January 22, 2020 Membership Meeting 1

WV/OV Chapter of PMI is pleased to announce that the first member meeting of the year is scheduled for January 22, 2020 .  It will be provided via Webex to those registered in advance. Registration is free, and membership in the Chapter or PMI is not required. Registration is active now.

Presentation Abstract:

The road from entry level scientist/engineer to board room, an accidental journey, brings an insight into the workings of product driven companies and the personal, organizational and product management tools needed to bring innovation and profitability to an company. How do you create an organization that is innovative but without financial waste? How do you take a commodity product and turn it into a competitive, engineered offering? What were the biggest mistakes that lead to failures that need to be avoided?

Five cases will be evaluated: 1. Moving from commodity chemicals to specialty chemicals offerings at Dow Chemical, 2. Creating centers of excellence to support existing business units and create new products and markets at Allied Signal, 3. Avon’s attempt to transition from the “Avon Lady” to a competitive player in the competitive world of cosmetics, 4. Building a biotech company based on drug delivery systems at Polymerix, 5. Turning large white rectangles into medical-based designs.

Learnings with respect to personal skills development, organizational management and methods for creating innovation will be discussed during this career journey, offering insight to that state of technical careers, management and the future of the technical profession.

Presenter BIO: 

Dr. Alan Letton has been fascinated by the intersection of creativity and technology and its translation to business. As a professional jazz musician, the concept of improvising within a constraining structure helped him to understand his ability to “play jazz” in business, understanding the process by which a company can shape a technology into a successful product. His path was clear, learn to understand science & technology, learn how business works, create profits, and create new processes and development models that accelerate a company’s growth through the use of people, product development and technical skills – all which have a place in defining success. 

His work at Sandia National Laboratories, complimented by his academic experience (Texas A & M, Tuskegee, Marshall University, North Carolina A & T) allowed him to understand that nature of scientific investigation and the management of technology enterprises. Having had the opportunity to be developed by great leadership in Dow, Avon and Allied Signal, that experience provided him with an opportunity to learn from the best, to create processes that lead to his being awarded the CEO Award at Allied Signal and launching one of the most successful product designs in the mattress industry as CSO, Sealy Inc. Working in the not-for-profit community as well as leading biotech & consumer startups (Polymerix Inc, MET Inc), he learned the skill of “herding cats!”. Not for profits are full of people with passion, but they are not motivated by dollars. This was a training ground for learning to create and share a common vision, and to drive that vision to success. 

His academic training from MIT and University of Cincinnati, laid a foundation providing an understand of the importance of grasping technical details in order to derive unique and effective solutions. All of his experiences have made him uniquely qualified for his current roles; Managing Partner – Prototype Investment Fund, Partner – Lewis Institute, Consultant – Letton Consulting Services (A Collection of Rocks).

******  1/2 PDU Strategic and Business Management and 1/2 PDU Leadership is available for this session.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You should receive a confirmation email at the address you specify when you register. This email includes Webex access info, which you must have to attend. IF YOU DO NOT RECEIVE THE CONFIRMATION EMAIL WITHIN 10-15 MINUTES OF REGISTERING, CONTACT US AT This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. IMMEDIATELY!  We do not want to exclude anyone from the event due to email communication failures.

2nd important note:  You will receive the meeting login credentials in a reminder e-mail message one day before the meeting.