Publications

March 2024 (Revised April 2024)
Supplement

From "BIG" Ideas to Sustainable Impact at ICL Group (B)

By: Linda A. Hill and Lydia Begag

In August 2023, Raviv Zoller, CEO of ICL Group, discussed his upcoming business trip to St. Louis with Eduard Croitoru, VP of ICL Corporate Initiatives, to commemorate the construction of ICL's new $400 million advanced manufacturing facility. In preparation for the... View Details

14 Jan 2008
Research & Ideas

Mapping Polluters, Encouraging Protectors

Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Texas. Users can search on variables such as emission level or health hazard level, rated from 0 to 9, with 9 being worst. By typing in 7, 8, or 9, they can see highest polluters indicated all... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Chemical; Chemical

Herbert H. Dow

Dow Chemicals began by producing bleaching powder as its main product. Through Dow’s inventiveness, Dow Chemical expanded dramatically, especially with the discovery of many uses for brine. Dow manufactured... View Details

Keywords: Chemicals & Industrial

Thomas W. Mastin

Mastin was instrumental in the development and commercialization of many of Lubrizol’s products, the world’s largest manufacturer of chemical additives for lubricants. Mastin was a published chemist who held... View Details

Keywords: Chemicals & Industrial

Otto Haas

Along with chemist Otto Rohm, Haas founded one of the world’s largest specialty chemical producers. Under his leadership, Rohm and Haas discovered two major products that have had a significant impact on... View Details

Keywords: Chemicals & Industrial

Vincent A. Calarco

Calarco, having been awarded the highest honor by the American Chemical Society, is regarded as one of the strongest CEO’s in the specialty chemicals industry. He has been a principal player in the... View Details

Keywords: Chemicals & Industrial

Morse G. Dial

Dial was instrumental in the growth and diversification of Union Carbide. He strongly supported research and development, and it was with this foresight that Union Carbide was... View Details

Keywords: Chemicals & Industrial

November 2000 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Bush Boake Allen

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade

Bush Boake Allen, a flavor and fragrance firm, is considering strategic options that would integrate customers into its innovation process via a potentially disruptive Internet-based technology. As this approach could result in dramatic changes to the firm's business... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Disruptive Innovation; Technological Innovation; Management Teams; Product Design; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Conflict Management; Internet; Chemical Industry

Mortgaging his home in 1984, Kuse, along with a few other executives from Georgia Pacific, financed a leveraged buy-out to create Georgia Gulf Corporation, a major producer of specialty chemical products. Under his leadership, Kuse not... View Details

Keywords: Chemicals & Industrial

William H. Nichols

Nichols was instrumental in the building of the chemical supply business in the United States and was one of the original founders of the American Chemical Society. Under his... View Details

Keywords: Chemicals & Industrial

October 2019 (Revised February 2025)
Case

A Conversation with Ellen J. Kullman, Chairman & CEO of DuPont, 2009-2015

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

Ellen J. Kullman, the retired Chairman and CEO of DuPont, describes how she guided the storied science and technology company through a contentious proxy battle with activist investor Trian Partners, which acquired DuPont shares in 2013 and sought to break up the... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Capital Structure; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Institutional Investing; Leadership; Leadership Style; Management; Transformation; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; United States

Career Coach

Guy Kamguia

has over 10 years of experience across engineering, strategy, investing, and operations. He enjoys leveraging his diverse professional background to help others define their career roadmaps with concrete and... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Impact Investing; Financial Services (All); Private Equity; Financial Services (All); Search Fund; Financial Services (All); Manufacturing

Orlando F. Weber

Weber and an associate pooled their resources to merge several small chemical companies into one conglomerate that came be known as Allied Chemical. Weber maintained stability at the View Details

Keywords: Chemicals & Industrial

February 2003 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Asociacion Colombiana de Industrias Plasticas (Acoplasticos)

By: Michael E. Porter and Willis M. Emmons III

Acoplasticos was established in 1961 as a lobbying group for Colombia's major plastics manufacturing companies. In the early 1980s, the organization shifted its focus toward improving the productivity of the Colombian plastics and rubber cluster, which also included... View Details

Keywords: Cooperation; Information Technology; Alliances; Research and Development; Business and Government Relations; Performance Productivity; Developing Countries and Economies; Chemical Industry; Chemical Industry; Colombia

Hooker was the founder of one of the first electrochemical plants in the U.S. at Niagara Falls, N.Y. - a major producer of chemicals and plastics. He was ranked as one of the leading American figures in the... View Details

Keywords: Chemicals & Industrial

December 2009 (Revised April 2012)
Case

Neoprene

By: Tom Nicholas and Felipe Tamega Fernandes

In 1931, during one of the worst economic crises in U.S. history, Du Pont announced the discovery of an innovative rubber synthetic product—neoprene. Yet at the time of the announcement, Du Pont did not have any neoprene to sell. Manufacturing facilities were still... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Business History; Innovation and Invention; Product Development; Risk and Uncertainty; Science-Based Business; Commercialization; Chemical Industry; United States

November 1989 (Revised August 1994)
Supplement

Du Pont's Titanium Dioxide Business (C)

Provides students the opportunity to track industry evolution over time, to explore the role that signaling may play in such evolution, and to construct and validate industry scenarios. View Details

Keywords: Analysis; Supply and Industry; Chemical Industry