The Chemist a s a Member of the Industrial Team HE senior author’s activity in industrial chemistry dates
T from that early time when a chemist’s position in industry
was substantially equivalent to that now usually occupied by a lifeless instrument that records pH, density, etc., on a chart. It was his job to turn out a specified number of analyses and submit a written report by a specified time each day. One chemist, who was hired some 50 years ago to handle the control analyses for a plant of a large organization, while being inducted by an older member of the company’s chemical department ’was shown an elaborate report blank which he was told had to be filled out with the results of his labors every day. I n order to meet the requirements, the report liad to be mailed on the eight oJclock train. “However,” the older chemist remarked, “the company is very broadminded about the matter. Any night when you can’t get the report finished in time for that mail, you can just send in your resignation instead.” And he meant it, too! In the very early days of the active use of the chemist in industry-the analytical period-the highest title likely to be bestowed on him was chief chemist, and he probably never even saw anyone in an executive capacity higher than that of plant superintendent. Those days of the merely mechanical control chemist are far behind us, however. In recent years the status of the chemist in industry has changed radically, paralleling the growth in research. The money spent on industrial research annually is reported to have increased from $100 million to $2.5 billion in the past 20 years. Obviously, an increase in expenditure of this magnitude is sufficient to make it certain that management will take a very great interest in this item and in those who are responsible for its profitable disbursement. Nothing makes the same impression on a board of directors as cash, either expense or profit. 80 it follom naturally that the chemists and chemi-
In talking about the industrial team, Carl S. Miner already has the jump on a lot of people-his son, Carl, Jr., has been a part of the Miner team for 15 years. Dr. Miner senior left his job a s chemist with Corn Products almost 50 years ago t o open a coiisulting bnsiness in Chicago, The Miner Laboratories. During these 50 years he has been associated with numerous scientific and technical achievements in industrial fields. In I940 he received the Modern Pioneer Award, and the 9CI awarded him the Perkin Medal in 1949 for outstanding wor2 in applied chemistry. During World War I1 Dr. Miner was a member of the Chemical Referee Board of OPRD and was a consultant to the Baruch Rubber Committee. He is a director of UQP, Commercial Solvents, and Ringwood Chemical Corp. C. S. Miner, Jr,, has been associated with The Miner Laboratories since 1940, the year he received his doctorate from Penn State. HEis primary responsibility is direction of the laboratories’ research program. N e is active in the Chicago Section of ACS.
August 1955
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cal engineers, who are in very great measure the active agents in spending these enormous sums, have become very important to management. The number of men with chemical degrees who have become board chairmen, presidents, and board members has been increasing a t a rapidly accelerating rate during recent years, until now it is the rule rather than the exception to find men with chemical training in the executive groups of companies whose operations depend on the application of chemistry. This has been a slow evolution and has not proceeded a t the same rate in all types of industries. Naturally it has tended to develop more rapidly the greater the importance of chemistry in the operation of the company. This does not mean, however, that the same changes have not taken place in the primarily nonchemical industries. I n the food industry the change toward the induction of the chemist into the executive group has been rapid and widespread. A concomitant of the expansion of industrial research is the increase in the number as well as the importance of research committees in the corporation setup. When expenditures for research begin to run into substantial percentages of total sales, the tendency for management to maintain a closer contact with the workings of the research department is proper and to be expected. Consequently, today the research committee has become one of the standard committees of the average industrial company. Its status is indicated by the fact that its membership is likely to include, if not the president, then the executive vice president. In addition, the vice presidents in charge of sales and operations frequently sit on the research committee because of the close relation of research results to the success of their departments. The research committee is often the focal point for contact between the chemists and the executives of the company. A typical example of the course of development of the industrial chemist from a low-level producer of analytical figures to a counselor on fundamental company problems is the history of the development of the research of one company, which for our present purposes we shall call the Zero Corporation. Twenty years ago this company employed only routine chemists, one of whom, because he had the responsibility of signing laboratory reports and hiring laboratory personnel, carried the title of chief chemist. When an initially unexplainable defect showed up in one of the Zero products, a representative of the company discussed the problem with the head of a small commercial laboratory. Successful solution of that particular problem, which fortunately for the chemist was a very simple one-merely a green-colored product resulting from very unwise use of copper equipment-resulted in a discussion with one of the company’s executives of the
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The Professional Man possibility of making useful chemicals from some of the company’s almost worthless by-products. Luck was with the chemist and without adding to his own staff he was able to find a way of producing from the cheap by-product an organic chemical in relatively good yield. Unfortunately, there was no market for the chemical, but a little additional work sufficed to develop just barely enough of an outlet to provide a little better than a break-even operation. This encouraged the company to authorize the assigning of one chemist to spend all his time on the problem of developing more and better methods of utilizing the original compound. Sufficient additional markets were found so that the company was encouraged to add first one, then two, then three chemists and eventually to take the group into the company organization as a ready-made research department. That was the beginning of a department that now numbers several divisions other than the one having to do with organic chemistry. It employs many scientists besides chemists and is headed by the chemist who W R S first employed. He is now a vice president of the company and spends a great deal of time on problems having little or no connection with chemistry. Obviously, the results of these multiplying contacts between management and chemists are valuable to both groups. The executives have learned that, in some cases a t least, chemists can be just as keen and critical in judging the relation of proposed research to a probable profit as any hardheaded business man. On the other hand, the chemists have had a chance to learn that the business man can be just as vigorously imaginative as any chemist.
There is no sound basis for any belief that the research men are interested only in seeing how much money they can get permission to spend. Plenty of them are smart enough to realize that next year, if not this year, the research department’s budget will depend on research project’s profits. So far, we have considered primarily the chemist’s relation to management in connection with research. It should not be overlooked, however, that he is also in position to act as a very valuable member of management on many matters having nothing whatsoever to do with research or with the company’s chemists or chemical problems. His scientific training and his experience in applying that training to industrial problems can be an asset in the company’s operations. His counsel can be especially valuable where mergers with other companies are being considered, for knowledge of chemical relationships between products and processes can be of paramount importance. He can also be useful in foreseeing market trends on the basis of current chemical developments, even those still in the academic stage. He is likely to be better qualified than others in the organization to introduce management to new industrial applications of the scientific method, such as operations research. Also, his reading and contacts should be extensive in both the academic and the industrial fields, if he is to perform a t the optimum. His function in most organizations is still developing, but his future as a member of the management team is unlimited. Correspondence ooncerning this column will be forwarded promptly if adCHEMdressed t o the author, % Editor, INDUSTRIAL AND ENCINEERISQ ISTRY 1155--10th St., N . W . Washington 6 . D C.
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