A key component of the modern world economy, the chemical
industry delivers products and innovations to enhance everyday life.
It is also an industry in transformation where chemical executives and
workers are delivering growth and industry changing advancements while
responding to pressures from investors, regulators, and public opinion.
Discover how leading companies are approaching these challenges
here on the chemical show.
Join Victoria Meyer, president of Progressio Global and
host of the chemical show.
As she speaks with executives across the industry and learns how they are leading
their companies to grow, transform, and push industry boundaries on all frontiers.
Here's your host, Victoria Meyer.
Victoria: Hi, this is Victoria Meyer.
Welcome back to The Chemical Show where chemicals means business.
Today, I am speaking with Austin Nichols, who is the CEO of ChemPoint, a chemical
distribution company and a wholly owned subsidiary of Univar Solutions.
Austin has a wide variety of leadership experience, both in
and out of the chemical industry.
And we're going to be talking about that digitization distribution and more.
Austin, welcome to The Chemical Show.
Austin: Thank you so much for having me, Victoria.
Victoria: I'm really glad to have you here.
So let's start with your origin story.
How did you get interested in chemicals and distribution?
Austin: So when I graduated from college, I'm an engineer and I, Was pursuing
this dream of trying to make the U.
S.
Olympic team for rowing, not a glamorous sport.
And I never made it.
So we'll just, we can cap that right there.
It's like, you know, the dream was there.
It didn't happen.
But while I was on that journey, I moved to Seattle.
I ran out of money and recruiter contacted me and said, you're
an engineer who can talk.
Have you ever thought about chemical sales?
And my immediate reaction was no.
I have not thought about chemical sales, uh, but tell me more.
And so we had a conversation and it seemed to check a lot of boxes for where
I was in my life and the experience that I had with organic chemistry, my
backgrounds, biomedical engineering, one thing led to another, and I am an
entry level sales rep at ChemPoint.
Victoria: Wow.
And you've stuck with it since then.
Austin: Yeah.
It was one of those things where I, I got into the industry.
I saw the value of.
What I brought to the table from an engineering perspective, and it gave
me great flexibility early on as a fast paced, dynamic, young company,
our average age at that time for employees was 26 years old, and I
fit right in that that demographic.
And.
I was going to camps and working remotely at times, able to perform and succeed.
And I, I really started to build a, a real love for the chemicals
distribution world, which I don't know if anybody says until they're in it.
Victoria: Right.
Okay.
Austin: and then opportunities just started to open for me from there.
As I continued to grow within ChemPoint,
Victoria: Very cool.
So, so tell us a little bit about ChemPoint, um, just
who and what the company is.
Austin: I like to tell people that ChemPoint is one of the best.
Biggest open secrets within Univar.
, so we're a wholly owned subsidiary.
We are 25 years old.
A lot of people don't realize that we're a 25 year old company.
Um, we, as.
As a standalone chemical distributor within the North American distribution
space, we're in the top 10 by sales for specialty distribution.
So we're actually fairly significant.
We have this reputation of being a univar solutions, digital business.
But interestingly enough, we have our own supply chain, our own warehouse network.
We have our own Salesforce.
We have our own, uh, Hunter kind of technical sellers that are out
there working with, with customers.
So we really are a, a fully functional.
Standalone distribution company within the broader Univar organization.
It's actually quite fascinating.
If you think
Victoria: That is interesting.
So that gives me several questions to talk about with you.
So, 1st of all, you reference digital and that's where ChemPoint started, right?
Didn't it start as a digital platform, um, for Univar?
Austin: Yeah.
So the original hypothesis was in 99 when we started was Amazon is taking off.
These guys are hitting it.
There has to be a play for chemicals here.
So the hypothesis was, let's go let a couple of guys start this up as a startup.
We'll incubate it.
We'll go hands off.
Univar went hands off for about 10 years.
And we built a, yeah, and we built a pretty strong business that we thought
would be e commerce in those days.
And as everybody in the chemicals industry can relate, we're still not there.
Right.
And we, we made that bet 25 years ago and quickly pivoted into more
of a digital marketing inside selling organization where we
used the digitization of processes.
To create a very efficient business and we hook ourselves to suppliers
in the sense that we are suppliers entryway into a market very efficiently.
Victoria: Yeah.
That's really interesting.
And I think your point about, you know, assuming that because digital
was taking over the consumer world, there was a hypothesis that many
companies had that digital made sense.
And in chemicals, when I worked for Shell around the same time, I helped
start up a couple of different e business platforms, uh, including the customer
lounge, which still exists, Alamica, and, um, kind of the same hypothesis.
And what was really interesting is what we found is that individuals that
companies really did enjoy the digital aspect of it, the transparency, placing
orders, seeing where their invoices are, et cetera, but still within the
context of the broader relationship.
Very few digital only customers, a lot of digital business with existing customers.
Austin: Yeah, it's fascinating.
You know, the thing that we saw in those early days that and we still
see an element of it today is the value proposition around digital is
how do you make a buyer or a research?
You know, an R and D chemist lives easier in their day to day action.
Like we're, it's hard to say that buying online is going to replace an SAP, a
direct connection and SAP for procurement to a major multinational corporation.
That's the longterm view.
But if you have a customer who's buying 10 products and they need 10 conflict mineral
statements and they can go to your website or a portal that you set up for them
and get those in a way that it's easy, seamless, and takes burden off of them in
their day to day, that's a real distinct value proposition for a distributor.
Victoria: Makes sense.
So how do you really fit within the broader Univar, right?
You mentioned that, ChemPoint is 25 years in business as a wholly owned
subsidiary of, I guess, Univar or a predecessor, was it Univar at its origin?
Austin: Yes,
Victoria: Yeah.
It was still origin.
Austin: been a part.
Victoria: Got it.
Um, so 25 years of the wholly owned subsidiary and yet also would be
considered a top 10 distributor on a standalone basis, that kind
of stuff doesn't normally work very well for most companies.
Right.
Let's be honest.
So how, how does this work for you guys?
What makes it work?
Austin: No, that's a really great question.
So I think one of the things that ends up happening is our customers
in some cases end up different.
Our value proposition to suppliers is different.
So I'll give you a great example.
Um, the Univar team, has exclusive relationships in a specialties business,
where they'll partner with a supplier or they'll have suppliers where they
have categories like, citric acid and solvents and all these other things.
Our general philosophy is we're not a business that
distributes on a category basis.
We Only partner with suppliers.
So if you look at our portfolio, sometimes in a market, it might look incomplete
because our distribution products are only places where we have a strategic
relationship where Univar your own.
You want to own a customer and you want to echo a supplier sentiment for us.
We want to supply a customer, but really echoing that supplier sentiment
in a lot of ways, efficiently and more hard to reach places.
, a great example is we generally don't do the bulk.
Univar is great at bulk.
Univar makes money on products that they buy well.
Our products are typically ones where I don't have to go pit a supplier
in a category against one another.
Um, there's different ways to skin the cat in distribution, but our focus has
always been, let's pick up a supplier product combination and go to market.
And that allows us to concentrate on it to give that supplier data, rich
feedback, and it allows us to really seamlessly market on their behalf.
So if you go through our product listing, if you're Googling a
product from one of our suppliers, we'll choose like a Dow Methasell.
We are routinely in the one, two or three position in SEO.
We optimize our business digitally so that we come up first in search or second
in search right there with the supplier.
We're the first in line for that contact from the chemist that
purchaser is looking for the product.
And then we have a two hour maximum follow up time when
someone makes an inquiry.
Victoria: Wow.
Austin: So our parent company.
Sister company, however you want to view it, that's just not their
model and their model is great.
I've been in it.
It's fantastic.
I loved working the Univar side of the house, but that's a
different model than what we do.
Victoria: Yeah.
That's really interesting.
I'm thinking about that aspect.
And so in some ways I'd say it's, it sounds like you're a bit more
supplier centric perhaps than a typical distribution being, or certainly
Univar being, but also figuring out how to still harness that digital edge.
Aspect to be customer responsive.
Yeah.
Okay.
So sidebar.
Off the wall question, not on our, um, what I would typically ask.
So when I think about this, 1 of the challenges that a lot
of chemical companies have is.
The commitment of resources to build an effective digital
platform that allows customers to find them, find their products.
You talk about being a SEO search engine optimized and stuff.
That's, that's not.
Easy to do.
And so a lot of companies struggle with this idea of how much resource
and effort do you give into digital when it's not necessarily, fully
additive to the business, right?
Cause you've already referenced that a big part of your business
is just core distributions.
You're not making money because you're a digital company.
You're making money because you're a distributor and people would argue,
well, why spend the money on that when.
Customers are going to find us anyway, and it's all in the relationship.
How do you guys think about that?
How do you think about just managing the amount of resources you apply to
your digital platform versus elsewhere?
Austin: No, that is a great question.
And it's one we get from suppliers whenever we talk about the strategy.
So the way that we've And I can, I could tell you the exact number of
sales dollars and customers that came in 2023 and this year, 2024 from
our digital work, it's roughly four to 5 percent of our enterprise and
new sales come from our digital work.
And the way that we manage that and understand that's where those come
from is we actually split our sales force into, for lack of a better, the
simplest way is hunters and farmers.
So we have.
Sales reps and we have market developers and our market developers
actually sit with our digital group.
They own no accounts and all they do is campaign work around our SEO SCM and
anytimes the product managers in our product group want to launch a campaign.
Let's say we're doing sick nurse for Dow into personal care.
So we've got a personal care market developers.
Well, they can spin up opportunities and flip them over to them.
They'll run those down.
And see what makes sense.
But while that's going on, our digital marketing manager is spinning up an
SEO, optimized microsites or web pages for products were paying for SCM and
when those people click on our website or click the links, you know, they get
a cookie and all the digital stuff that happens in the background where we can
track them automatically feeds into our CRM and that market developer gets a
pop up that says, Hey, we had someone you got essentially they get put on a
two hour timer to follow up with that,
That lead gets spun up.
They call them email them.
And then we follow that through.
So that thing where people talk about it, it's really hard to quantify.
It is if you don't put in the effort and we're really strong
following it from being to come.
Victoria: Which also tells me that your hiring profile is
probably different than the typical chemical company and distributor.
You referenced the fact that you got hired because you're
an engineer who could speak.
How does that play out when you think about who ChemPoint is hiring
and bringing into the organization?
Austin: So I think over time, what we have learned is that there's a lot
of talent across the U S that, that.
Is wanting to upgrade their skill set on the digital side.
So if you look at our market developer workforce, they're scattered
through the pretty much the regions of major chemical manufacturers.
A lot of them are, you know, ex, Dow, ex, BSF.
So we've got those types of people on our staff and we can
train them up in this process.
I won't say that we gamify the process of lead qualification through.
We have very clear metrics and deliverables.
We don't do commission with these guys, right?
It's it's, Hey, we've got these inquiries.
We're trying to beat an effort energy target.
Let's follow it through.
And we manage these people, even if they're not, I like to say, if we hire
someone who's a two finger typer, you know, there's a lot, there's a lot of
us in the industry who are like that.
Our system even works for those types of folks coming in.
Our farmers, our farmer staff, they're mainly located in Bellevue, Washington,
which is where our home base is.
Typically a slightly younger demographic, more entry level sales force.
And then we, they can graduate up into those roles with a lot of training, a lot
of technical training with our suppliers and our internal engineering resources.
Victoria: All right.
That's cool.
Cause yeah, I think the, um, often.
As you say, the intersection of the 2, chemically, um, proficient
and technically CRM and digitally proficient aren't necessarily the same.
Although maybe as the demographic gets younger, it is, I know we, we talked
early on about the, the podcast, but before we started recording, I'm often
getting from the folks that are helping to publish the podcast and stuff.
Like, I don't understand.
Half of what you guys were talking about.
Oh, okay.
So, so work on the things that you can work on, which is the, sound quality
and getting rid of the stupid stuff.
And we'll, yeah, we'll figure out the rest of it.
So anyway, interesting.
So we, started talking a little bit about how you guys are using digitization.
But, you know, when we think about distribution and digitization, where
are You know, where are we currently and where do you see us going or
either ChemPoint or the industry?
Austin: It is a great question.
I was just at the ACC and there are.
You're established chemical distributors, you know, Brantag,
Univars, LSINCD, I'm there for ChemPoint.
You've got, um, AgilisNode.
So you've got this broad spectrum of participants in the space who bring
a disparate value proposition, right?
And What I think is we're still in that fragmentation mode where
traditional distributions is growing.
It's consolidating digitization is playing a key part in that you look at
the Univar team and the Univar Solutions business and how they digitize their
business in a way that's different than ours, but really strong class leading
in that traditional distribution space.
And then you look at where we are, where we're not quite that.
But we're not quite where the guys who were just software as a service are,
and I think that there's a hunger for somewhere, you know, a lot of people
who meet us realize that we're in the middle of that space, like setting up
a marketplace that managed all documents and just was providing leads to suppliers.
That's very doable.
, we've explored this a number of times.
Is it something we might do in the future?
Maybe.
But the revenue models are hard for a distributor or software
as a service company to actually be profitable doing that.
And we see that with the growing fragmentation and people coming
up and people ducking out.
We have an actual core distribution business, I think we're the best
position to say, what is the digitization path look like when
you have a healthy distribution business behind that innovation?
So as we spin up different initiatives with suppliers, like we have this
whole marketing as a service function that we offer where, hey, you're
not ready to do distribution.
With us or anybody too early in the life cycle product.
You want market feedback.
Okay Well, what we can do is we can build you a digital marketing plan get you a
micro site positioning on our website And then we'll apply some market development
resources against that And we'll do this for a period of time for a fixed cost
And if the product takes off great if it doesn't we can both exit gracefully and
try to find another project So there is
. A need in that direction
I don't know that anyone has You Of all the names that are out there right
now in the major players, I don't know that we have that sorted out
completely, which is why you're seeing some of our are not in kind competitors.
Pivot.
Victoria: Got it.
It's complex.
And as you point out, 25 years into the journey of digital in chemicals
and it's still a journey, right?
It's still a journey.
Austin: I mean, I mean, I think back to it was before my time, but you think
about like plastics additives dot com.
Like everyone thought that was going to be the things for plastics.
Well, I was in the plastics industry next year for about a year and a half.
And I can tell you being in that industry, they'll be ready in another
20 or 30 years based on they've got some, they're a little behind chemicals.
It's very interesting.
They are different than chemicals.
Victoria: Yeah.
I could see that.
So how do you share technology and processes?
And I think about, you know, it sounds like you guys have figured
out a pretty sophisticated online marketing to CRM approach.
Do you share this insight and information with Univar?
Are you guys operating autonomously?
Is there some behind the scenes alignment that takes place?
Austin: That is a great question.
We have relationships that are exclusive to each of us.
So we do have to be sensitive.
Like we do firewall our businesses.
There are engagements with specific suppliers like Dow, where we share
product lines into different segments.
We have done marketing as a service for our Univar colleagues in the past.
We use Univar warehouses as a 3PL, like an arm's length 3PL.
Like we, they provide a service level.
That's very good.
Class leading.
And so we use them for, I think, 15 of our warehouses.
But then we have another 15.
They're like, you know, XPO, Kuna, Nagel, and others.
So I think, in the digital world, we are very separate where we have best
practices and where we have suppliers that Have us authorized in similar tangential
spaces on similar tangential products.
It all depends on the supplier.
Victoria: Got it.
Great.
So let's talk about AI because everybody, I don't know if people want
to talk about AI anymore, but we're here, and it's not going anywhere.
We're struggling to figure it out.
Um, how are you and ChemPoint thinking about AI in your business?
Austin: It's really interesting.
So in my role before this, my wife and I own a small business and 15
people, um, you know, a good business.
And I found great utility in AI because we were not staffed.
I mean, we're just a small business, so I could use it to write like HTML code
for me or put a widget in HTML code.
I can put it on our website.
Right.
Uh, coming in back into Univar after that experience, AI is fascinating because
the first thing about it , is are the AI platforms and the tools secure.
There's still a lot of it security issues around AI as everyone's realizing.
That is.
You know, the number one concern for anybody in a big corporation.
So would we do customer facing AI stuff, you know, like chat
bots and things like that?
I think that will come.
I honestly believe it's going to come.
I think the biggest value for AI right now in the distribution world
is actually in some of the back office work, like receiving disparate types
of POs and using machine learning AI.
How do you use it for document management?
Can you use machine learning to harvest data from data packs from
suppliers or customers that they need?
If a customer makes a request, can you automate the response using AI?
I think in the short term, business efficiencies are there.
I think interacting with AI will come in the not, I mean, it's going so fast
that it's going to be here, don't quote me but I think, in 12 to
24 months, someone's going to be in the space using a chat bot to help
solve problems with R& D chemists.
I think that's coming.
Now will it be accurate if you've used it?
Accuracy is until it gets more accurate, we got a long ways to go,
Victoria: Yeah.
I personally like asking questions about my own business
and seeing what it has to say.
Austin: I'm sure the comparisons to like, yeah, not quite as many
followers as Joe Rogan podcast.
Victoria: Yeah.
No doubt about that.
Although I've listened to Joe Rogan, uh, only one episode.
Cause by the way, it's like two hours.
I think I listened to it on a road trip with my husband, fell asleep
partway, woke up and I'm like, Oh my gosh, it's still going.
And what are they talking about?
It was like just some random randomness anyway.
Austin: That's too funny.
Victoria: Yeah.
So anyway, so you see it coming into the backend, but you recognize,
obviously everybody's still trying to figure out the rules of engagement.
Austin: Yeah.
And I think we're in our industry where we'll see it as on the manufacturing side.
I mean, you look at what they can do from a synthesis modeling perspective
now, especially in the biotech side, they can take years off the R&D pipeline.
I mean, coming from biomed now I'm far enough away that I am
not a biomedical engineer, but I have friends still in the field.
And they're telling me about the things that they're doing and how they're
harnessing AI to speed up research into COVID therapeutics and things like that.
And you're just like, wow, this makes a big difference,
but it's not in my world yet.
I'm going to be the recipient of that speed in industry, but
distribution's not using it that way yet.
Victoria: makes sense.
So I think, yeah, stay tuned still to come.
It's part of this, if it took us 25 years to get to this point, AI
will speed it up, but maybe it's five to 10 before we see a big impact.
Yeah.
So let's talk about your employees.
I mean, we talked a little bit about your supplier value proposition.
We've talked a little bit about your customer value proposition,
and let's just think about that employee value proposition.
We're here.
Did we count it four years post COVID?
I'm not actually sure when we start that time clock.
My perception has been that always been that distribution has been
a little bit distributed from an employee perspective, right?
People out in the field a lot.
And then, you know, along came COVID, and this real shift to
hybrid work and working at home.
What does that look like today for you and for ChemPoint?
Austin: So we actually cut across the grain historically, the opposite of what
people would expect from distribution because we're predominantly inside sales.
We officed everybody in our regions.
So Bellevue was our north was our global headquarters, but we have an office
in the Netherlands and Maastricht.
So we have a European, business.
Um, and then we have an office also in a small office in Mexico.
So pre COVID everyone's in the office five days a week.
And it's interesting in my time being in distribution before going to Univar where
Univar is a distributed workforce, right?
All the sellers are in the
Victoria: Right?
Austin: My experience was everybody in the same office.
COVID happens, I come back to ChemPoint and I'll be here on a Monday and
there are five people in the office.
I'm like, what happened?
You know, my first day back, I was like, there were six of us on my first day.
Um, so for us, We went hybrid and it allowed us to
change how we attract talent.
So we're, we're in Bellevue, Washington.
You can't see it, but I've got Amazon buildings all around me, Microsoft
buildings, not exactly a hotbed of chemical engineers and chemists.
Victoria: Yeah.
Austin: are out here, no doubt, but what COVID allowed us to do was to attract
talent in the areas that our suppliers are in, which has been a net add for us.
I think it's a real, real coup that COVID happened and kind of pushed
us to pivot in how we recruit.
So we've got supply chain individuals, you know, All over the country.
We've got finance individuals all over the country.
We've got our customer services largely in the Northwest, but not in Bellevue proper.
It's actually.
Increased our employee retention and support functions, which as you know,
as a business owner and someone who's participated in many businesses, customer
facing attrition's hard on any business.
Victoria: Yeah.
Austin: And so reducing that has our NPS scores are where
we want them to be, right?
Like we've, we've actually got better NPS scores now than when we
did when we were all in the office.
So I think it's a good thing.
Now, COVID was a bad thing, no doubt about it, but this outcome for us,
I think it strongly shifted our base, tipped our iceberg, you know,
and I think it's been good for us.
Victoria: How do you build culture in an alignment in a workplace that's now
highly distributed what it was before?
Austin: That is a question.
We just had a manager's training.
We had 15 managers in, and we were talking about this as a group and I'm about
three months back into the business.
And when I was at Univar, you know, to build the culture, I was, I
was running their food ingredients business for North America.
I did a ride along with every sales rep at least once.
And I went out with a, branch driver to learn about how, what it was like in
the day to life of a driver delivering.
As a leader, you have to spend time, but you have to figure out
a way to bring people together.
Now that usually means getting people together.
And if they're fragmented, you have to, aggregate.
So what we try to do, at least with our industry teams, um, we tend to aggregate
at the major trade events and we'll do a, we'll do a team event at the major
trade events for our finance group.
We'll bring them all in.
Um, so we, we budget for these things to ensure that we can build
that alignment, but it is hard.
We don't take the approach and I apologize.
I can't remember the CEO.
It was Dell.
I think it was Michael Dell said anyone who stays remote is no longer promotable,
that is not the approach, right?
Victoria: That's a hard one.
Austin: That's a hard one.
Um, but there is some element of, you know, um, Peter Huntsman said at the ACC
deals are done in the hallway, right?
You do need to see each other.
I mean, teams meetings can be hard to build that rapport.
You have to fight more for those interactions, I
think, as a leadership team.
And you have to try to create that inception that this needs to happen.
So I think we're still figuring that piece out as a business,
how to do it really well.
But I'm genuinely impressed with our culture and how we're communicating.
We've got some technology tools.
I'm doing every two to three week blog posts and, you know, trying
to connect with folks that way.
And I think that stuff matters.
Victoria: Yeah.
Do you have Slack channels that are active or team channels that are active?
Austin: Yeah, we do.
We have team channels that are active.
And then we use a, um, we use a software, it's confluence where people
can post blog posts or, or chat lines.
So they get company updates there.
Um, but it's, it's a lot like slack with a couple of other things
around, um, employee resources.
Like, where do you go for this?
Victoria: Nice.
All right.
So let's talk about leadership.
Um, you have been in and out of Univar and ChemPoint, uh, you've formed your
own businesses and led businesses, um, and have been in other companies.
What do you see as being really key?
To successful leadership in not maybe not just chemicals and distribution,
but thinking about the, world that you're operating in today.
What's critical to leadership.
Austin: I think every leader, we all strive to figure this out.
And, you know, I think one of the things for me that's been helpful
is I grew up in a small business.
My dad was an electrician and he made me customer facing it
like eight years old, right?
Like I was working with him at houses when people were there.
Right.
So you can't as an eight year old, you can't be complaining about
crawling in a crawl space, right?
It's like you go under there and you smile because you're there
with the customers home, right?
Um, so I think always having an eye for the customer is a big part of it.
I find that I am almost direct to a fault, which is one of those things
that I'm always working on to make sure that I'm, you know, in a moment of
vulnerability with you in the audience.
Um, I always have to check that because I'm highly competitive,
you know, I pursued elite sports.
I'm, I, I love winning, um, like most leaders do, um, but.
You have to have that directness while also coming from a place of
I can walk a mile in your shoes.
I'm not afraid to sweep the floors, you know, in my wife's business.
When our shop helper quit, I ran the Zamboni in the back under
the, in the work area, you know, cleaning the grease off the floors.
Like, and that was three years ago.
It's not like I was 22.
Like I'm very established in my career.
I think there's an element of, show me, don't tell me Be willing to do
the work and then Realistically, being able to create a culture where
the accountability actually matters.
I think one of the things that going back into small business from Univar,
ChemPoint, Nexio, and then going into a small business that we own
was when every dollar is your dollar, you think about things a little bit
differently in how you spend it.
Like when every When a half million dollars of inventory is a half million
dollars, that's not in your bank account.
It changes your perspective on how you coach and lead.
Because you think you knew what that was like and but when you
finally do it yourself, it's very different, very different.
So it's, I'm always trying to connect people to that, like, hey, your
decision impacts this this way.
Let me tell you about my experience.
I'm not saying the way you're doing it's wrong, but if you had to, if you
were going to bet a paycheck, you're not actually having to bet a paycheck.
But like, would you make this decision?
And people take a step back like, I don't know how to make the decision this way.
And here's why.
Um, and so I think creating that accountability responsibility,
is mission critical, especially at where I'm at, right?
Because I can't do everything.
There aren't enough hours in the day.
And so that's the thing that I'm consistently trying to make sure
that I'm prioritizing is all right, get functional leaders in place.
Who will run through walls for me and that I would run through walls for them.
So that's, that's kind of the way I approach
Victoria: That's a good challenge.
It's a good
Austin: it's working so
Victoria: know, it's awesome.
And so, you know, the other thing I was thinking about is we were,
you were talking about this is, yeah, I have to find what, which.
Part of game theory it is, but there's some game theory examples
that maybe apply to this.
So, your example around when it's, when it's your money and your
business, you're, you're looking for where that half a million dollars
is, or, you know, in my case.
It's around parking.
I personally, I hate to pay for parking.
Hate it.
Like, hate paying for
Austin: I'm with you.
Victoria: I, I'm a person that searches for the free parking spot or the meter.
I'm plugging the money in the meter rather than paying 30 dollars into a parking lot.
Um, and I go to a Houston chemical association.
Great group of, uh, a great association here in Houston has monthly luncheons.
Um, and it's at a, At a venue and there's usually valet parking
and I'm like, I don't know.
I parked on the street.
What do you mean?
Like, it's my business.
If I'm paying 3 versus 30, I know it.
Um, and, and, you know, and they're like, ah, I just never even thought about it.
And so this whole aspect of, uh, within an organization, within a
group, it's always better to be the defector, so to speak, right?
Like if I'm the only one that pays, you know, that does valet parking, it's best
for me now, but when everybody does valet parking, that 30 expense multiply it by
3000 people or whatever is, you know, all of a sudden you're at a million dollars.
So, uh, And you don't really think about it inside the big
context of the organization.
It's easy to lose sight.
And to a certain degree, you say, is it material?
No, it's not material.
Um, but you make different decisions along the way, depending on how you
view your place in the ecosystem and what your effect is on the ecosystem.
When you're a small business owner, it's one to one, you know, exactly
the effect that you're having.
When you're inside the, a big corporation, it's harder to
see how you move the needle.
So finding ways to help people understand how they move the
needle becomes really critical.
Austin: Yeah.
All of us in our roles and I'm sure you as well, we read business books and you ever
a consistent theme and in the greatest leaders, you know, the, uh, you know, the
Buffetts of the world is if as a leader, you're not thinking about the frugality.
Of how you run your business, the waste adds up, especially if your business
scales, it's one of those things where you're like, Oh, you know, if,
to your point, if, if one person does valet every time they travel, but they
travel once a month, once a month, or.
Once a week, right?
You're like, Oh, that, that adds up really quick in your T and E line.
Victoria: Yeah.
Especially when you multiply it by a hundred or a thousand or
whatever your number is, right?
It's, uh, it jumps fast.
So anyway, it's interesting, but, but, you know, I think these are
the challenges and opportunities we all have, um, in the industry.
So what's next for you and for ChemPoint?
What should we be looking for
Austin: So one of the things that I'm really working to do
is, is evangelize the brand.
So I think we are one of the, we're, uh, uh, I'm not a secret within Univar,
but a lot, there are suppliers who still don't even know who we are.
Um, so one of the things that I'm really working on, especially for our size,
giving suppliers an eye into what this organization is, what the future
of digital looks like, the things that we're doing and what's working,
when you look at the scale of our business and, you know, we bring in
20 to 30 million a year in digital sales, um, that's a real number.
That's real sales and suppliers.
It's material, and the suppliers that are part of us are benefiting from
that, and we're hitting the goals for them, and there are suppliers that
don't know that that's an option.
I always, I joke around, um, for as big as BASF is, we have a very
small relationship with BASF.
We enjoy our relationship with BASF.
They have a distribution partner who they're strategically
aligned with in a lot of places.
Um, but that's one where you would think, just because of our
scale and size, That's on me.
That's not on BSF.
That's on ChemPoint.
We need to do a better job evangelizing who we are to that organization.
Um, and so over the next 12 months, well really the next three to six,
you'll see a bit of an uptick in our activity, um, with me coming back into the
business and working on some new digital solutions to bring to those suppliers.
You'll start to see some things crop up.
We'll start advertising a few things that we're working on, you
know, in the vein of some of the digitization we've talked about.
So we're really
Victoria: Yeah.
That's awesome.
I think it's exciting and I'm, I'm looking forward to seeing where
you guys head into the future.
Austin: We appreciate it.
Victoria: Yeah.
Well, Austin, thank you so much for joining me today.
I've really enjoyed speaking with you and learning more about you and ChemPoint.
Austin: Oh, thank you for the time.
And I look forward to continuing to watch your podcast.
I love it.
Victoria: Absolutely.
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
And thanks everyone for joining us today.
Keep listening, keep following, keep sharing, and we will
talk with you again soon.