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 | No two days are alike |
About searching for and finding innovations – and what Xavier Sava has to do with it
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Innovation scout Xavier Sava |
The phone rings. Xavier Sava interrupts his discussion with a marketing colleague to answer the phone. A professor at a Lausanne university is interested in a new formic acid application. Sava makes an appointment. At the same time, a new message arrives in his e-mail in-box: a Finnish cellulose manufacturer would like to meet Sava to share views on new technologies. Before Sava can type his reply, the phone rings again: it’s a colleague asking him to confirm that he will attend a customer workshop in Dubai.
This is business as usual for Xavier Sava. He works as an innovation scout for formic acid and propionic acid applications in BASF’s Intermediates Division in Ludwigshafen, Germany. “I search everywhere in the world for new promising potential applications for my acids. And I collaborate with customers to develop these applications further,” Sava explains in German tinged with a cute French accent. The doctor of chemistry from Paris joined the chemical company more than six years ago. From a start in research, he steered his career to the acids marketing team. “In the Intermediates Division, I’m a pioneer in my job. This field of responsibilities was never covered systematically in the past,” he explains. “Since I cooperate closely with the competent product managers, it makes sense for me to join the marketing organization.” He also appreciates his crucial contacts with colleagues in the sales units. “The best ideas come from the customers themselves,” Sava stresses and adds: “And who would know the customers better than the sales people do? A customer inquires about one of our products, we ask what he needs it for, and suddenly we realize: this is something new!”
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| Runway de-icing with special formic acid salts. |
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In addition to handling many phone calls and e-mails, attending meetings with marketing, sales or customers, answering inquiries by research institutes, and familiarizing himself time and again with yet another new topic, Sava also looks after existing projects and collaborative ventures. “While no two days are alike, there is still some sort of routine in my job,” Sava admits. “I do patent searches on a regular basis to make sure that I don’t loose touch with new technologies. You often discover the occasional new application for our acids that way.” He also needs to keep up with current scientific literature, but admits that he regularly finds he has a hard time blocking space for these searches and for reading technical papers. His past also tends to catch up with him repeatedly, because research plays a major role in innovation. Any innovation will first be put to the test thoroughly in the lab. “When we have finally got an application wrapped up, we explore joint opportunities for action together with our customer,” Sava explains.
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Worldscale production of formic acid for over 60 years. |
This is, in fact, how things went for the North American high-tech company Tekion, which plans to use formic acid in a new type of fuel cells. When they ordered a sample, sales asked for what purpose they would be using the acid. The answer was that the acid in the fuel cells is to help those who use mobile phones and laptop computers work longer – unplugged. An innovation was born. “At that stage we started considering ways of cooperating with Tekion,” Sava says. “We initiated a workshop with the customer, and eventually this led to a joint research project. Today we support Tekion in developing the technology not just by resorting to our formic acid expertise. On top of that, we also advise them on issues related to developing diaphragms.”
Sava discovered another innovation in the chilly north: Following up on a patent search and having discussed the issue with the Hamburg forestry institute, Sava contacted a cellulose manufacturer that was working on an absolutely new technology for making paper from straw with the help of formic acid. The producer of cellulose sees great prospects especially in China and India, where paper made from straw is very common. “The new company is an interesting partner for us because the use of formic acid makes the new technology environmentally much friendlier and easier on resources than anything we’ve seen to date,” Sava says.
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Sava’s quest for innovations has been successful in other industries, too. There are plans to use the acid for dyeing textiles, drilling for petroleum, de-icing airport runways, and spreading shotcrete. For all innovation projects, it’s the strategy that makes the difference: “Innovations are the result of scientific quests. Only rarely are they achieved by mere intuition. And it is not the process that will bring forth an innovation but the application,” Sava stresses.
Asked whether he likes his job, Sava smiles and says without hesitating: “I cannot image anything that will top this. Every day brings something new, new people, new projects, new challenges. I am the turntable for research, marketing, sales and customers. I learn something new in every project. That allows me to cover a broad range of scientific topics and move in many different industries. I just love that.”
His mobile phone rings. This time, it’s a friend who would like to go to the movies with Sava. “I love movies, especially German films: they are very innovative,” Sava laughs.
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