Victoria: Welcome to The Chemical Show, the podcast where Chemical means business.
I'm your host, Victoria Meyer, bringing you stories and insights
from leaders driving innovation and growth across the chemical industry.
Each week we explore key trends, real world challenges, and the
strategies that make an impact.
Let's get started.
Welcome back to The Chemical Show, Where Leaders Talk Business Today's episode
is a classic replay one that's so good, it deserves another listen, particularly
since new followers of The Chemical Show may not have listened to it yet,
and new longtime listeners, sometimes you just need to hit replay as well.
So today I'm sharing my conversation with Bonnie Tully of Evonik, which we
recorded at last year's Responsible Care and Sustainability conference.
Why?
Because sustainability is being redefined, companies are backing away from promises,
reassessing investments and more.
And yet we know that it continues to be a critical part of business,
a critical part of what customers and big brands want and need.
And frankly, it's a big part of the chemical industry's DNA, whether
or not we call it sustainability.
So, you know, one of the things that I find important in this conversation
with Bonnie is she shares the importance of incremental improvements
that go a long way towards overall sustainability and business goals.
Honestly, it's an approach that the chemical industry has
been taking for a long time.
This whole idea of incremental, continuous improvement and
sustainability is no different.
So that's one reason.
Secondly, Bonnie's lessons in leadership and career advice are spot on and
continue to be relevant and important for those of us across the industry.
So join me for this classic replay and enjoy.
This is Victoria Meyer.
Welcome back to The Chemical Show.
Today, I am speaking with Bonnie Tully, who is the North
American president of EVONIC.
We are at ACC's Responsible Care and Sustainability Conference,
where Bonnie has been a panelist and a participant, and we're going
to be talking about sustainability, responsible care, and more.
Bonnie, thanks for joining me today.
Bonnie Tully - Take 2: Thanks for having me.
Victoria: Absolutely.
So let's just start with your career and your interest in chemicals How did
you get into the chemical industry?
And what led you to where you are today?
Bonnie Tully - Take 2: Yeah, so I grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas and
in As you know, the that area has a lot of industrial companies there.
So chemical petrochemical companies.
And when I was growing up there, a lot of my friends, their families,
their mothers, their fathers worked in the chemical industry.
And so it seemed very normal that you could.
That would be an industry to go into.
I went to Texas A& M, graduated mechanical engineering degree, and thought I was
going into the oil and gas industry.
But I graduated during a time when there was an economic downturn, and so that made
me really look at the chemical industry.
And went in, I've been in the industry over 30 years, and have
really found it very fulfilling.
Career, you have a lot of opportunities within the industry.
And if you, particularly if you go with larger companies you can have a lot of
opportunities within that, in that company alone to really develop your career.
I started my career with Roman Haas and that the business that
I was in ultimately got acquired.
By Evonik, and that's how I went over to working for a German multinational
was through an acquisition.
And that also opens a lot of opportunities when you move from a U
S based company to a multinational.
Victoria: And so you've, and you spent a big part of your career in.
Manufacturing, am I right?
And then now into leading the company.
Bonnie Tully - Take 2: Yeah, correct.
So, I spent many years in the manufacturing part of the business.
Started out as a project engineer, moved my way through production,
maintenance technical manager.
Then the company asked if I would go to Singapore.
So I was there to build a plant and then I was the plant manager there.
And.
And then on to managing some of our larger facilities.
I managed our facility in Mobile, Alabama, which is the largest
Evonik facility in North America.
And I can just say when you're managing large sites it really prepares you
to run a company or run a region.
You have P& L responsibilities you are dealing with lots of different
functions lots of different HR topics.
And It was actually kind of a smooth transition to running a business
after you've run a very large site.
Victoria: I bet.
Yeah I mean as you say in most of For the chemical industry most of
the employees are in manufacturing.
And so when you're running a large site, you've got everything
You've got people you've got HR.
You've got policies.
You've got systems and then you move into You know leadership of the region
and you have all of that and more.
Bonnie Tully - Take 2: Exactly
Victoria: Yeah, so we're here talking about responsible care
You What is responsible care mean to Evonik and how does it look at
Evonik when you think about that?
Bonnie Tully - Take 2: Yeah.
So while I've been here at this conference one of the things I learned yesterday
was responsible care started in 1988.
So it started just a little bit before I entered the industry.
So for me, responsible care has always been around and but hearing that this
conference made me realize that was a step change that happened right at
the very beginning of my career, but I've always known it to be there.
But we like responsible care in EVONIC because it gives us some foundational
principles that we can speak about that we all agree to whether we're
talking about in our production facilities or with management.
So, whether it's How important we take process hazard analysis or that we will
participate in our community action panels or that we will stay on top
of our mechanical integrity programs.
It really becomes like a value proposition.
What are our foundational principles?
And responsible care gives you like I said, it gives you that
good foundation that you can speak one language within the company.
Victoria: Right.
And I think for me, also, the other thing is because responsible care exists across
the industry, it's a common platform and a common set of expectations across
all the member companies and how they operate, interact and, you know, Execute.
Right.
Bonnie Tully - Take 2: Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And you know, as a manufacturer, we know we're just one part
of the whole supply chain.
You've got the logistics providers, you've got the transporters, you've
got the warehouses et cetera.
And like you said, that we all kind of have a common platform that we all
agree that we're going to be responsible care providers is very important.
Victoria: Right.
So the other part of this conference obviously is sustainability.
And sustainability is such a critical topic in the industry.
It probably always has been.
It's certainly come to light much more and much more sharply
in focus in the last five years.
Can you talk about what sustainability means to Evonik?
Bonnie Tully - Take 2: Yeah, so we know that the topic sustainability
can be very complicated.
That word carries so much with it, right?
And within Evonik, we realized we needed to.
Take that topic and make it more understandable for our employees.
So basically we have broken sustainability down to three pillars.
We call it next generation solutions, next generation technology,
and next generation culture.
Next generation solutions are the products that we are manufacturing
that help Our customers make more sustainable products and we have
a goal that we want over by 2030.
We want over 50 percent of our portfolio of products to be sustainable solutions
and we're moving in that direction.
Next generation technologies as the things that we do as a company to
reduce our footprint So, less CO2 emissions better use of energy of
water, of land and, you know, trying to make, we say, make as small of a
footprint as possible on this earth.
Our next generation solutions, we call that our handprint, and we want to
make that the we want that to be the biggest handprint we can, be a helping
hand to, To our customers and then next generation technologies focuses
on that smallest footprint as possible.
And then the third pillar of that is next generation culture because
to get a whole organization to move forward on sustainability,
that has to become cultural.
Victoria: Makes sense.
So, and when you think about the solutions, obviously, you know, I think
probably a lot of the products that are already in, have traditionally
been in place fall into that category of really supporting sustainability
profiles for your customers.
Is this something your customers are actively asking for and looking for
is sustainable solutions from Evonik?
Bonnie Tully - Take 2: Yes, absolutely.
And we see that we see that globally.
We are a German headquartered company, so it definitely in the EU.
There's a very big push that they want to start seeing sustainable solutions.
And, but we also have it here in the U.
S.
as well, in North America as well.
But yes, there is a request for it.
And you're, You hit on a very interesting point that it, it's not only like kind
of the new shiny solutions that companies can provide, but also going and using
existing technology in sustainable ways.
So, for example we have silica.
Which is a product that's been around for quite a while, but they now are
using that in tires because they make them, we call them green tires, they
reduce the rolling resistance for better better fuel efficiency, as well as they
allow longer life of those tires, so you don't have to replace them as much.
Companies are also working on those new technologies.
So, for example, we have membrane technology to separate biogas
to get methane from the biogas.
And it doesn't have to be on a very big scale anymore.
It's something that farmers can use.
Where you have any kind of waste manure or food waste, you can start capturing that
using technology like these membranes, separate it, and then you have methane.
And then we have some that are kind of really spectacular
like our biosurfactants.
So these are biorenewable, biodegradable, biobased and these are really kind
of next generational solutions.
Victoria: That's really cool.
Requires a lot of innovation.
Bonnie Tully - Take 2: Absolutely.
Victoria: So when you know, the other pillar that you talk about is culture.
Right.
And certainly I think the sustainability mindset has been a cultural shift
for probably every company, certainly from, you know, our time starting
in the industry, sustainability was not a conversation to today,
it's really the conversation.
Can you talk about what that culture looks like and what
those expectations are around sustainability and culture for Evonik?
Bonnie Tully - Take 2: Yeah.
So, I've been in the industry over 30 years, and I think if you look
at the very beginning when I entered this, you even had, like, I'll
say climate change deniers, right?
You, there was really a pushback against, no, this is, we're not
going to spend resources on this.
And there has just been a monumental shift to now, where the chemical industry
sees that this is real and that we're now part of the solution, that we're
solution providers and that we're going to be, we're going to be part of the
discussion now and part of the solution.
So that has been a major change.
But to be able to take a, an organization with you, you have
to have a cultural part of that.
And for us our next generation culture is that we see that sustainability
is part of our business case as part of our business model.
We as managers want to see sustainable solutions coming out and we want
our employees to feel that they can bring opportunities forward as well.
So it's really the employees seeing sustainable opportunities and bringing
them forward and also knowing that management will support that and then
management saying, hey, we see a business case here and pushing the organization
to work towards sustainability, like I said, either in our plants or solutions.
And you have to have both, you have to have the employees as well as management
all saying like, yeah, this is the direction we're going and that's culture.
Victoria: And have employees really embrace that shift.
Bonnie Tully - Take 2: Oh, absolutely.
Absolutely.
They like at the shop floor level.
They really appreciate the opportunity to bring forward ideas that they have.
Maybe they've seen them for a long time and to say like, I think if we do this,
we can reduce this waste or could we put in led light bulbs in the plant.
And when we say, yeah, that's a good idea.
You know, it's just positive reinforcement, but they are ready.
Victoria: That's exciting.
And when you think about your future employees, do you find that having A
strong sustainability profile is important to new employees coming into the industry.
Bonnie Tully - Take 2: Absolutely.
Absolutely.
I think every industry the new generations coming in have a
newfound respect for the planet.
And they realize that if they're going to have a planet that they want to live
on in two or three generations, maybe even as, Early as these generations
drastic changes have to happen.
And I think they want to bring that into their workforce into
their work life into the workforce.
And they're really passionate about it.
Victoria: That's cool.
And well, and then you talk about big changes, but I think
the other piece that struck me today when you were on the panel.
You talked about really the importance of incremental improvements and the
opportunity for incremental improvements that all companies can embrace.
Can you talk about that a little bit?
Bonnie Tully - Take 2: Yeah.
We all are limited on resources and I don't care if you're a small
organization or a large organization.
I think maybe small organizations look at large organizations and say, Hey, you've
got 10 people working on sustainability.
I can tell you large organizations wish they had a hundred people working on it.
You just, you never have enough resources in this area.
No matter the size of your organization.
So every organization just needs to start with incremental improvements.
And we have found some really great improvements on things like
adding spray balls in our reactors to clean our reactors instead
of recycling solvents around.
Putting timers on HVAC systems, putting in LED light bulbs monitoring
flow through heat exchangers so that they will be more efficient.
And these incremental wins really start to add up.
And none of these are big money.
and none of them have to wait for the Big Bang Sustainability program and we
are really seeing that this is moving the company forward incrementally
but sustainably and successfully.
Victoria: Yeah, and what strikes me with that is, is one, you
mentioned that it's not just the domain of big companies, right?
There are things that people can do, but it also seems like it
those are ideas that tie back to getting individuals involved, right?
So it's not just the domain of a strategy group or an innovation group to figure
out what the next sustainability story is.
It's something that people can do in their everyday day roles anybody can
identify incremental improvements.
Bonnie Tully - Take 2: Exactly.
And be part of the solution, right?
And everybody feels good about that, right?
When you can be part of the solution.
Victoria: Yeah, absolutely.
So let's talk a little bit about career and leadership.
You've obviously seen great success through your career.
What leadership lessons and career lessons have you learned along the way?
Bonnie Tully - Take 2: So.
When I think about leadership in general as you move up the organization things
just get more and more complicated.
Things just get more and more difficult to manage.
And that's just That's the way of the world.
And what I found when I do see that, when it seems like things are getting quite
complicated or too many topics, I just try to go back to kind of fundamental values.
And one of those for me is the golden rule, treat others
like you want to be treated.
And whether I'm taking that into an HR issue, treat that employee like I
want to be treated, or I'm taking it into a community topic, like treat.
Our communities, like we want our communities treated.
It's just a nice fundamental that you can go back to and
has so many applicable cases.
So, and anybody as you move up the organizational ladder, you know, it gets
more and more complicated as you go up.
So need some fundamental ideas to go back to.
And then the other one being a woman leader.
That I'd like to comment on is that sometimes I find women as they move
into leadership roles, they are hesitant to put their ideas on the
table, particularly if you're in a conference or a conference room.
And I wish somebody had told me earlier in my career to not be
hesitant, to get those ideas out there.
There's a reason why I'm in the room.
There's a reason why I'm at the table, and that is to share my opinions as well
and bring those into the discussion.
I know I was personally hesitant sometimes to bring those ideas forward.
And I was lucky enough to have a very good leader who took me aside after
a meeting where I had not spoken out.
And he said Why didn't you say anything?
I was like, well, I just, I don't know if my idea was perfect.
I was, you know, I had to think about my words.
I was choosing.
And he said, you were in that room and you were at that table
because we needed your opinion.
Never hesitate.
Never hold yourself back.
Bring your opinion forward.
We need it.
We want it.
There's a reason why you were in that room.
And he really encouraged me and supported me.
The, to do that going forward.
Victoria: I think that's great.
And I think that's a lesson that a lot of women have to learn, right?
Cause we're often coached to be perfect.
We're often coached to be you know, to let others speak first.
And yet the reality is in order to get your idea forward, in order to
take the next step, you have to be willing to speak up and you have to be
willing to take that seat at the table.
And when you've got the seat, use it..
Bonnie Tully - Take 2: Absolutely.
Victoria: Awesome.
So what advice would you give to people that are early in their career that are
really looking to have a career success and a career trajectory similar to yours?
Bonnie Tully - Take 2: I think the best advice I can give is to take advantage
of opportunities when they are offered.
You never know what those opportunities are going to lead to.
And sometimes these can be very small opportunities.
You know, join that activities committee join that safety committee
be on the community awareness committee And then because you never
know who you're going to be working with on those type of committees.
We were talking earlier about we at our activities committee at our site this
allows people to work with me directly.
And you would say, the activities committee, but you know, you're just
deciding you're going to do, you know, you know, ice cream social Friday, right?
You don't know.
Cool.
Who else is going to be in that room when you're deciding
on ice cream social Friday?
You're maybe working with some very high level managers and then they get to know
you and you get to know them on a more personal level and boy, you just can start
increasing your network by doing that.
And then.
On a bigger scale, if you get asked to take on opportunities like
assignments you know, would you consider being the maintenance manager?
Would you consider being the technical manager?
Would you consider going running a plant in Singapore?
More than likely, it's better if you say yes to those.
It will really open up a wide variety of opportunities going forward for you.
Victoria: Yeah.
Love it.
And you obviously said yes.
I did.
More than you said no.
Correct.
Yeah.
Which is one of the keys to success.
Correct.
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, Bonnie, thank you so much for joining me I appreciate
you taking the time today and sharing your insights with us.
Bonnie Tully - Take 2: Thank you for having me.
Thanks for joining us today on The Chemical Show.
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