IMAGINE BETTER

How customer centricity and curiosity drive innovation

sun shining through a tree in Australian forest

In celebration of our upcoming 125-year anniversary, we sat down with our Senior Vice President of R&D and Chief Technology Officer, A.N. Sreeram, to get his thoughts on the role materials science development and collaboration play in helping Dow Imagine Better for our customers.

THE NEW PRODUCT INNOVATIONS WE CREATE MUST BE THE BEST FOR OUR CUSTOMERS AND FOR THE PLANET.

Sreeram, since you’ve joined Dow, what have we done as a company to encourage innovation in areas such as science, R&D, technology…etc.?

Our goal from a technology and innovation standpoint is to always have a seat at the design table amongst our customers and value chain leaders and we’ve done a good job of achieving that during my time at Dow. For us, our best innovations start with our people. Hiring top talent and equipping them with the world’s best resources and capabilities in an inclusive environment is the key to discovering solutions to problems and developing state-of-the-art products and materials.

Are there any certain product innovations that have been developed during your tenure that you’re particularly proud of?

At Dow, we commercialize about 2,000 new products every year, so to pick just a few from my tenure would be a nearly impossible task. We’ve had more R&D 100 and Edison awards than any other company – which is something I’m very proud of – but more importantly, it’s my job to ensure that these products are delivering better performance by using fewer resources and lowering our overall carbon footprint.

As we embark on the celebration around Dow 125, we’re reminded of our theme for this year which is Imagine Better. How is your team leaning into this theme to make progress in the innovation space?

Our founder, Herbert Henry Dow, had a saying, “If you can’t do it better, why do it.” That’s something that’s stuck with me during my time at Dow because it rings true even to this day, 125 years after our founding. Imagine Better is the perfect tagline for our 125-year anniversary campaign. Our ambition as a company is to be the most innovative, customer-centric, inclusive and sustainable materials science company on the planet; and in order to do that, the new product innovations we create must be the best for our customers and for the planet. (See further how Dow focuses on diversity in innovation.)

What do we need to do to ensure we’re continuing to make progress, drive innovation, and create a more sustainable world in the next 125 years?

The world we live in is ever-changing, as we’ve seen over the course of the last few years in particular. You simply cannot try to predict the future. The one constant, however, is that humans are continually trying to make the world around us better and want to be able to do it in a safe and responsible manner. There will always be unpredictability, but we’ve navigated it well for the last 125 so we just need to do the same and even better for the next 125. As long as we’re sticking to our core values as a company, we’ll always be able to have a bright future.


A.N. Sreeram, Senior Vice President of Research & Development and Chief Technology Officer

 

WE ARE DREAMING IN BIGGER, BOLDER WAYS TO IMAGINE A BETTER WORLD

Jim Fitterling smiles at the camera

Celebrating Dow’s 125th Anniversary

Small Image Tile

Karen S. Carter smiles at the camera

Leading with inclusion to leave Dow better

Small Image Tile

Dan Futter smiles at the camera

Solving customer challenges through collaboration

Small Image Tile

Andre Argenton smiles at the camera

A sustainable future is created in partnership

Small Image Tile

Explore all case studies and articles

 

Stories about vision, ambitions and actions toward a more sustainable, equitable world. All case studies and articles.