(284c) Failure: A Catalyst for Success

Technical success in industrial research does not guarantee commercially successful implementation. The potential for research and development to yield a good return on investment requires effective management. Shawn Feist has modeled such leadership in his remarkable career. As Shawn and others have learned, even the best managers and leaders experience failure. A distinguishing feature of those individuals is their ability to harvest lessons from past failures to increase the productivity of future opportunities. This talk will celebrate a few small failures in Dow’s research and development function, including one or more examples involving Shawn before he ascended to a management role. By sharing some lessons learned from those failures, we hope to equip others to avoid repeating similar mistakes.