Open Innovation—The Business of Cosmetics

In his 2003 book, Open Innovation: The new imperative for creating and profiting from technology, Henry Chesbrough popularized the phrase. He described the concept as “the use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal innovation and expand markets for external use of innovation, respectively.”


Open innovation assumes that firms should use external ideas as well as internal ideas to advance their technology. As boundaries have become more permeable, innovations can easily transfer inward and outward. Companies cannot afford to rely entirely on their own research, but should buy or license processes or inventions from other companies or research universities. In addition, internal inventions not being used should be taken outside the company through licensing, joint ventures and spin-offs.


On March 23, 2017 the New York Chapter of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists will present a group of diverse experts who will illuminate the ways open innovation can stimulate a company’s future. Learn the benefits, challenges and potential pitfalls when you explore opportunities with other companies through partnerships and licensing and with universities through their technology transfer systems.


Speakers and Topics:
Gene Slowinski is the Director of Strategic Alliance and Open Innovation Research at the Graduate School of Management, Rutgers University and Managing Partner of the Alliance Management Group, a consulting firm devoted to the formation and management of strategic alliances. His clients include Unilever, John Deere, Hershey’s, P&G, GSK, Kraft, Battelle, Energizer, PepsiCo, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sherwin Williams and many other firms. Prior to forming the Alliance Management Group, he held management positions at AT&T Bell Laboratories, and Novartis Corporation. Dr. Slowinski articles on managing strategic alliances can be found in Business Horizons, Research*Technology Management, Mergers and Acquisitions, Economic Development Quarterly, Les Nouvelles, Cooperative Strategies in International Business. His new book, Reinventing Corporate Growth is the leading book on growing the corporation through Open Innovation.

Title: ” Implementing Open Innovation: “Lessons from the leaders”
Open Innovation is transforming the nature of commercial development. To compete effectively in today’s business environment, firms are using strategic alliances to link their resources with the complementary resources of other world-class organizations. They are replacing the “not invented here” syndrome with the “invented anywhere approach”. Unfortunately, many alliances fail. Managers must deal with the complexities of allocating rights to jointly developed intellectual assets, protecting proprietary know-how and trade secrets, linking decision-making structures and utilizing financial models that allow both firms to share the risks as well as rewards of collaboration. Dr. Slowinski’s 25 years of work on over 250 alliances led him to identify key best practices. He will present a set of simple, but powerful management tools and metrics. Many firms use these tools to increase the value of both their individual alliances and their alliance portfolios.



Jennifer Gottwald is a Licensing Manager at the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), where she has worked for fourteen years. WARF manages the patenting and licensing of the University of Wisconsin – Madison (UW), the WiCell Research Institute, and the Morgridge Institute for Research. Ms. Gottwald is responsible for the licensing of a portfolio of life science research tool and biotechnology intellectual properties, including green technologies. She also leads the WARF Clean Technologies Accelerator group. She is a Certified Licensing Professional and Patent Agent. She received a B.S. in botany and German literature, and a Ph.D. in plant molecular biology, from the UW. She lectures in the M.S. in Biotechnology program at the UW and is a founder and active in the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) Women Inventors Committee.

Title: Open Innovation and Licensing
Research universities are the origin of many promising inventions in need of commercial partners to further develop them. In this presentation, attendees will learn about the framework within which university technology transfer offices work, to understand how to license their ideas and partner with them. Examples of successes and deals that fell apart will be given.



Doug Berger is an international speaker, educator and advisor on breakaway growth, disruptive thinking, and corporate entrepreneurship. He is founder and Managing Director, INNOVATE, a firm which collaborates with executives and companies to successfully commercialize bold opportunities in arenas including women’s health and beauty, chemicals and medical devices. Doug has developed and facilitated corporate transformation and innovation programs for 20+ years. He is on the faculty of entrepreneurial boot camps and is author of The Breakthrough Mind based on his years of experience leading workshops and empowering thousands of people to achieve aspirational goals.

Title: The Future of Open Innovation
For every best practice discipline there comes a point when the discipline must be reinvented to remain relevant. In this presentation, Doug Berger will highlight the practices and underlying premises which shaped the first era of open innovation. Then he will explore new developments that are reshaping the future of open innovation.


Dr. John Bell is Vice President External Innovation and New Business Models for Johnson & Johnson Consumer. In this role, he is responsible for driving the cooperation with entrepreneurs, strategic suppliers, partner companies and universities to co-create game-changing innovations. His team represents the J&J Consumer Business in the Johnson & Johnson Innovation Centers. John has a strong background in open innovation, new business creation, partnerships and strategy in addition to having a track record of creating new emerging businesses, setting up an internal Incubator, driving the cultural change towards Open Innovation and managing alliance.

Title: Co-creating Innovation
Innovation is key for a company like Johnson & Johnson. Only through innovation, we can improve the lives of people across the globe. In our search for game-changing innovations with novel business models, Johnson & Johnson likes to team up with start-ups, universities and larger companies to co-create new innovations.



Marisol Simard is an innovation facilitator and strategist, based in the New York City area. Early in her career she interned in Milan, Italy for SowdenDesign, and later designed and delivered Pelican International’s first fishing-boat line. For the last 17 years she has worked in the cosmetic industry with Aptar, Avon and L’Oreal USA as founder and leader of their respective US Packaging Innovation Centers. Mrs. Simard holds more than 12 US patents in the field of packaging and her designs have sold many millions of units worldwide, including the award-winning Avon Mega Effects mascara. She is currently the President of dandelion clocks – an innovation consultancy helping businesses ignite the full potential of their creative teams and innovation initiatives.

Title: Transformational Open Innovation: A tango between packaging and formula
This talk reflects upon a few inescapable questions that leaders must ask themselves in order to successfully capitalize on open innovation – or transformational open innovation – in the Beauty category: Who should be involved, and at what stage? Is there a need? Is it worth it? Can we deliver? How! In addressing these questions – and more – Mrs. Simard will share some lessons learned from over 20 years of experience in the field of innovation packaging and will provide insights from her unique perspective.



Gary Laney is the founder of “Farm to Fork Marketing Inc.”. Gary's career has reached into the full spectrum of the food supply chain, developing marketing plans, new brands, repositioning existing brands, guiding the development and launching of new products. Gary's powerful approach puts new products in the hands of consumers much faster and more flexibly than a traditional innovation process can.

Title: Innovating from the Dirt Up – innovation in the potato industry and beyond
Biotechnology driving innovation – a 10 year guess on benefits Yikes, my product benefit doesn't matter to consumers Finding and Leveraging an emotional connection to your product Different innovation models that can accelerate product development, launch more quickly and reduce capital and risk.


Register today at the NYSCC website!