Speaker 24: 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.
Victoria: Welcome back to The Chemical Show Where Leaders Talk Business.
Today's episode is focusing on insights and highlights
from The Chemical Summit 2025.
So just two weeks ago on September 30th and October 1st,
chemical leaders gathered in hu.
Chemical leaders gathered in Houston for the Chemical Summit.
Two powerful days of panels and speakers.
Lots of audience engagement, networking, connection building, and building insights
that these leaders are taking back to their companies to influence strategy,
culture, and direction over the next year.
Today I am sharing some of the key themes plus some clips from speakers
from this year's Chemical Summit.
And I'm just gonna say there was so much energy and engagement and enthusiasm
in the room for these topics and more, and, and the buzz is palpable because
one of the things that happens at the Chemical Summit, it's not just what
People are saying on stage, it's also what the audience is talking about
and they are talking and engaging with each other over all of these big
topics, topics that you're probably working on in your company as well.
So I'm bringing you some insights today and, um, hope that it's valuable to you.
So to sum it all up,
if you take one.
Statement away from what the overall theme and the reflection of the
Chemical Summit is, is that people and culture are the backbone of
transformation in an AI enabled world.
That's it.
Um, is that new and novel?
No, because people and culture have always been the backbone of
transformation, but it's the way in which we're manifesting it today.
So we covered a lot of topics at the Chemical Summit.
Everything from business transformation to startups, supply
chain, talent, pricing psychology and customer value, the business of
sustainability, digitization, and AI.
Global economics and geopolitics.
So a lot two days action packed with all the topics that a leader needs to
know as they are going about influencing strategy, influencing business
direction, and leading their companies.
Um, the underpinning theme.
Throughout every conversation virtually was about AI, and the reality
is AI is influencing everything.
You guys aren't surprised by that.
You kind of maybe have to be living under a rock if you are not aware about
how AI influenced our world is on a personal level and on a business level.
At the same time, people are still grappling, companies are still grappling
with what does that mean for me?
How do I do this?
How do I make this work for my company?
Um, and we're gonna talk about that more.
So, um, recognizing we are in an AI enabled world.
We are going through some tough times across much of the industry.
Good times in other places.
, It's definitely a mix, but we're, um, we're gonna be talking about that today.
Three big themes, um, that I'm gonna bucket these insights in.
The first is people and culture.
The second is business agility and alignment, and the third theme is
technology as a transformation engine.
So I'm gonna start with people.
So much conversation about the importance of people and culture.
Your people, your business, your stakeholders.
They all want to matter.
They want to matter.
They want to succeed.
They want to contribute to a strong business and a culture
that drives success and longevity.
The first keynote speaker of day one of The Chemical Summit following
me was Todd Nelmark, who is the CEO of Verdant Specialty Solutions.
And Todd talked about transformation and the transformation journey
that he has seen in companies throughout his career and that he
is currently leading Verdant on.
Um, and this whole piece that he really stressed was
transformation is about alignment.
And it's about people.
Um, and one of the things he specifically said is, purpose is why we exist.
Strategy is where we play and how we win.
And culture is how we behave when no one's.
So I'm gonna introduce a clip from Todd here, um, so that you
can hear, uh, from him directly.
The other piece around this that Todd really emphasized, um, as part of the pay
playbook for transformation is getting the right people on the bus, getting people
in the right seats on the bus, and being able to act quickly when change is needed.
So.
Getting the right culture, getting the right people in the right places, um,
to use that as a way of driving your business and your business transformation.
Todd Nelmark: If there's one lesson I learned from the lab bench, the
control room, and the boardroom, it's this purpose, strategy, and culture
are the same decision made three ways.
They only move at pace when the right people are in the right seats
and they communicate effectively.
When you know why you exist, you'll know where to play.
When you know where to play, you'll know how to behave, behave that way long enough
and performance tells the story for you.
The music of a healthy company isn't an accident.
It's a choice you make every day on the plant floor in the r and d lab,
in the boardroom, where the customer who needs you to be a little better, a
little faster, a little more dependable.
Make these choices with purpose.
Anchor them in strategy and protect them with culture.
Power them with people and you'll build something that lasts
Victoria: Milan Taylor from Mercer brought data.
He brought a lot of data in about people and culture and
talent in the chemical industry.
Mercer is a premier.
People, strategy, risk management, consulting, organization.
They work with companies all across the world.
Milan specifically focused his insights around, um, surveys that
they've done in extracting data around the chemical industry and
chemical industry participants.
So, super interesting facts.
Here's a few factoid for you.
Um, first of all.
Chemical employees are have high levels of engagement and job satisfaction.
Like 71% of chemical employees say that they are very satisfied or satisfied or
very satisfied and engaged in their jobs.
Great.
Awesome.
Super wonderful to hear.
However, over 60% say that they are worried about their health,
both physical and mental.
So you could think, is this a function of workplace safety?
I think we've gone a long way with that.
So I, it's the dialogue was actually, maybe it's a little bit less than that.
It's a bit about, um, the aging workforce, which on.
General basis across the industry.
We've got an aging workforce, um, but also just the change in the stress.
And there's a lot of stuff going with on with everybody's companies right now.
You guys know that.
So 60% worried about their health, 50% actively looking for a new job.
So you're like, hang tight.
71% said that they are highly satisfied with their jobs and
yet 50% are actively looking.
I don't know.
I, you know what?
Maybe somebody can respond.
'cause we all, we had some speculation about why that was.
Um, is it a demographic shift?
Is the fact that the industry is going through such a major transformation?
I don't know.
But it's also around this fact of we need to continue to
upskill our workforce, right?
The work that we do every day is changing whether you're in the office, whether
you're working in manufacturing, whether you're out in logistics, helping move
product around the work is changing.
One of the things that's changing work, and again, we talked about AI
being an underpinning theme throughout the conference, is the need to both
upskill and communicate while doing so.
And this was an interesting factoid.
So you know, again, people are a bit uncertain, right?
They're a little stressed out, um, about Their roles, while they're very satisfied,
they're also a little stressed out.
Um, and something like one third of employees that were on this Mercer
survey reported that no one in their organization has spoken to them
about the impact of AI on their job.
Surprising.
Again, a lot of dialogue.
Why would that be?
Well, maybe because we haven't figured it all out.
We're still in this experimentation phase of ai.
Yes.
But if you have one takeaway, go talk to your team members about how are you
using AI, what does it mean for your job?
Um, and I think the collective conversation was that.
AI is not taking away jobs.
It is changing the way we work.
It's enhancing the way we work.
Maybe we're working on different things because we're using AI to do other things.
, But people are still critical in our industry in the roles
that we have to your culture.
So that's, that's another tidbit.
Milan Taylor: So I think that adoption curve of what technology looks
like as you transform is critical.
But if we go back and a third of employees have not heard from leaders,
from anybody in their organization about what this does, speaks to that
level of anxiety and that, uh, challenge
Two in three employees tell us that they trust, they trust all of you,
that if their job goes because of AI, you will find them another one.
Now, I'm not so sure that in the current economic climate you will do that,
and I have no data to evidence that, but I suspect the compelling call of
improving the profit line is going to be the ascendant factor in that decision.
But two and three of your employees trust you that you will re-skill
them or find them another job.
31% of employees, we've talked a bit about this, are reluctant to try
any new technology in the workplace.
Uh, and I think that's something you're gonna have to really work with
your, uh, chief technology officers and your HR leaders to get over.
So I think the next frontier as you bring all this together is
trying to figure out what does AI actually mean in a work environment?
What does it mean for your employees?
How do you redesign work?
Because I think at the end of the day, putting in AI into your
organizations is not about technology.
It's about trust.
You can implement technology pretty well in the industry.
This is all about what does the future workforce look like.
And you need, I think, to think about, uh, how you develop
your organizational structure.
Victoria: Finally, in this people and culture space, we had a panel on
talent that included people from across the industry representing different
levels and different participants in the industry, manufacturing and
people working on the shop floor, executive leadership, et cetera.
Um, and one of the things that we really talked about that stood out
to me in particular and that stood out to others is the importance of
being deliberate with your culture.
Right.
So culture is gonna happen, but being very deliberate in your culture is critical.
And in fact, we talked a little bit about this in the context of M&A and we've got
a lot of changes in the industry, right?
Companies buying and selling people, moving companies, maybe there's
some m and a work in combinations.
Um, bringing the culture conversation earlier is critical.
Um, and being very specific about.
What your culture is and naming your culture.
So The Chemical Show way, the Olin culture, um, Kelly Soudelier from
Olin was one of our executives that were on, was on the panel.
the Verdant culture, your company's culture.
Point to what it is, who you are.
It's part of your identity.
What is your culture?
I think if we look across, um, not just the chemical industry, other industries,
every company has a culture, some of whom you can point to and you're like, oh yeah.
I see that.
I see that all wrapped up in how you approach things, how you talk about
things, how you do business, what's your company culture, what is the
culture that you want to be able to succeed and thrive as we go through
these industry transformations.
Culture is everyone's responsibility and people is everyone's responsibility.
So we need to kind of embrace that vernacular because clearly as we
continue to go into this next decade of chemical industry, we're going
through a transformation right now.
Right?
Arguably the longest down cycle we've seen in decades.
Cultural shifts are happening, business transformation is happening,
and getting people to embrace it and recognize it is critical.
Theme number two that came through of those two days of the chemical summit.
Business agility, alignment, and collaboration.
Right?
So I've talked about this recently about where we are as an industry, um,
and what is critical to success here in Q4 as we go into 2026 and beyond,
and it's around strategic discipline,
Aligned processes and fundamentally collaboration.
So I'm, I'm grouping in some comments from three different panels.
Um, one was the supply chain panel and just how we're harnessing
supply chain resilience to drive business in the future.
And.
Abdul Salam.
Hagar from Clariant was one of our panelists.
Brilliant guy.
So we talked about just the importance of supply chain.
Companies Started to understand that supply chain is not just about execution.
Supply chain needs to be integrated from the get go.
Your business and your long-term strategic planning.
Right.
So again, this gets to not just execution, but also alignment and collaboration.
Um, we also talked about the fact so much of supply chain is
influenced by technology, right?
And the technology and digital tools that are available today for
visibility, for planning, for integration across partners are not optional.
They're necessary.
They're a standard state of business.
This provides alignment.
It's around getting strategic discipline and ensuring business agility.
Speaker 12: I think what is becoming really important is, you
know, I think you usually really focus on the customer, right?
We want to deliver our goods on time, and we want to have the right stockpiles
for our customers so we can also execute our production on time and deliver.
What becomes more and more important is that we actually
also look backward, right?
That we, from an integrated perspective, involve our procurement departments,
involve our logistics departments, and make sure that we really
monitor, you know, first of all, the developments in the market, right?
Especially now with, you know, not just geopolitically, but
also, um, regarding tariffs.
But, um, really start monitoring and holding also our, you know,
our suppliers accountable, right?
Um, I think this is becoming more and more, uh, at the, at the, or becoming
more and more at the forefront, and digitization actually helps a lot there.
So, um, instead of, you know, your classic communication patterns that you have.
Um, there are so many technologies out there, some more advanced than others to
integrate with your suppliers directly,
Victoria: Right.
Um, when we talked about the business case for sustainability, you know, we've
seen, you guys have seen, I've seen a lot of announcements of these big
projects that are getting delayed and yet.
Are people still working on sustainability?
Oh, yeah.
And we talked a lot about that and ensuring that there's
an ROI for sustainability.
Sean Stephan from OxyChem, talked about how, um, the engineers, their
plants, their manufacturing people are submitting all kinds of projects.
All of which are efficiency gains and all of which are sustainability gains.
These are the fundamentals to the business case for sustainability.
Again, back to strategic discipline, business agility, responding
where's needed, um, and aligning.
Speaker 2: I'm a Lean six Sigma master black belt.
Okay.
Oh really?
The old school.
And so our job was to go in and save money, so we were reducing gas energy
defects, waste everything a long time ago, re-engineering things to
make him work better, more efficient.
That's something that was natural and that's why it was easy for
me to come into this space.
And, and so everything that we do, so when you have, we have engineers submitting
projects that are like switching out fan blades, automation, variable speed drives.
Saving water tower automation, software, all this stuff.
Yeah.
It all comes with less chemicals to save money.
It drives a carbon down.
So now I have a low carbon product that costs less to make.
Victoria: And then the third, uh, piece on this topic was
really around customer value.
Um, and how customer value is inherently, deeply cross-functional.
So we had a, a speaker on pricing, pricing psychology actually.
And we had a panel on customer value and how do we move beyond price?
How do we create better prices?
, How do we create better value for our customers?
Really the panel, , which included leaders from ExxonMobil, Sasol, and
Simon Kucher, , they emphasize that value creation isn't just the job of sales.
This is not just one or two people's job to make sure that you've articulated
value, that you've created value, that you're getting the best price,
that you're securing the best.
Deals and contracts for your business.
, It exists at every organizational layer, whether it's supply chain,
commercial r and d, your operations.
Everybody's got a, a piece of this.
Collaboration is critical to creating maximum value appropriately.
I mean, I'm gonna say appropriate maximum value.
'cause you don't always want to create maximum value.
I might delete all this.
I mean, I do this.
So collaboration is key for creating customer value, the right level of
customer value for your customers.
Mike: In order to grow, the first thing it starts with is you have
to have an opportunity set that is significant and valuable.
And so how do you get an opportunity set in today's environment
that, that meets that criteria?
For me, the most important capability is the ability to
collaborate with third parties.
Um, you have to be able to work with customers, suppliers, consultants,
others in the industry, uh, to come up with the best ideas.
Because the, the brutal truth is none of our organizations
has all of the best ideas.
We all have a lot of good ideas, but there's more good ideas outside
of our organization and inside.
So if we can bring multiple parties together to collaborate, to develop
that opportunity set than the systems, the processes, the people, the
technology has something to target.
Victoria: Our third theme that came through, again, I already told you AI
and digitization, were ongoing topics through every part of the conference.
Um, and this is that technology is the transformation engine, right?
So if we think about where we are today in 2025 and where we want to be
in 2030 or 2035, or heck even in 2026.
Technology is the engine and in fact, halal Kaplan from Node.
Is a quote from him.
It's AI is like an internal combustion engine.
It's not the result.
It's what powers everything.
And I think that is just brilliant because, you know,
we've gone through this phase.
Maybe you're still in this phase wondering like, oh, what about ai?
How is AI doing?
Is AI taking my job?
Is it not taking my job?
It's not, um, it's an engine.
It's a tool.
We need to absolutely need to harness it.
It.
But, but we, the people need to harness it.
Um, and in fact, Milan, Taylor, I'm going back to Milan.
He had so many great nuggets in his speech about talent.
He talked about, it's not about the technology, it's about the trust.
You can implement technology pretty well in the industry.
Maybe you feel like you're behind, maybe you feel like your head, but it's about
the trust, the trust in your workforce, the training in your workforce to how to
monetize and how to use this technology.
Effectively, um, I think this whole aspect of, um, fostering.
A culture of risk-taking.
Big, big conversations about the fact that technology is moving so quickly.
We have to experiment.
We have to experiment, we have to take risks.
We have to try things and say, yeah, that was great.
Not gonna work again.
Um, and in fact, Charlie Laurie, who
was the moderator on the digitization panel.
He talked about technology experimentation a little bit like
we experiment in the lab, right?
So we try formulations, we do experiments, we're creating new molecules.
They are not right the first time.
We go through dozens of experiments, dozens of combinations
to get to the right solution.
And technology's a little bit the same way.
We're in a period where it is rapidly advancing, you need to give yourself
room to experiment, to figure out what works, what doesn't work for your
company, your organization and the tools themselves and the technologies
themselves are changing immediately.
Shabnam Najan from Evonik, who is on our digitization panel.
She talked about digital transformation.
It's not about technology.
So again, even though we said technology is a transformation engine, it is.
Um, but digital transformation, it's about making things better and
being business first, technology second, and then the people.
It's like this, this three things that go together that I've already talked about.
People and culture, technology and business agility and execution.
So critical to success and transformation.
Speaker 13: Jimmy you mentioned yesterday a lot of, uh, chemical
industry is a very regulated market.
Yes, that's true.
I always say regulation is a double-edged sword, but the regulations
such as REACH TSCA GHS, that needs the AI to be adoptable, auditable,
traceable, aligned with the lots of, um, governance, uh, rule.
And that will slow down the process.
Yeah.
But at the same time, the good part is.
You can trust the data, you can get the high quality data.
And then the last one, which I think the most important one,
we heard it all yesterday.
We heard it all today, is about culture, is about people.
Yep.
Implementing new technologies easy.
You can implement as many technologies as you want, but if you don't have the people
that they don't believe in technology or more importantly, they drive this
technology, the technology will fail.
So I would say the chemical is making a great change.
The, they put digitalization as part of their strategy.
They are empowering the people, but it is still a very uneven journey.
Victoria: All right, that is a highlight of the themes coming out of two great
days of conversations, speakers, panels and attendees at the Chemical Summit,
People and culture are the backbone of transformation in an AI enabled world.
All three are needed to work together, right?
People and culture, business agility and alignment, which you can also translate
to strategy, process, and collaboration.
And then technology is the transformation engine.
And it's an engine.
It's not the result.
It's helping us get where we need to go.
So, um, that's it for today.
Lots of great conversations and insights.
If you have any questions, reach out and let me know.
And if you're feeling some fomo, like, oh, I should have been there.
Yes, you should have been there, be there next year.
We're working on finalizing our dates.
Um, The Chemical Summit will be happening again in fall of 2026.
And in the meantime, if you are looking for ongoing engagement,
thought leadership, with peers across the chemical industry.
Stay tuned, uh, for the Chemical Executive Mastermind.
In fact, you can join the wait list.
I will include the link in the show notes so you can head straight there.
And that is where leaders connect and meet together over the course of
a year to talk about key topics that are affecting the industry, get some
connection and insight from peers.
Fundamentally grow their leadership for themselves and their businesses.
So that's it today for the Chemical Show.
Thank you for joining us today.
Keep listening, keep following, keep sharing, and we will
talk with you again soon.
Speaker 25: Thanks for joining us today on The Chemical Show.
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For more insights, visit the Chemical show.com
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You can find me at Victoria King Meyer on LinkedIn, and you can also
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Join us next time for more conversations and strategies
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