The Flame of Innovation

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It is amazing how delicate the innovative impulse is.  Like most brain related activities, innovation is a use-it-or-lose-it kind of affair.  Innovative folk can be inspired by management to go forth and devise products that will keep the company afloat 5 years from now. They can also be contradicted or neglected by management and as a result the innovative flame can extinguish.

It is not unusual for organizations to go to the considerable expense of hiring research chemists yet not let them do what, ostensibly, they are best at- developing new art.  New art can lead to new goods and services, or it can lead to more cost efficient approaches to existing product.  Research chemists can also capture the nuance of a given process, leading to a better understanding of quirks and diagnostic signals.

Or not.

It is quite possible for a company to be run by people who have no interest or ability to use a research chemist in a broadly productive way. In my experience, it is not uncommon for chemists to be hired on to perform a very narrow range of activities. A wise chemist in the job market should be alert to the possibility that their creativity will not actually be sought by the employer. Rather, the chemist might become just a mechanical arm for some character whose ambitions may not include you.

Research is very expensive and the wary R&D chemist should always have an ear to the ground to listen for the galloping horse of the axeman.  Some organizations have a policy of spending a certain fraction of the proceeds on R&D every year. Others are more project or product line oriented and staff-up or staff-down as the circumstance requires.  R&D resources may get re-jiggered when a project changes. It is always best to be on a winning project that management is enthusiastic about.  Dark horse projects are prone to being jettisoned at the first sign of trouble.

Keeping it fresh

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On occasion I have the chance to do what I really dig- running some new chemistry with the stereo cranked up high.  It can be Joe Green (Verde), Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eric Clapton, or Prairie Home Companion- I don’t care. Th’ Gaussling does love the blues. Opera, surprisingly, is a recent taste.

One circumstance when I can’t listen to tunes is when I’m reading patents- I need all of the focus I can get. I do have an unhealthy interest in patents and patent law. If you are so afflicted, I would recommend visiting the websites of a few law schools like George Mason University Law School. I would also highly recommend the website Patently-O.  The size of the patent law business is amazing. And make no mistake, it is a business.

Anyway, back to the lab.  I spent today doing what turned out to be a fairly tight fractional distillation.  Of course, this gave me an excuse to do GCMS. I love to work out fragmentation patterns in a pathetic effort to understand the side products. A long time ago I invested in McLafferty’s book on mass spec and it was a good investment.  A large number of folks place heavy reliance on the mass spec library on the computer.  If you’re bringing new materials to market, this resource may be of little value.

After a day of watching product drip, drip, drip, I am decompressing with a glass of Old Chubb. Pretty good stuff.

High Purity Life

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The world of ppm and lower detection thresholds is a confusing labyrinth of assumptions, equipment quirks, and a place where you definitely can’t confuse accuracy with precision. All of those lovely 9’s queued to the right of the decimal place. I do so want to believe what I see. But so often they are from a tight cluster of bullets away from the bullseye.

For those who must tread in this arcane world, I can only recommend that you find a good analytical lab and get to know the analysts well.  They can fill you in on the sorry truth of sub-ppm detection and quantitation.

The trinity of ICP , quadrapole, and the Blessed Dynode allow access to the innermost ring of analytical hell.  At the sub-ppm level, most of the periodic table begins to stand out of the background. Once apparently pristine material, like a trailer park divorcee, suddenly reveals a sordid history.  Pick your method and stick to it. If you go nosing around with other methodologies, you may be in for a disheartening picture. 

My Dear Libertarian Friends

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Something I have learned while working alongside fundamentalist libertarians is this: Libertarianism is a political philosophy that seems to provide a framework for the justification of isolationism and selfishness. It is an economic theory that conveniently validates the inherent stinginess of its adherents. It has an appealing and complex theoretical basis. But like all economic theories, is idealistic and requires universal alignment by the population.

That being said, I agree that the US could use a healthy dose of libertarian pragmatism these days. Government is  far too big and too many resources are being channeled into foreign adventures while the national debt accrues.  Our elected leaders resemble an angry mob with a credit card throwing debt bombs.

But when I hear libertarians talk about their resentment at sharing resources in the form of taxation (or, being forced to share their resources), I can’t help but wonder what is really behind this restrained anger.  All of my libertarian friends have benefited enormously from the infrastructure provided by the pooling of resources. They drive to work on the interstate highways, fly safely in controlled airspace, benefit from the safety provided by the military, learned to read from public school teachers, use the system of currency for their wellbeing, flush their toilets thanks to public sanitary systems, eat safely thanks to the local health department (food safety is a big one), have drugs to treat their illnesses with the help of NIH, and on and on.

Of course there are problems with all of our public institutions, some of them quite serious. But the marketplace is just as prone to corruption as the government. I think that libertarians want to get off the merry-go-round and disconnect from the manditory and expensive socialization that keeps creeping into our lives. I do too sometimes. But it seems painfully obvious that our path to this point has not been all bad and our public institutions have contributed to our stability and well being.

All organizations work better under structural tension- the balance of forces. Libertarianism is a useful counterpoint to liberal socialization and conservative militarism. Like the three legs of a stool, these competing political influences can serve the betterment of our society and keep each other in check.

Precautionary Principle or Precautionary Anxiety

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Our technological culture is slipping into a kind of Nanny State where risk aversion has become institutionalized at all levels.  Much of this trend has to do with the Precautionary Principle. I won’t elaborate on it because it well presented elsewhere. 

My concern with the Precautionary Principle is not because I have dismissed the threats of deforestation or extinction or global warming. My concern is not because I believe we should freely and wantonly expose people to chemcials substances.  I am concerned about the effect of this principle on innovation.  I believe it is possible and necessary to maintain our technological advance while minimizing the total environmental insult.

In regard to chemistry, innovation is being made far more difficult because of precautionary anxiety.  Part of the issue is fear of chemicals, or what some have called Chemophobia. Chemophobes know in their heart that “chemicals” are bad. 

Chemophobia is real.  Chemophobia derives from a lack of understanding of the chemical sciences and the meaning of risk.  To the chemophobe, any “chemical” odor is a prelude to cancer or other illness.  Bad smell equals toxic.  Good smell equals safe. However, such conclusions are easily toppled when you consider manure and phosgene. Manure is foul smelling, but not especially toxic. Phosgene is fragrant but highly toxic. Stink and toxicity correlate poorly and are a weak basis to judge safety.

We need to keep safety in a proper perspective. We need to have places where we can handle hazardous chemicals for research and manufacturing. The process of education will filter out those who are uncomfortable with the risks and produce those who are willing to work in such places in order to advance science. Students who have an interest in chemical sciences need to have the chance to work with reactive chemicals without undue constraint. Yes, they need to be in a lab and under the supervision of a trained mentor.  But students need to get experience working with reactive materials in order to develop judgement.

Industrial Life and the Golden Handcuffs

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Today is one of those days when I would happily give back half of my pay to return to academics.  Since starting this blog I have waxed rhapsodic about the fabulous world of chemical industry and along the way have hazed and taunted the cloistered world of academia.  Being in industry is like being in the engine room of a ship.  There is comfort in the steady thrumming of the engines and not a little excitement in the scale and power of the thing.

But industry offers a great deal in the way of discomfort as well. Whereas career buoyancy in academia is based on at least some pretense of meritocracy, moving up the pecking order in industry is a more complicated affair.  A productive academic can expect to become tenured and finally promoted to full professor after time in service with some grants, a book, committee work, or a handfull of papers, assuming the student evaluations aren’t too bad.

In industry, it is more about “what have you done for me lately”? Even if you do your best and make progress, there is no assurance that upper level management won’t cancel the project. 

In large corporations, plum jobs are subject to project cancellation or redundancy after a merger.  You can be making great progress on a project and suddenly the word comes down that your division is about to be sold or there is to be a reorganization.  Budgets, requisitions, and staffing are all frozen.  Then the call for early retirements comes out.  Finally, the first wave of layoffs arrives.  If you are a survivor, you are chastened by the experience and resolve to make the company work or die trying.

Eventually you discover that you could work 24/7 and still, your destiny is entirely in the hands of others. Then one morning you are called to a conference room and a sober member of HR has an announcement.  Everyone in the room is to be let go and out of the building by noon. There is a dreadful silence as people attempt to digest what was just said.  You feel the room close in around you and there is a metallic tang on the sides of your tongue. Confusion turns to panic and then to anger. How could they do this?

The HR person drones on about benefits, COBRA, and then reveals that the modest severance package has strings.  In exchange for silence and a clean separation, you will be offered two weeks of pay per year of service as “the package”.

So, you sign the paper and drop off your security card as you leave the room.  As you pack your things into the boxes they have thoughtfully provided, you begin to wonder just how you will make ends meet.  Not 2 hours earlier, you were immersed in the technical details of your project.  How things can change in just a few heartbeats.

Another pickle the mid-career chemist may encounter is the “Golden Handcuffs” scenario.  There are many variations of this phenomenon, but I’ll describe the variation I’m most familiar with.

As you climb the career ladder, you naturally climb the salary scale.  As your salary increases you find that your lifestyle develops expenses that closely match your income.  Eventually, you find that you can’t afford to leave because the starting salary elsewhere is lower. Unless you can be hired in elsewhere at your senior salary, you’re pretty much stuck.

At some point the company finds itself beset with a lot of expensive middle aged managers who will continue to draw heavy salaries for the remainder of their career. So, not only does a mid-career professional face the Golden Handcuffs, but they have a big target on their back during hard financial times at the company.  Mid-career can be a very treacherous time with dangerous shoals to navigate.

The WordPress Beer Minute

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This Beer Minute is brought to you by Th’ Gaussling and the code ffolk at WordPress.

Two half-decent Utility Beers I’ve run into lately are Samuel Adams Winter Lager and Stella Artois. Both are commendable lagers, best taken with a hearty meal and convivial friends.

Might I recommend a visit to the Stella Artois website? It is rather entertaining and interactive. 

This has been a Beer Minute brought to you by WordPress and Th’ Gaussling.

Another Angry Male Busy Shooting Citizens

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Lordy. Another angry, gun totin’ male out capping random Colorado citizens, this time in church.  Sounds like testosterone poisoning. We really need to re-examine how we raise males in our society because something continues to be dreadfully wrong.

Evidently, kids learn about nature from the Natural Geographic Channel, but curiously, they don’t learn violence from the rest of television culture. Hmmm. I guess ideation of violence just glances off kids like scrambled eggs off a teflon pan.

Sarcasm aside, who really knows what the causality behind this event was?  But surely immersion in a culture that idealizes the drama of violence can’t help. This was a final showdown.  Isn’t that how many if not most action/adventure movies end? Desired outcome through superior firepower. What is imitating what? 

Collectively, we seem unwilling to address the matter of how young men might be influenced to choose away from violent resolution of conflict.

The Aldrich Distribution Machine

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It was interesting to note in the recent C&EN report on the Top 50 chemical companies that among the most profitable was Sigma-Aldrich (SIAL), or colloquially, Aldrich.  Sigma-Aldrich controls an expanding complex of companies all targeted for more specialized domains of chemical technology.  Anyone who has received an invoice from Aldrich would not find their profitability surprising.   But what most customers may not realize is the extent of relatively transparent infrastructure that has been put into place to enable this profitability. 

Aldrich is not profitable merely because their prices are, well, high. Aldrich is profitable for some subtle reasons as well. Easiest to recognize is their shrewd choice of market.  Aldrich’s customer list includes nearly every research and academic chemistry and biology department in much of the world, or at least anywhere FedEx delivers. What is important about the R&D market is certainly not the volume of chemicals each research group orders- 5 g here, 100 g there, a liter of this, or 50 mL of that.  Rather, it is the constant buzz of orders coming in for premium grade (and premium priced) chemicals virtually all of the time.  While each order may be modest relative to bulk chemical transactions, a constant stream of orders begins to add up. 

What is shrewd about focusing on the R&D supply market is this:  Over time R&D money is relatively constant. The big academic and institute money is federal in origin and as such tends to be reliable in supply. Out in the world, projects start and projects end continuously.  It may not be reliable to an individual researcher, but overall, the monies are dispersed every year and someone out there gets them. So from a marketing view, the players in the game may change, but the spring of money flows every year.

Other people develop the Next Big Thing and SAFC supplies the raw materials. Just like the gold rush. A few miners hit a big strike. But the more reliable money came from selling supplies to the miners.

As I alluded above, Aldrich charges a premium price for its products and, to my knowledge, has never discounted its wares.  It offers a valuable service and is unapologetic about how it does business.  Any given product in the catalog has a substantial markup on it. I think that many people find this galling when they compare 25 g unit prices to bulk prices.  But I would caution that there is a substantial and unrelenting cost associated with having certified quality material prepackaged and waiting on a shelf in some warehouse.

It’s easy to get bulk pricing- buy in bulk!

A bottle of maleic anhydride sitting on the shelf is functionally equivalent to cash sitting in a bottle.  You have to pay up front to have material in inventory and the cash or credit used to buy the inventory could have been used to do other things. It could have been given to Warren Buffett for investment or to the stockholders.  Management has a fiduciary responsibility to the stockholders. It is to provide the best possible return on stockholders investment.

Another hidden talent of Aldrich is logistics and distribution. Getting things to where they should be on time does not happen easily. Much of Aldrich’s success depends on its ability to move product into and out of inventory rapidly and accurately. On the input side, purchasing, receiving, quality control, manufacturing, and warehousing are highly organized to assure that orders can be fulfilled when the time comes.

When the order does arrive, the business data system has to issue the right part number from inventory and be assured that there is no shelf life problem that would disqualify the product for sale.  Any chemical product must have a certificate of analysis, an MSDS, and be available in the right unit configuration, or SKU- stock keeping unit.

Order fulfillment involves entry of the purchase order into the data system, issuance of a work order to obtain the material, pulling the SKU from the inventory data base, and sending the order to shipping for final containerizing for land, sea, or air shipment.  Here, the product must be packed in a way to conform with DOT and IATA regulations.  Shipping documents must be packed, boxes placarded, and the parcels must get onto a truck for delivery.  Foreign deliveries are complicated by customs issues, which often include inspection and import duties. Customs clearance is a subspecialty in the shipping world.

In many ways, making the chemical is the easiest part.  Getting clean product is just the beginning of the adventure in product distribution.

Growth occurs by acquiring new brand loyalty and by expansion of the collection of products. One stop shopping for lab supplies.  The “80/20 rule” applies to such collections of products. This rule  of thumb states that 20 % of your products do 80 % of the business.  Chances are good that this ratio is even more skewed than 80/20. 

So, one way to grow is to expand the collection size. This ensures that as much demand is covered with product as possible.

Another way to grow is to dial in annual price increases- say 5-7%. This renders the prices in the catalog obsolete soon after they are distributed, but that is unlikely to be fatal to any given buying decision. 

Friday Links

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Here is an interesting link. It is a simulation of the famous Enigma Machine from WWII. You can alter the settings and input a string of text to be encoded. The flash simulation will show how the thing works. If you copy & paste the encrypted string back into the input, it will decrypt it.  Not surprisingly, it doesn’t accept number or space characters.

Ever seen pictures of an uncontained jet engine failure?  It would be interesting useful to know if the frags had enough energy left over to penetrate the cabin.