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Success
project needed a business plan that outlined what the business
units had to do to make a sustainable business out of the
project, how high the required investment costs would be,
how the subsequent business model might look, and what
could be expected in terms of financial planning.”
If you fail, fail early
elements32 evonik science newsletter
Dr. Jochen Ackermann
(pictured 6th from left)
and his 15 member
project house team
The newly established project house pursued a clear project
management plan that divided the three years into the following
phases: exploration (first year), definition (second
year) and validation (third year). “After the first year, we set
the specific development objective for all projects, along
with a detailed milestone plan for the remaining two years,
which would leave no more room for major deviations,“
says Ackermann. Earlier, in consultation with the business
units and steering committee, four projects had been cut
i n n o v A t i o n M A n A G e M e n t
from the project portfolio because they could not be realistically
implemented. There were several reasons for the decision:
Some projects were too research-intensive for the
time available, the patent situation was problematic, there
was no realistic business model for Evonik, the investment
costs would have been too high, or the idea was simply too
late for the market. “If you fail, fail early”, says Ackermann.
This is the only way to avoid wasting time with projects with
an uncertain future—something neither the project house
nor the Group needed.
The seven continued projects (see box on page 15) can
be divided into two categories: projects focused on establishing
a prod uct or system competence, and projects focused
on develop ing a technology platform. In the first year of the
project house, most of the work involved evaluating the
projects and forming a powerful team. Fifteen employees,
on aver age, worked at the project house. Then, laboratory
tests were run in the second year and the first half of the
third, while the second half of the third year was devoted to
transferring the developments to the Group.
Employees of the Functional Films & Surfaces Project
House drew important conclusions from an audit and life
cycle analysis of past project houses: “If you lack some important
expertise for specific applications in your own
house, you should consult someone from the user‘s industry,“
says Ackermann. “Indeed, these were one of the steps
that began opening our eyes to the direction we have to
take.“ A technology consultant with a good overview and
the right contacts is also helpful, since some experiments
and test runs take more time and equipment than is available
to carry out in-house. The outstanding reputation of the
project houses among the customers and partners made this
process easier.
The „operative project teams” proved to be another key
element in the success of the project house. “In addition to
the project manager from the project house, these teams
were made up of colleagues from the business units,” says
Ackermann. These were product managers, sales >>>
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