DowDuPont CEO Kills Off R&D `Moonshots' in Bid for Higher Profit
- Breen scales back chemical maker’s most ambitious investments
- Company to focus spending on smaller projects with less risk
The DuPont ethanol plant in Nevada, Iowa.
Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg
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DowDuPont Inc., created from the merger of the largest U.S. chemical companies, is learning from Chief Executive Officer Ed Breen that one way to make more money is to abandon more research.
The company has ended its most ambitious research and development projects because they are expensive, require years of work and sometimes have poor prospects for investment returns, the CEO said Thursday. Instead of “moonshots,” DowDuPont is focused on smaller projects that cost no more than $30 million and, hence, carry less risk, he said. That’s helped improve profit margins.