Start Your FOAK in the Lab

Construction sites and factory floors are places I’m far more used to than a laboratory. But last week I was in the Netherlands, meeting a client and visiting two universities to see how their new chemical product is getting ready for its demo project.

And I have to say: I haven’t yet seen this level of preparation — on both the R&D and project sides. Every assumption challenged, every risk logged, every experiment linked to a downstream engineering decision.

It’s the sort of discipline that quietly tells you: this FOAK has a real chance.

Sometimes I hear that you start planning your FOAK when you hire EPCs or sign for a plot of land. In reality, your FOAK begins in the lab — long before the first layout drawing. Science gives you the spark, the “what if.” But execution is what turns that spark into hardware, contracts, and something that runs at nameplate for more than a week.

Last week’s trip made me quite confident in my client’s success. The science is solid. But more importantly, the execution mindset is already there.

And that’s what scales.