion people in the world now and we expect nine billion by 2050. That means we’re going to have to feed two billion more people by 2050. These people are also going to want access to energy – for transportation, communication and their general way of living. They are also going to need to have water, which requires energy to purify and transport. We’re also going to have to protect people and the environment. Today, we don’t do these things very well, and if there are another couple of billion of us on the planet, we’ll have to do a better job than we are doing now. To me, these challenges represent huge opportunities for our company.
Q. You’re talking about focusing DuPont’s resources around sustainability?
EK: When we first started talking about this, our employees said, well, those big trends are all very interesting, but why are we talking about them? And I said, this is more than interesting because this is where we’re going to put our research-and-development dollars. These are the real needs the world has, and these needs will create opportunities for growth for our company. These are long-term and not cyclical or short-term changes. These changes involve billions of people. So, following the megatrends is about sustainability, but it is also about creating long-term growth. And, because we have the science that can help in each of those areas, if we’re successful, not only will we be helping to solve some of humanity’s most difficult issues, we will also be creating growth and returns for our shareholders.
Q. What are the other megatrends you are looking at?
EK: It’s all driven by population growth, but the trends include feeding the world, access to energy – and we think alternative energy is a key part of that – and protecting people and the environment. We also believe that a very large share of future economic growth, as well as future demand, will occur in developing countries, since that’s where the population growth is. We have to be prepared for that, which is what we’re doing. We have research centers around the globe, including India, China and Brazil, and we’re focusing resources there.
The idea is to use DuPont’s formidable research capabilities, along with its power to innovate, and to focus them on the needs of the world’s growth markets. By doing that, Ellen Kullman, President, Chair and CEO of DuPont is continuing the company’s evolution from a manufacturer of gunpowder, two centuries ago, to a chemical producer, over the last century, to something with a much larger portfolio of activities that now includes agriculture, nutrition, health, biotechnology, engineered materials, and many other business areas. In today’s DuPont, with just under $34 billion in revenue, the chemicals business accounts for only about 20% of revenue, well behind agriculture, the company’s largest segment. Kullman has been pushing DuPont into new areas that more closely track with the big trends (and needs) of the world. To explain how she is making DuPont a more innovative, science-driven company, Kullman spoke with the Korn/Ferry partners Andy Talkington and Jim Aslaksen, and with the Briefings Editor-in-Chief, Joel Kurtzman, at DuPont’s corporate headquarters in Wilmington, Del. What follows is drawn from that conversation.
Q. You recently gave a speech at the Detroit Economic Club in which you discussed the world’s megatrends – the big changes and challenges everyone faces. You tied those trends to your business. How does that link work?
Ellen Kullman (EK): If a company needs to grow in order to satisfy shareholders and create returns, then you have to understand the trends that are facing the world and how they affect your business. Now, we don’t understand where the world’s actually going to end up, but there are a lot of things that are clear and one of them is that we have seven billion people in the world now and we expect nine billion by 2050. That means we’re going to have to feed two billion more people by 2050. These people are also going to want access to energy – for transportation, communication and their general way of living. They are also going to need to have water, which requires energy to purify and transport. We’re also going to have to protect people and the environment. Today, we don’t do these things very well, and if there are another couple of billion of us on the planet, we’ll have to do a better job than we are doing now. To me, these challenges represent huge opportunities for our company.
Q. You’re talking about focusing DuPont’s resources around sustainability?
EK: When we first started talking about this, our employees said, well, those big trends are all very interesting, but why are we talking about them? And I said, this is more than interesting because this is where we’re going to put our research-and-development dollars. These are the real needs the world has, and these needs will create opportunities for growth for our company. These are long-term and not cyclical or short-term changes. These changes involve billions of people. So, following the megatrends is about sustainability, but it is also about creating long-term growth. And, because we have the science that can help in each of those areas, if we’re successful, not only will we be helping to solve some of humanity’s most difficult issues, we will also be creating growth and returns for our shareholders.
Q. What are the other megatrends you are looking at?
EK: It’s all driven by population growth, but the trends include feeding the world, access to energy – and we think alternative energy is a key part of that – and protecting people and the environment. We also believe that a very large share of future economic growth, as well as future demand, will occur in developing countries, since that’s where the population growth is. We have to be prepared for that, which is what we’re doing. We have research centers around the globe, including India, China and Brazil, and we’re focusing resources there.
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