Lauren Milroy
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to Stanford University Liu Lectures
Hello all!
Please join us this Thursday for an exciting lecture by Adam Lowry!
The lecture is free and open to the public. Details below
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Please pass on the word. Feel free to contact me with any questions!
2008 David H. Liu Memorial Lecture Series in Design
Adam Lowry
chief greenskeeper and cofounder of Method
Thursday, May 8
Building: Hewlett, Room: 201, Stanford University Campus
8pm
Adam's Story:
There's nothing new about making lemonade out of lemons. But giving
true brand panache to mundane products like soaps and household
cleaners? Now that's an accomplishment. And Adam Lowry and his
partner, Eric Ryan, have done it. Method Products, their household-
cleaning products company, is generating sales at a $40-million annual
run rate after less than five years in business.
Adam graduated in chemical engineering from Stanford, which is
impressive enough. But after stints as 1) a researcher at a "green"
plastics company in Michigan , 2) a climate-change researcher with a
think tank, and 3) a member of the U.S. sailing training team for the
2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Adam was ready to tap his inner
entrepreneur.
He and Eric had been high-school buddies in suburban Detroit and were
roomies in San Francisco . And on a long drive one day they began
talking about hum-drum product categories that could be transformed
through fresh thinking about product design and formulation -
presumably, theirs.
"I knew as a chemical engineer that there was no reason we couldn't
design products that were non-toxic and used natural ingredients,"
Adam says. "It would be more expensive to do it that way. But that was
okay as long as we created a brand that had a 'premiumness' about it,
where our margins would support our extra investments in product
development and high quality ingredients."
Adam and Eric came up with a complete line of cleaners and soaps, each
one for a different room in the house. Now they have more than 100
products under the Method Home brand umbrella. "We've crafted a master
brand in home care," Adam says.