Cover Story: 20 to Know

By: Jeff Falk

Posted: January 10, 2008, from the January 2008 issue of GCI Magazine.

page 8 of 13

Armed with a BS in chemistry from Bates College and a doctorate in analytical chemistry from Duke University, John Sottery joined P&G in 1985, where he rose to head the Skin Care Exploratory Formulation group. Sottery led the development of new sunscreen technology and played a key role in developing breakthrough formula-based consumer products. In 1992, Sottery founded Enginuity PLM, formerly IMS Inc., a software company that empowers global product development organizations to bring superior formulations to market more rapidly and at lower cost.

“Twenty years ago, you had more time to innovate. There is more and more ‘busy work,’ and people don’t have as much time to innovate,” Sottery told GCI magazine when Enginuity PLM was launched in 2006. “The demand for innovation is much higher, and in today’s market, if you’re the third person in the market, your chance to take a share is much lower. You’re looked at a
‘me too’ product.”

Enginuity is a formula-centric, R&D data management platform with a search engine, combined with a collaborative formulation, packaging and product launch system. The system is designed to streamline R&D work processes and accelerate product innovation by aggregating all corporate product development information in one place and providing R&D staff access to current and historical formulation and packaging work. Created to be intuitive, Enginuity captures product development information as formulators work to eliminate the need to document data in a separate system and allow the leveraging of intellectual property to avoid past mistakes and take advantage of past successes.

Cristina Samuels
Jennifer Isaac
Co-founders
MODE Cosmetics
www.modecosmetics.com
 
Daughters of a 40-year industry veteran, Cristina Samuels and Jennifer Isaac epitomize the strengths of the beauty industry—continuity and tradition propelled by innovation and evolution.