A Chip Off The Old Du Pont
A group of about 100 former Du Pont engineers and scientists has issued its first multiclient marketing research paper, an important step in the growth of the firm’s marketing business. Established in 1985 after Du Pont drastically cut its worldwide staff with an unrestricted early retirement plan, Condux Inc. is a consulting firm that primarily offers industry its technical expertise. Not surprisingly, perhaps, one of Condux’s clients has been Du Pont itself, which found that many of its former employees had indispensable technical knowledge. Last year Condux merged with another company of ex-Du Ponters, Gamma Research, to give itself a marketing division. Al Rutherford, Condux’s vice president of marketing, says the new report, which predicts that the demand for engineering thermoplastic elastomers could double by 1993, may be followed by more multiclient papers, perhaps on fiber optics, an area in which Condux staffers...