The Chemical Show: Executive Interviews on Leadership, Sustainability, Supply Chain, Digitization, Customer Centricity and more and key trends


Host Victoria Meyer takes on the challenge of strategizing for a potentially flat and challenging year in the chemical industry in 2024. Sharing five strategic ways for businesses to kick-start their year and position themselves for long-term success, Victoria emphasizes the importance of balancing short-term needs with long-term investments, leveraging global and regional strengths, harnessing sustainability, assessing wins and losses, and building partnerships. 


The episode offers valuable insights for businesses to help think critically about their future, make strategic investments, and take proactive steps to navigate the uncertainties of the market.

Is your business looking for a way to start strategically and quickly in 2024? Send Victoria a DM on LinkedIn and set up a 30-minute complimentary consultation where we talk about what are some strategic elements for your business to help you thrive and grow in 2024.


Don't miss this insightful episode with Victoria and learn more about the following:

  • Industry Outlook in 2024
  • 5 Ways to Start Strategically in a Flat/Challenging Market 
  • Key Questions to Ask Your Business and Business Partners


Killer Quote: “Play short and long. Understand what's needed to be successful today and to prepare for the future. It's critical to make strategic investments, think short, play long, and ensure that you and your business are continuing to invest and evolve for the future.” - Victoria Meyer 

Additional Links:

Episode 146:  Petrochemicals in 2024: Capacity Overbuild and Codependent Markets with John Richardson of ICIS


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Creators & Guests

Host
Victoria Meyer
Host of The Chemical Show; founder and President of Progressio Global

What is The Chemical Show: Executive Interviews on Leadership, Sustainability, Supply Chain, Digitization, Customer Centricity and more and key trends?

Welcome to The Chemical Show™, where chemicals mean business. Featuring interviews with industry executives, you’ll hear about the key trends impacting chemicals and plastics today: growth, sustainability, innovation, business transformation, digitalization, supply chain, talent, strategic marketing, customer experience and much more.

Episodes are published every Tuesday.

Hosted by industry veteran Victoria Meyer, The Chemical Show brings you the latest insights into the industry. You will hear from leading industry executives as they discuss their companies, business, markets, and leadership. You’ll learn how chemical, specialty chemical, petrochemical, material science and plastics companies are making an impact, responding to the changing business environment, and discussing best practices and approaches you can apply in your business.

Hi, this is Victoria Meyer. Welcome back to The Chemical Show. This is episode 146, and we are at the beginning of 2024, which by all accounts is going to be a interesting, maybe flat, maybe challenging, maybe foggy year for the chemical industry. So what we are talking about today and what I'm sharing with you today are some strategies to help you start strong in 2024.

I. As I said, we're here at the beginning of the year. Expectations from industry experts say that it's gonna be a fairly flat year, maybe some upside at the end of the year. And of course, as you know, and as I know, depending on where you sit in the chemical industry, your experience, your performance, your year is gonna be different.

If you're interested in hearing a little bit more about market expectations, go ahead and listen to episode 144 of The Chemical Show, which featured John Richardson and John, of course, brings a very unique global perspective, predominantly to petrochemical and polymers markets and with a heavy Asian and Chinese focus. So he's bringing a lot of insight from that perspective. And then stay tuned and you definitely want to tune in next week to episode 147, which is where I've discussed. the economic outlook for 2024 with Steve Lewandowski.

So stay tuned. We've got a lot of great content for you Today, what I really want to talk about, and we're sitting here at the beginning of the year, is what are some strategies that you and your business can take to ensure a strong start to the year, and frankly, to ensure a strong year in what might otherwise be considered a flat,

murky uncertain year. Now, economic reports all over the place are a little bit mixed. Some people say, oh, we're seeing an uptick. Others are like, oh, it's a little foggy. Others are seeing different things and I don't know where you sit in your business and in fact, shoot me a message, send me a DM and let me know what you're seeing in the market.

But certainly , we are set here at the beginning of the year for another challenging year. It doesn't mean that we can't grow. It doesn't mean that you can't set yourself up strategically to have a very strong year in 24 and 25 and 26, and that's what we're gonna be talking about. So what I'm here to bring you today is five ways to start strategically in a flat or challenging market, right?

Most people have already laid out their year. Interestingly, maybe not fully, but most companies, most businesses have already set a start to their year. Citing your budget, laying out your goals, and now what? We're here, we're ready to kick it off with a strong start.

I am bringing you five ways to start strategically in a flat and challenging market, and I'm bringing you several perspectives and also some key questions that you can be asking yourself and your business. Number one. Respond to today and prepare for the future. So I like to call this think short and long, understanding what's needed to be successful here in 2024 at the beginning of the year as you go week by week, month by month,

deal by deal, as the case may be. But what I think is also really important, it's very easy for businesses sometimes to stop investing in themselves. So you're thinking, oh crud, our financials aren't where they need to be. Margins are lower than we desire. It is just a challenging year. So let's stop all extraneous spend.

What is extraneous and what's important to you? And a question I have for you is really how long do you plan to be in business, ? And what do you need to do today to prepare your business for the future? I think about this in terms of systems, processes, people, investments, and other assets.

We've talked a lot on The Chemical Show about digitization and AI, a lot about supply chain, and one of the things I've heard is that people are dialing back. Some companies are dialing back and in fact it's very natural. Our instinct is to cut costs. But I think what we really need to be doing is

Being strategic with your spend and being strategic with your spend often means investing in something where the return today is not obvious, but you know that the return tomorrow or next year is where the payoff is really gonna be. And a little story, an anecdote that I'll share is a, several years ago my mom, who is 86 currently and she is really pretty tech savvy.

She listens to The Chemical Show regularly, so I know she's gonna hear this story. She is great on technology, on her phone, and Google search and everything. Like she's doing some things that I know that some of her peers are not. But I remember having this conversation with her probably five or seven years ago when we were talking about getting her a new iPad, some new technology, some other things, and she said, I don't want to be messing with that new technology.

I just don't want to have to learn that. And I remember saying to her okay, fine. How long do you plan to live? Of which she was a little bit taken aback. She's what kind of question is that? I'm like if you plan to live another 20 years, you need to start learning some of these things because technology and communications and business is going to continue to evolve.

If you're planning to die tomorrow. Then you don't need to learn any of this stuff. Needless to say, she is now a super user on all of her Apple products. She can order on Instacart or walmart.com and go pick up stuff. And she at 86 is in her life, living a pretty evolved. Current staying current and current technology and being ready for tomorrow.

My question is back for you. If you plan for your business to die and not be around next year or in five years, then don't change. Don't grow. Don't make strategic investments in people, in processes and systems in your assets. However, if you're planning to play a long game, if you plan to not just survive, but to thrive in 24 and to be continuing to thrive at the end of this decade, and at the end of the next decade will then make those strategic investments, think about what is going to make the difference, what do you need to do?

To be shooting ahead to where business is going to be tomorrow and make that strategic investment. It may seem like an expense today. It may seem risky 'cause some of these investments can seem risky, but understanding what that risk is, what the opportunity is, and ensuring that you and your business are continuing to invest and evolve for the future is critical.

So think short. . Play long and make sure that you are preparing yourself for the future. That's number one.

Number two, be global and yet strengthen your regional. So there is no doubt that the world is in transformation. The chemical industry is in transformation, and we've talked a lot about this on The Chemical Show.

But one of the key things you can do for yourself here in 2024, as you think about your business, is understand. What is the future of your business when you think about regional strengths and global strengths? So there's a lot of transformation driven by politics and legislation. We've got conflicts around the world.

There's supply chain challenges. Heck, ESG has an influence, right? So when we think about sustainability and as we get more focused in on type three sustainability, type three emissions having products travel the globe may or may not be the best decision. Being vulnerable to long supply chains may not be the best decision for you.

So understand the global nature of your business, strengthen those relationships, and yet also look at your regional opportunities and strengthen those opportunities and those relationships. My question on this is what relationships do you need to build today? To create future business opportunities.

My third point on this, and to get yourself strategically ready for the year to be successful in 24 and moving into 25 and 26 harness your sustainability profile. We've been talking about sustainability a lot. It's sometimes couched in the terms of ESG. If you read the news, ESG seems to be going away, at least in terms of using that acronym in a high profile way. The reality is we know the chemical industry and our customers and consumers continue to be interested in sustainable products, in greener products, in circular products, right? Things that are better for the environment. Again, back to my first point, which was. Being short and long, understanding what the short opportunities are, but also playing a long game.

And this is around understanding your sustainability profile, right? Know your baseline, share your story, understand what's important to your customers. Marketing circularity and sustainability. This is maybe one of my biggest ahas that came out of The Chemical Summit. And I've shared this with you before, maybe you haven't heard.

So if this is new to you, one of the things that came out and Kelly Gilroy from Univar Solutions talked about this, is that the chemical industry, we are really good at selling to specification, right? We're great. We understand the specs we can sell based on molecular weight and, impurities and non impurities and what have you.

We are awesome. At selling to spec. . The reality is often when we're selling to spec, we're ignoring some other aspects, some beneficial aspects of our products, because what I would tell you is people aren't necessarily buying just the product. Your customers want more than product. They want the entirety of the package whether it be sustainability, whether it be a recycled product, whether it be a, a

A first tier virgin resin, whatever the case may be, they are looking for more from you than your specifications. Specifications are easily replicated. The rest of it is less so. On this point though, I'm really thinking about sustainability. How are you marketing and harnessing and selling your sustainability?

My question for you on this is what elements of sustainability are important to your customers, your business partners, and your stakeholders? And then how can you meet those needs today and tomorrow? And by the way, it's not enough to say, oh, we're already pretty good. We're doing these things. You need to be strategically focused on sustainability from a marketing perspective, from a business perspective, from a sales perspective.

Number four, assess your big wins, understand your losses. Decide what to keep, right. this is a bit of use the term fish or cut bait, but I think that also the reality is, let's get really clear what we've already started to see in 23, and I think it's gonna happen a lot more in 24, is some strategic paring and pruning of businesses.

So I'm a bit of a gardener. I'm not a very good gardener to be really honest, but I understand the concepts of it and I do okay. And one of the things that's really critical and if you garden at all, what you understand is you have to prune. You have to prune your trees and your bushes and maybe your plants in order for them to thrive.

The same is. Absolutely true of your business today. This may be assets, it may be products, it may be suppliers or customers. So it's not necessarily about a sale of a business unit, which is what we sometimes think about, but thinking about what you need to prune. What you need to keep, what you need to fertilize and focusing in on that early to create that success.

You sometimes have to say no to something, to an existing business an existing project and existing customer supplier in order to be able to say yes and in order to thrive in the future. So think about what that is and ask yourself, what do I need to stop doing? In order to create the opportunity for the future that I need to start doing?

And then number five is . Building partnerships, new and existing. And I think partnerships and collaboration is the key to success always. But it's certainly the key to success as we go into these flat and uncertain and maybe a little bit foggy markets. Right. And part of that is around not getting stuck in the old ways of working in old relationships in old assumptions about your business. So, getting crystal clear internally and externally with your business partners about what is critical about growth for them in this year, about growth for you in this year. How do you work more together? And then frankly, where are the gaps? Where are the gaps and what gaps can you fill?

What business can you be doing differently and start building those partnerships. Plant the seeds, new, old, and future in order to create that strategic value.

That's it for today. Thanks for listening, and as always, I would love to hear your feedback or any questions or if you have any insights on today's episode and some topics that we discussed. The easiest way to get ahold of me is to shoot me a DM on LinkedIn and I respond to those pretty quickly.

And if your business is looking for a way to start strategically and quickly in 2024, let's talk. Send me a DM on LinkedIn and we can set up a 30 minute complimentary consultation where we talk about what are some strategic elements for your business to help you thrive and grow in 2024. Thanks for listening today, and we'll talk to you again soon.

We've come to the end of today's podcast. We hope you enjoyed your time with us and want to learn more. Simply visit TheChemicalShow. com for additional information and helpful resources. Join us again next time here on The Chemical Show with Victoria Meyer.