Formulating Solutions: Lessons from an Unexpected Entrepreneurial Journey

By P. Scott Bening

Every great product has a creation story. Ever wondered about the story behind Tide Pods? What company came up with the film that holds the detergent and then dissolves? How did that simple innovation lead to a huge global success? And what does it take to scale a fast-moving and disruptive company?

In Formulating Solutions

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roni Publishing
• Release date: Jan 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9781544538648

P. Scott Bening

While President and CEO of MonoSol, P. Scott Bening, led the scaling of the company from infancy to a global leader in the consumer goods, multibillion-dollar detergent market. Water-soluble unit dose has become the global norm thanks to Scott's mastery of partnership navigation, marketing strategies, unique chemistry, and engineering advancements. He is now CEO of MBS2 Advisors, a strategic marketing organization mentoring entrepreneurs, executives, and other business leaders. Scott is a 1981 graduate of St. Lawrence University and a 1994 graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2010, he was inducted as a Fellow of The Society of Innovators of Northwest Indiana and was honored by the 111th Congress of the United States by Congressman Peter Visclosky. He is also a member of the Chicago Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame.

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Advance Praise

Formulating Solutions is a powerful, entertaining, and instructive book about how one person with humility and vision built a world-class business. Anyone who ever dreamed of running their own business should start by reading this book. P. Scott doesn’t shy away from how difficult it is, yet you see through his story how human ingenuity can solve practically any problem. You also see his character on every page and come to easily understand why it is the real secret of his success.

—Senator Bill Bradley, US Senator, Rhodes Scholar, Olympic & NBA Hall of Famer, national radio host, and bestselling author

Creating a successful innovation partnership between two companies is always a challenge. The degree of difficulty goes up dramatically when one is small but mighty, like MonoSol, and the other is a giant like P&G. Under Scott’s leadership, MonoSol became a trusted innovation, development, and business partner that worked in tandem with P&G to create the transformational Tide Pods business, solving many difficult problems along the way. We are forever grateful.

—Kathy Fish, former Chief Research, Development, and Innovation Officer at Procter & Gamble; Vice-Chair of the USA Swimming, Balchem & Origin Materials Boards of Directors

A large part of the story of MonoSol—and the story of Scott’s leadership—comes down to talent: constantly assessing if you have the right folks in the right seats and then motivating those individuals to rise to their highest potential. That example provides an important perspective and lesson for any aspiring business leader.

—Jonathan Owsley, Managing Partner at L Catterton Growth Fund, Middlebury College, and Cornell Law School

Entrepreneur, CEO, chemist, athlete, musician, race car driver, trusted friend. Scott possesses a unique combination of business acumen, product knowledge, drive to succeed, and humanity. Read this book!

—Tony Kester, motor racing champion, professional race car driving coach, data acquisition driver development expert, and P. Scott’s driving coach

Scott Bening is that very rare individual who challenged the common wisdom that one needs different leaders for startup ventures than for rapid growth. Scott has successfully led an organization through its infancy, to material growth as a private equity investment, to becoming a US-based entity in a large multinational, Japanese-owned conglomerate, and to retiring after building a strong, capable leadership team to continue the journey. He has much to teach about the skills and approaches to leadership for a wide range of large and small, private and public organizations.

—Don Leopold, Managing Partner at Sherbrooke Partners, Organization Development Expert at Harvard Business School

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Copyright © 2023 P. Scott Bening

All rights reserved.

First Edition

ISBN: 978-1-5445-3864-8

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I dedicate this book to the most important person in my life, my wife Mary. As I traveled the world for so many years, working countless hours, emailing, compiling presentations, attending work dinners and meetings, and staying plugged in 24/7 to my BlackBerry or iPhone, she kept our personal lives robust, our kids well balanced and healthy, and our home warm. She is my greatest advisor, biggest supporter, and forever my best friend!

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Contents

Introduction

1. Forging Lasting Relationships

2. Defining Organizational Culture

3. Protecting the Business

4. The Power of Innovation

5. Scaling an Organization

6. Going Global

Conclusion

Afterword

Acknowledgments

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Introduction

Carlo, have you heard anything? I did not get the signature pages back.

It was Thanksgiving Day: November 24, 2011. Just like most years, we had family and friends gathered at the Bening household for the traditional Thanksgiving feast, a festival of watching American football and eating too much pie. Unlike most years, however, this Thanksgiving was shot through with tension.

MonoSol, the company I had led for the previous seventeen years, was on the brink of being acquired by Clariant GmbH, a Swiss specialty chemical company. When MonoSol went to market, Clariant had a head start in the auction process and was determined to beat out other potential buyers. At the eleventh hour, however, Clariant was showing signs of cold feet, asking for a delay, a symptom of internal misalignment. Much as I wanted to see the deal completed, I was beginning to wonder whether we were doing the right thing. Was the Clariant deal really the best option for MonoSol’s future?

No Benzo, not a thing. I haven’t received anything from Hariolf.

It was Carlo, my trusted friend and business partner. He served on the board of Clariant and had played a key role in setting up the deal. If he hadn’t heard anything from Hariolf, Clariant’s CEO, what was happening?

In the tense moments of waiting, I reflected on the deal. Initially, Clariant had seemed fully on board, but over the previous two months, progress had slowed to a crawl. Nonetheless, we had completed everything on our end, signing the definitive agreement and sending it over to Clariant for them to do their part. Then, nothing. Did we really want to join forces with a company that had even the slightest doubts about the deal?

The following day, Friday, November 25, 2011, at about 6:00 a.m., I sat at the side of the bed, grabbed my mobile phone, and scanned through my email, text messages, and missed calls. There was nothing from Clariant! No contact from the lawyers, the bankers, my partners, or the CEO of Clariant.

The next person I called was my business partner, Jon.

Have you received anything from Clariant? Maybe they are holding off to respect the Thanksgiving holiday?

Could be, replied Jon, but I doubt it. This isn’t a good sign. To be honest, I’ve had a funny feeling about this for the last several months. Their body language hasn’t been good.

That funny feeling turned out to be spot on. Clariant never completed the deal. At the time, that was a huge disappointment, but it turned out to be the best thing that could have happened. Today, their company looks nothing like it did in 2011. Their CEO, who was a prime mover in the deal, has since left. If the deal had gone ahead, I suspect we would have been divested again sometime in the last decade. My partners would have been happy with the return on their investment, but the soul of MonoSol would have been diluted.

For me, the Clariant deal had a certain romance to it. I wanted to do the deal my great friend, Carlo, had done so much to set up. I already spoke a little German. I liked the idea of traveling to Switzerland. Looking back in a more sober frame of mind, however, it’s abundantly clear that selling to Clariant would have been a big mistake.

It was a defining moment in the history of MonoSol, and one I will never forget. Instead, we completed a deal with Kuraray (Kur-rah-ray), the Japanese specialty chemical market leader, several months later, one that has ultimately made far more strategic sense for both companies.

Looking back, we got lucky. We kept our options open and formulated the best solution for the future of MonoSol, my partners, and my employees. It was an object lesson in several key business principles: maintaining options in case a deal falls through, staying calm in a crisis, and recognizing that what looks like failure can in fact be a precursor to success.

Business Is Hard

Here’s what I think I know about you. If you’ve picked up this book, you naturally have an interest in business and learning about the MonoSol story. You’re an educated, driven person, with a strong desire to win. You hate the thought of settling for mediocrity, and you’ve always felt that you’re destined to be a leader, not a follower. In all probability, you’ve already seen some success—and some failure—in your career to date, and you’re determined that your future will be filled with more of the former and less of the latter.

If you have a business degree, hopefully you’ve already picked up enough experience to understand that business in the real world doesn’t always work the way it does in the textbooks. You realize that, while education is vital, there’s no substitute for the learning that occurs when the stakes are high, and you need to figure things out on the fly. You may not be an expert in any particular discipline, but you’re sharp enough to converse intelligently in many, to the extent that you sometimes seem like an expert when you’re talking to those who lack knowledge in your field.

Despite these considerable attributes, you sometimes feel like there are elements of the business world you don’t understand. You wish you had a mentor you could turn to when you’re struggling to stand out. Your goals feel just a little out of reach, and you lack the confidence to truly demonstrate what you’re capable of. Unclear about what you need to do to succeed, you’re stagnating, torn between the desire to make an impact and the fear of screwing up if you grasp the handle too hard.

Ultimately, all of the above comes down to a lack of experience. Success in business comes down to intuition as much as book learning, and it takes experience to judge when to trust your intuition. In the heat of battle, you need to know who you can trust, be willing to think on your feet and, if necessary, call an audible to address whatever challenges you’re facing.

Think about the difference between a star running back and an average one. The average one gets the ball and powers forward as fast as possible, potentially running into trouble. The all-star reads the game, glimpsing the smallest pinprick of daylight, and powers toward it. That’s also the difference between the average entrepreneur and the highly skilled one. In the moment of truth, the average entrepreneur will go for the obvious play. The brilliant one will see the shaft of sunlight that signifies a unique opportunity—and get there.

What Are You Going to Do about It?

My intention is for this book to illustrate, via example, the types of complex situations that arise in real businesses and to give you an insight into the ways I and my colleagues and confidants addressed those situations over a forty-year career.

Knowing who to trust is hard. Figuring out how to chart a path through unfamiliar situations, with lots at stake, is hard. It takes a combination of skill, guts, and personality. In many cases, the challenges you’ll face in a real business environment don’t fall neatly into a single category. My intention in sharing my experiences with MonoSol is to provide you with examples of the kinds of scenarios that arise in an unpredictable business environment and explanations of what has and hasn’t worked over the years.

While not every situation has a clearly documented solution, I’ll also present applicable lessons that I trust will inform your own decision-making process. A lot of what I’ve learned should be relevant across numerous types of business. With a bit of thought, I anticipate that you’ll be able to digest the stories and lessons in these pages and use them to fuel the development of your own career.

Above all, I think you’ll come to understand that the game of business is multidisciplinary. Especially at the higher levels, it’s rare for a scenario to fall neatly into a single category. Whatever your core expertise, I want to show you the importance of staying open to other disciplines. If you’re technical, pick up some people skills. If you’re a salesperson, invest some effort into learning more about your product and related technology. If you’re meeting with people who speak a different language, learn a little of theirs. And always be willing to surround yourself with people whose expertise complements your own.

A Book about Solutions

Solutions are a good thing, especially when you’re talking about a detergent pod! They’re also a good thing in business. As anyone who has ever followed an entrepreneurial path knows, challenges—and the solutions to them—are the heartbeat of business. Success comes through formulating solutions to the problems we encounter.

In my case, this relationship is especially relevant. Tide Pods, the product for which MonoSol is most widely known, are famous for dissolving completely in water, literally becoming solutions. A large portion of my success, and the success of MonoSol, rests on the development and production of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) water-soluble polymers. These polymers are used to encase detergents that, when they touch water, go into solution and biodegrade. It’s a scientific marvel, which makes cleaning products like Tide Pods, Ariel, Persil, Cascade, and Finish possible.

MonoSol’s primary business is the creation of soluble films that look like plastic, can be used in a number of applications, and dissolve in water. Our claim to fame is that we make the packaging that disappears. Inspired by the possibilities of this product, I’ve dedicated the last three decades of my life to caretaking, growing, and protecting MonoSol’s business in the face of challenges and adversity. In that time, MonoSol has grown from a tiny, almost forgotten branch of Chris-Craft Industries to become a vibrant, privately held entity, and subsequently an integral division of Kuraray, a global specialty chemical company. At the beginning of my tenure, the business was doing about $4 million in sales each year. By the time I retired in late 2021, that number was projected to reach half a billion dollars.

In these pages, you’ll learn about the history of MonoSol, right up to the present day. You’ll get the inside track on the history of the technology, along with major developments and shifts in MonoSol’s ownership model. You’ll also read about times when we hit major bumps in the road, threatening MonoSol’s prosperity and occasionally its very existence.

Each chapter explores an important theme that plays a key role in building a thriving business. The themes are:

Relationships

Culture

Innovation

Protecting the Business

Scale

Globalization

In each one, you’ll find a wealth of stories and anecdotes relating to each theme, along with specific lessons that should be applicable in any business context.

It’s my hope that the stories will inspire you to pursue your own entrepreneurial journey. As you’ll see, I did not always seem destined to become an entrepreneur—hence the unexpected in the book’s subtitle—but by learning and applying the lessons contained in these pages, I was able to ride even the choppiest waves. This unexpected journey was only made possible through building trusting relationships, being willing to invest and bet on myself, and staying humble enough to recognize when I didn’t know everything about a situation and needed to rely on the counsel of others.

I had to combine best practices in science, engineering, and business strategy with gut instincts. At times, I found myself in completely uncharted territory, and was forced to feel my way through precarious situations such as antitrust litigation and mergers. In these perilous moments, I relied on a combination of intuition and good advice, and each time MonoSol entered those unpredictable waters, we were able to navigate to a successful port. In time, I gained an ownership position, then scaled MonoSol repeatedly. It’s a process that took energy, a great team, and a solid dose of good fortune. I’ve always believed in the adage Work hard, get lucky.

Similarly, I trust that you’ll find value in the practical advice and that it will enable you to recognize where the situations I’ve described are relevant to the challenges you face in your own business and life. I want this to be the book I wish someone had handed to me thirty-five years ago—a combination of an arm around the shoulder and a kick in the pants.

History repeats itself. Those who profit from it are those who understand the lessons it offers and walk into the future forearmed. This is why I believe documenting the memories I share here and preserving the legacy of MonoSol is vital. Many of the projects and situations described in this book were ahead of their time, and what initially looked like failure resulted in success only years, if not decades, later. Soluble detergent PODS, for example, were first introduced to the market in the United States in 1962. At the time, they didn’t catch on. Sixty years later, they are a sensation reshaping the world of cleaning. I hope you’ll enjoy the heartfelt stories I’ve collected through several decades of entrepreneurial leadership, and benefit from the business lessons contained within them.

A Brief Introduction

My full name is Paul Scott Bening. On a day-to-day basis, I go by P. Scott. To my close friends, I am Benzo, a nickname I first acquired in college. Born in Buffalo, New York, I am the product of humble origins: a mixed breed of English, Irish, Belgian, and German. What could be more quintessentially American than that? My mom taught as an elementary school teacher—and it was from her that I learned my first lessons in entrepreneurship. A driven woman and a master of reading education, she was a pioneer of team teaching, open classrooms, and mini-societies well before those concepts became popular.

My father was, and still is, a classic nice guy, an insurance salesman who worked strictly on commission and ground it out in hopes of providing a comfortable life for his family. Sometimes he made the grade; sometimes we struggled a bit. Between them, my parents provided the family with a good middle-class life that took us to the suburbs, where it seemed as though we were always surrounded by people who had a little bit more than we did. This sparked a drive in me to achieve the same.

In high school, I was intrigued by science, especially chemistry. I think this was partially because I was enamored by the lifestyle of my mom’s baby brother, Uncle Jim. A mere fifteen years older than me, he was living proof that the chemical industry was a passport to a solid career, in the 1980s and beyond. Uncle Jim, an executive at Ashland Chemical, owned a super nice house, regularly purchased new cars, and even had a Corvette. Growing up in Buffalo, with hand-me-down rusted cars, and living in a basement bedroom, this made an indelible impression on me, shaping my idea of success during my high school years. I was determined to be able to afford nice cars, purchase a nice home, and have a nice