Innovation represents a critical element in Rhodia’s
strategy. Innovating means developing increasingly high-performance
products to meet changing market demand and trends.
Sustainable innovation requires opting
for technologies and solutions that meet health and environmental
requirements, in accordance with the Group’s commitments to progress,
while also anticipating future regulations.
By listening even more closely to customers, partners and consumers,
Rhodia is committed to minimizing the period required for designing
and manufacturing products, thus accelerating time to market.
In particular, this commitment involves highly structured practices
for identifying and understanding demand, which combines research
and marketing teams at an increasingly early stage in the process.
The intensive, growing integration of marketing teams also helps identify
market pull by analyzing demand in order to drive research. In addition,
the Group can implement innovation projects that require mobilizing
a variety of skills in a variety of areas. This ability to combine
technological, scientific and employee skills is one of Rhodia’s
prime assets, which allows the Group to rapidly offer specific solutions
to each customer’s challenges. Working “at the interfaces”
is more than just a strategy and has become a part of the Group’s
culture in its own right, making a significant contribution to the
dynamic innovation process.
Cross-fertilization also includes identifying skills outside the Group.
In recent years, Rhodia has established numerous partnerships with
major university laboratories and scientific research laboratories,
such as France’s National Scientific Research Center (CNRS),
as well as in joint research facilities. Basic and applied research
can be conducted at all these locations, thus deriving the full benefit
of their potential.
Rhodia is also committed to making customers’ challenges and
requirements its own, thus establishing partnerships with major corporations
to promote future development. As a result, R&D teams work together,
using the same methodologies and exchanging information in a completely
open environment. In 2001, Rhodia launched a large number of innovations,
giving its technologies new growth opportunities.
FOCUS >
a new polyamide derived from patented Rhodia polymerization technologies.
It features extremely high fluidity with exceptionally high performance
ADVANTAGES >
considerably enhances manufacturing capacity while providing products
with superior thermal and mechanical performance properties. It
has many technical applications, in particular in automobile engine
compartments.
Creating ecological products
ACTION > Rhodia has developed a
new environmentally-friendly solution for the decorative paint market
as part of the Ecolatex project. Distributed under the
brand, the product meets Ecolabels requirements for limiting Volatile
Organic Compounds (VOCs).
ADVANTAGES > The product meets the
most severe VOC emission criteria. Customers can now make environmentally-friendly
paints with properties closely approximating the performance of
conventional solvent-based products.
a new 
brand, the product meets Ecolabels requirements for limiting Volatile
Organic Compounds (VOCs).