4. Business questions of concern
(chemical industry client)
1. What are the implications of the biodegradability issue to the chemical
industry?
2. What are the real risks posed by biodegradability concerns to the
chemicals market? Example: which sectors are hit 7irst?
3. What are the prospects and implications if AEEA* was totally banned?
* Aminoethyl ethanolamine – used in shampoos, textile softeners and
chelating agents
5. Market value of biodegradable
chemical products (snapshot view)
Product/Service* Market Value (€) Source
Bio‐farming (plant‐based $67 billion (by 2010) American Society of
pharmaceuticals/ Agricultural Engineers (Sept,
nutraceuticals) 2002)
Bio‐pharmaceuticals $550 billion (by 2009) Hong Kong Trade
Development Council (Sept,
2009)
Bioplastics Over $5 billion (by World Bioplastics Industry
2018) (Nov, 2009)
TOTAL estimated $622 billion
market value
* Products biodegrade naturally
6. Intsight’s Methodology
Understanding the
Issue of Concern
(ARQ)
Hypothesis
Signpost / Indicator
(re)Framing and (new)
Development
Issues Identification
Environmental Scanning
Issues Monitoring
& Analysis System Keyword and Search
and Trending (ESASTM) Strategy Development
Information
Information Research
Sensemaking and
and Analysis
Structuring
Information
Organization and
Discovery
8. BQ1: Implications of biodegradability issue
to the chemical industry
1. What are the Corporate Actions toward
environmental and social sustainability of
chemical products?
Problem broken down into three
issues of concern oriented by 2. What are the NGO Actions toward
stakeholder actions and opinion biodegradability of chemical products?
3. What are the Regulator Actions toward
biodegradability of chemical products?
9. What are businesses doing?
For each issue of concern,
indicators are developed
to inform the keyword
and search strategy
development
Information sources:
1. Robot trawlers
2. Proprietary databases
3. HUMINT (IntSighters
network and scouts on the
The same process is conducted for the other two ground)
stakeholders: NGOs and Regulators
10. Understanding corporate actions
• Based on the information scan for the past 2 years, IntSight identicies
the following themes and relationships:
– Market demand for biodegradability
• Example: ICIS Chemical‐Business Article (“Bio‐based and plastics gaining
demand”)
– Competition landscape for biodegradability
• Examples: ENP Newswire Article (“Cytec rolls out new environmentally
friendly products”)
• Japan Chemical Web Article (“Korea’s Kolon develops zinc pyrithione
composite material for shampoo and anticorrosion and antifungal agents”)
– Retailerside enforcement of biodegradability
– Patent applications for biodegradable processes or products
– Chemicals industry lobbying for biodegradability
– Corporate social responsibility
The same process is conducted for the other two
stakeholders: NGOs and Regulators
15. BQ2: Which sectors are hit 7irst?
• Using the visual analytic tools, we analysed all relevant information
(30+ articles) pertaining to “Biodegradability” and “Industrial
Chemicals” and ciltered them by “Product Applications”
• Initial Results
– Most of the discussions revolved around Insecticide (40%), Pesticide (31%),
and Fungicide (14%)
– Collectively, the following products occupy the remaining 15%: surfactant,
shampoo, corrosion inhibitor, polyamide, antioxidant
– IntSight can perform deeper analysis of the nature/sentiment of the
discussions as well as monitor the changes in distribution across all product
applications
16. BQ2: which sectors are hit first?
14%
15%
31%
40%
Input: (Biodegradability + industrial
chemicals) + product applications
Output:
1. First level: What are the
Value Outcome: product applications and how
• Identicies risks and opportunities (“hotspots” and frequent are they mentioned
“warmspots”) and monitor how they change over time over time on a daily basis?
• Informs strategies to address the risks and opportunities 2. Second level: Who, Where,
How, Why
18. BQ 3: What if there’s a ban on AEEA?
• To build a scenario concerning AEEA, we combined all the various
stakeholder (Corporate, NGO, Regulator) system maps to form the “big
picture” of biodegradability issue implications to the chemicals industry
(Business Question 1).
• Based on the interaction paths within the system map, we can develop
scenarios such as a widespread backlash on AEEA, and new indicators to
monitor the scenario (e.g., likelihood of occurrence over time).
20. Anticipate and monitor future concerns
Value Outcome:
1. AEEA scenario assessment of the entire stakeholder operational and
sentiment environment
2. Strategy recommendations
3. Base template for longer term issues monitoring to provide early
warning
