Dow Chemical is a long-term success story in the chemical industry. Its recent announcement of a merger with DuPont will only enhance its offerings while creating little disruption to its core operations. Dow’s success relies on a relatively narrow range of basic chemicals and materials. It works at scale and with a high degree of expertise, allowing it to offer both high quality and relatively low prices. As an innovator, however, Dow often ranks below its major rivals: relatively high patent activity, reflective perhaps of a corporate culture that values formal if incremental IP, is not matched by either internal innovation as measured by R&D spending or outside innovation in the form of investments, partnerships, and M&A activity. This lack of investment locks Dow into a strategy that requires the company to excel in operational efficiency and take whatever advantages it can in performance in traditional materials.
