Entrepreneurship, chemical industry

Finally, Andrea Larson, in Section 7.3.3, presents a business case for the sustainability of the chemical industry, recognizing that the market is not driven by some invisible hand, but rather by the entrepreneurship and creative capacities of real professionals who daily make decisions about what chemicals to develop and use, what products to make and promote, and what costs will be borne by the public and the environment. It is through guided innovation that chemicals are developed and employed, and where innovation embraces environmental values there are a host of business opportunities for creating a sustainable future. 

The reality is that innovative individuals and companies have already challenged these assumptions with alternatives to conventional chemical design and application, working from the feedstock molecules up, and from the final product down to its material components. For these innovators, new scientific information, future-oriented conceptual maps, new design parameters, and the commitment to benign alternatives all combine to create breakthroughs. The opportunity offered to the chemical industry can be understood if one looks through the lens of entrepreneurship and innovation to see the possibilities for new products and markets. 

Landau, R., "Entrepreneurship in the Chemical Industry and in the United States," Presentation at the Technical Session, 13th Annual Meeting, National Academy of Engineering, Washington, D.C., November 10, 1977... 

One may conclude that there are two potential weaknesses in the present sucrochemistry programs. The program is unlikely to convince the giants in the chemical industry to adopt, what is for them,a new technology, as well as an unfeuniliar feedstock. The sugar industry, itself, seems at the moment to lack the expertise or the entrepreneurship to enter the chemicals markets. This may sound rather pessimistic, but perhaps it is realistic. 

---