Looks like we now don't need abdm et al to help connect the dots with their fantastic research because Dr Meller is going or already has done that for OBJ
Yes it is unfortunate that many failed to understand abdm’s “Dot joining”, amongst his many talents is “perception” and he knew that a man would appear in the future owning a company called “Creating Dots, LLC” and thus sending us down the road to riches. Unfortunately it won’t be quite as simple as that, although judging by the research that I have conducted, so far, he is a man that will be of great benefit to OBJ. There appears to be a theme that runs through the info that I have read and this relates to P&G’s Sustainability and Industrial Biotechnology programs of which he was a key driver, and his ability to find innovation where ever he could -
Dr. Meller is currently the managing Director of Creating Dots, LLC where he has built a portfolio of sustainability companies with a strong focus on the developing world that address some of the key issues facing the planet today – water pollution, air pollution, solid waste and affordable energy storage. He has hand-selected these portfolio companies because they use disruptive approaches to changing the world in which we live – for the better. He is either the Founder, sits on the board or advisory board of each of these companies. Each company addresses markets that are well in excess of $10 Billion today.
“Disruptive approaches”, this sounds familiar, and this could certainly apply to OBJ’s technology, so perhaps Dr Meller knows the potential of OBJ and has decided to become a part of its future or perhaps “finish” what he started when working with P&G……
“Tomorrow, it won’t be the largest or fastest companies who will succeed but the most collaborative,” Steve Meller, PhD, Chief Innovation Catalyst at Procter and Gamble USA said in his Keynote address, "Open Innovation: P&G's Lifeblood" at TiECON Australia 2011 in Sydney.
TiECON Australia 2011, TiE Sydney’s seminal annual conference "Sustaining Innovation" held on October 11, 2011 at the University of New South Wales in Sydney’s Central Business District, brought together corporates and entrepreneurs in a synergistic collaboration.
The more than 90 delegates were represented by entrepreneurs in all stages, innovators, thought leaders, corporates, academics and several students of innovation and entrepreneurship had come together to discuss and explore new ways of how agile and nimble inventions and innovations could both disrupt and incrementally improve innovation inside large cumbersome corporates. Perhaps with the exception of Procter and Gamble (P&G), which is one of the world’s most innovative (2008, Business Week) and respected companies (2006, Wall Street Journal).
Leading the innovation debate at TiECON 2011 was P&G USA’s Steve Meller. The Australian born Meller with a PhD in NeuroScience from the University of Adelaide has been integral to P&G’s world-leading ‘open innovation’ practice and the very successful ‘Connect & Develop’ program that has yielded more than half of P&G’s new products by leveraging expertise outside the company.
“We build partners vs crafting contracts. Our deal structures are as creative as the innovations. No two partnerships are the same, so neither is the agreement. It begins with a conversation and shared vision, ” Steve Meller said.
P&G currently has multiple deals with more than 40% of its Connect & Develop partners, which had earned itself a reputation of "making (innovation) strategy its brand. The branded way is how we have chosen to talk about open innovation," he said.
Its Connect & Develop Innovation Network is a confluence of entrepreneurs, consumers, VCs, suppliers, research institutes, contract labs, alliances, Joint Development partners, virtual networks, trade partners, individual inventors, government’s labs and retirees. It was this aspect that generated a heightened level of interest and debate evidenced by the lively and interactive debate during the Q&A session.
So what does the Chief Innovation Catalyst do? “My role is to create strategies and capabilities and then pitch it back to the company. Innovation drives our growth strategy. We are continually expanding brands and leveraging growth. We can’t be everywhere, think of everything, especially not at the speed with which the world operates.
“To deliver what consumers need, in an efficient and cost effective way, that is market-leading, we need to tap the ideas of the world. Innovation will be the key to get there. P&G brings expertise, scale. We focus on what customers really want,” he said.
P&G currently conducts 20,000 research studies which hone in on where (innovation) can impact on consumers which it reaches via 30,000 global suppliers. “Innovation is more than R&D - in fact, it’s not R&D,” Steve said.
P&G aims to develop more strategic Connect & Develop partnerships to deliver more "game-changing wins for us and our partners and with greater scale."
“We are always looking for collaboration opportunities. Our door is always open to partnerships. Its win-win interactions with us. We want to create partnerships that will sustainably grow over time,” Steve said.
Meller has a team of 50 people trawling the world for packaging alternatives and other innovations. In particular, medical biotechnology companies are missing industrial opportunities, he says. For example, P&G created a new skin-care product under its Olay brand after applying genomics, a technique used primarily to study the role of genes in diseases, to find the genes involved in skin ageing. The company then tested everyday products to find those that rehydrate ageing skin and had a product on the market within three years. A three-year timeline from benchtop to market would make many biotechnology company leaders drool
……….Steve Meller, Chief Innovations Catalyst, P&G USA: “The value of anything is what someone else is willing to pay for it. You may have to de-convolute what maybe already exists in the market...We (P&G) practically don’t care where innovation comes from. Now, it’s more than 80% of outside innovations are successful”
In response to whether P&G was creating a Darwinian ‘survival of the fittest’ environment: “No – it fulfills the opportunity.”
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…….. “it’s been a terribly exciting period and I think there is some very near term stuff that I think that you will be very happy with that we will be very very keen to announce as soon as we possibly can” - Jeff Edwards, AGM 2013
As always please D Y O R
OBJ Price at posting:
3.3¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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