Bridging Gaps in Materials Commercialization: Insights from Chris Musso
In the rapidly evolving field of materials science, the journey from groundbreaking innovation to market-ready product is fraught with challenges. Chris Musso, Senior Partner and Global Chemicals Practice Leader at McKinsey & Company, has a deep understanding of the complexities surrounding materials commercialization. With extensive experience across sectors—including chemicals, automotive, packaging, and recreational vehicles—Musso has led strategy, product development, and new business creation for some of the world’s most innovative companies. He is widely recognized as a leader in driving innovation, growth, and profitability in the chemicals sector.
In his keynote presentation at the 2024 Change Chemistry Innovators Roundtable, Musso highlighted some of the biggest challenges facing the materials industry, including the gap between technical innovation and commercialization, a lack of clear sustainability standards, and the need for collaborative leadership across the value chain. His insights underscore the importance of new commercialization models, stronger connections between research and industry, and leadership to set actionable sustainability priorities. As he put it, “The hardest problems need real leadership to drive collaboration across all stakeholders.”
Bridging the Gaps: Commercialization and Collaborative Leadership
One of the biggest obstacles in materials science today is the gap between technical innovation and successful commercialization. Musso’s own experience as a graduate student at MIT serves as a striking example. While working on a semiconductor cooling material with his research team, they were confident the material would perform as intended. “We knew the material would work,” he explained, “but commercializing it was a huge challenge.” Making the new material viable required changes throughout the entire infrastructure—from server fans to room layouts—making the commercialization process complex and costly.
Musso’s journey eventually led him to McKinsey, where he saw that materials with incredible technical potential often fail to reach the market. This is largely because of two types of barriers: technical deficiencies and value chain challenges. “Almost every material has some technical flaw—there’s no ‘wonder material,’” he noted. While technical issues can often be improved upon, the commercialization process becomes exceptionally challenging when these issues intersect with entrenched value chain systems.
Beyond the technical barriers, Musso emphasized that real progress requires a shift in leadership mindset—one that prioritizes collaboration across the value chain. The complexity of materials science means that no single entity can address these challenges alone. “The key to commercialization isn’t just solving technical problems; it’s building partnerships across the entire value chain,” Musso explained. He sees this collaboration as a fundamental element in bringing new materials to market successfully, urging the industry to foster relationships between research centers, materials producers, and product manufacturers.
Overcoming Barriers to Commercialization: Bridging Research and Industry
For Musso, the commercialization gap between research and industry represents both a challenge and a critical opportunity for growth. “If we look around in the materials world, there aren’t a lot of millionaires and billionaires,” he pointed out. While the tech world often rewards successful innovations with significant financial returns, the materials field presents fewer clear incentives to encourage researchers to commercialize their ideas. Musso believes that bridging this gap will require creating a more robust “market for ideas.”
In Musso’s vision, big companies could help bridge this gap by signaling a willingness to buy and develop promising new technologies. “Big companies need to signal they’re ready to buy these startups,” he said. He points to the success of Silicon Valley as a model, where companies like Intel and HP regularly communicate their tech priorities to research institutions, creating a culture where startups know they won’t have their ideas stolen—they’ll have their companies bought. For Musso, this type of collaboration, which he describes as a “market for ideas,” could transform the materials industry by ensuring that more innovative ideas reach commercialization.
Musso believes the materials industry can create this kind of ecosystem by fostering relationships between researchers, venture capitalists, and established companies. By aligning these interests, the industry can encourage more startups to focus on materials and drive commercialization, offering the same incentives for innovation that we see in technology sectors.
Shifting Standards in Sustainability and Tackling the Toughest Challenges
The conversation around sustainability in materials science is growing, but as Musso pointed out, the lack of clear standards is a major barrier. “Sustainability in materials is a moving target,” he explained, highlighting the many dimensions that could fall under the “sustainability” umbrella, from greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and resource depletion to toxicity, ocean pollution, and end-of-life impacts. Each of these criteria shifts in importance over time, leading to a fragmented understanding of what it means for a material to be sustainable.
Musso envisions a system that can bring clarity to sustainability, proposing a standardized rating system or “spider chart” that assesses materials across multiple environmental factors. “Until we define sustainability across multiple dimensions,” he stated, “we won’t get to the real discussions needed to address these issues.” Such a system would allow materials producers to present a clear sustainability profile of their products, helping buyers make informed decisions based on what aligns best with their sustainability goals.
Beyond defining standards, Musso believes the true challenge lies in tackling sustainability issues collaboratively. He highlighted ocean pollution as an example, where technical solutions like biodegradable plastics could help, but the lack of waste management infrastructure in many emerging economies remains a significant hurdle. “It’s those collaborative trade-offs that will require real leadership,” Musso emphasized, noting that large-scale solutions require governments, NGOs, and companies to align their efforts. Implementing systems like waste management in emerging economies is a monumental task that could stretch national budgets, requiring strategic and coordinated action across sectors.
For Musso, true progress on sustainability will only be possible with leadership that prioritizes collaboration, willing to take on the “big, hard choices” needed to create change. He urges leaders across the industry, NGOs, and government to come together, setting clear priorities and working collectively to address the systemic issues that single organizations can’t tackle alone.
A Vision for the Future of Materials Science
Chris Musso’s insights offer a roadmap for addressing some of the most complex challenges in materials science. He emphasizes that bridging the gap between innovation and commercialization is key, and that successful commercialization depends on partnerships across the value chain. “For the hardest problems, we need real leadership to drive collaboration across all stakeholders,” he concluded.
Musso’s call for a more defined approach to sustainability—and for leadership that can coordinate large-scale change—underscores the need for industry, academia, and policymakers to take proactive steps toward sustainable and commercially viable materials. As he sees it, the future of materials science depends on industry leaders willing to make collaborative choices that will bring the most promising innovations to market. By fostering a “market for ideas” and setting clear sustainability priorities, Musso believes that the industry can achieve the kind of transformation needed to meet the pressing environmental and commercial demands of today.
Musso’s call for cross-value chain collaboration, clear sustainability priorities, and a supportive ecosystem for commercialization aligns with Change Chemistry’s mission. By fostering partnerships, aligning innovation needs, and creating spaces for shared knowledge, Change Chemistry is driving the collaborative leadership necessary to overcome the barriers Musso outlined. Together, these efforts are paving the way for a more innovative and sustainable materials industry.