Chemical Engineering July 2013 - 55

Fractionation Column
Environmental Manager
Selling new technologies
D
uring my youth, as a mass- and
heat-transfer R&D manager,
there were 12 occasions when
new technologies were sold for
the very first time. One or two of those
technologies might have been considered
" breakthroughs. " The others were
very significant twists on well-established
technologies. Of the 12 firstof-a-kinds,
11 were sold to companies
outside of the U.S. More on that later.
One new technology was a highperformance
distillation tray
that
was first offered to an Austrian company,
OMV, for use in their Schwechat
refinery. The name " Resetarits " is of
Austrian origin, and I was the coinventor
of the tray, along with Mike
Lockett, and so, it made perfect business
sense for me to go to Vienna, to
try to talk OMV engineers into becoming
" the first. "
I flew into Vienna airport, landing
at about 5 p.m. I carried my luggage
across the street to an airport hotel.
The lobby was extremely crowded,
but I was lucky because there was
nobody at the check-in counter. My
German-language capabilities were
weak. I simply handed the hotel desk
attendant my credit card and open
passport. She gasped disappointedly
and asked, " Your name is Michael Resetarits? "
I answered, " Well, yes, miss. "
She said, " In Austria now there is a
famous piano player who tells political
jokes in between songs. All of these
people in the lobby are from the first
shift of the hotel staff. They have been
waiting one hour to get the autograph
of Michael Resetarits. " After stuttering
for several seconds I said, " I do tell
jokes; I do not play piano; I have never
been more disappointed to be me. " She
checked me in and I headed toward
my room. As I awaited the arrival of
the elevator, the desk attendant informed
the lobby gang that there are
two people with that same name and
that the wrong one just checked in.
The lobby gang did not appear to be
disappointed - " angry " is a better
word. I hid in my hotel room all night
watching CNN on the television.
So anyway, of 12 first-of-a-kind
technologies, 11 were not sold to U.S.
companies. They were sold, instead
to European, Canadian, Korean and
Chinese companies. Why? I am afraid
that I have no answers. Are U.S. companies
more risk averse? Maybe. Are
non-U.S. engineers more portable, or
in other words, do they make decisions
and judgments for a couple of
years and then they move off to other
job assignments? Maybe. Are nonU.S.
plant managers more accepting
of capacity and efficiency shortfalls.
Maybe. Are non-U.S. engineers better
at assessing and accepting shortfall
conditions? Maybe.
I have four pieces of advice for a
salesperson or an R&D engineer who
is attempting to sell a new technology.
First, explain as concisely and
clearly as possible your laboratory
and pilot plant results. Second, explain
the technology's benefits.
Mike Resetarits is the technical director
at Fractionation Research, Inc. (FRI; Stillwater,
Okla.; www.fri.org), a distillation
research consortium. Each month, Mike
shares his fi rst-hand experience with CE
readers
Third, evaluate and explain what
will and will not happen if a shortfall
occurs. Fourth, change your last
name to that of the most popular
jokester piano player of the country
where you will be selling your technology
- and learn to play piano. ■
Mike Resetarits
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Chemical Engineering July 2013

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