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Killer Quote: "A hundred-year company isn’t just about surviving; it's about flourishing, creating a legacy, and paving the way for future generations. It's about hiring for character, training for skills, and building a culture that values trust, transparency, and long-term sustainability." – Kris Maynard
Welcome to The Chemical Show™, where chemicals mean business. If you're looking for insights from business leaders of mid-market to Fortune 50 companies, this is the place to be.
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.
Host Victoria Meyer gained her industry experience at leading companies, including Shell, LyondellBasell and Clariant. Before taking those insights and experiences to launch a strategy & marketing consultancy, Progressio Global, and The Chemical Show podcast. Victoria brings a informed and engaging perspective, making this podcast not just about the chemical business, but about people, leadership, business challenges and opportunities, and so much more.
The Chemical Show brings you the latest insights into trillion-dollar chemical 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.
This podcast is a must-listen for executives and business leader everywhere, leading B2B process businesses and industries, driving strategy, harnessing customers and suppliers, and driving business innovation.
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 Kris Maynard,
who is the Executive Chairman of
Essential Ingredients, a company he
founded in 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia,
with a vision of creating a different
kind of chemical distributor.
Partner focused and people focused.
Today, Essential Ingredients is
employee owned through an ESOP.
Kris now has his sights set on
building, , an evergreen company to
last a hundred years with the stated
purpose of being a blessing to others.
These are things that are, , frankly,
a little different amongst the
world of chemicals and distribution
and heck business in general.
But I think that's what's going to
make this conversation so great.
So Kris and I are going to talk
about that and many things, including
the importance of being, , and the
importance of independent private
ownership and the people, the impact
that it has on people in society.
So lots of cover here.
Kris, welcome to The Chemical Show.
Kris Maynard: Thank you,
Victoria, for having me.
It's a pleasure.
Thank you.
Victoria: Thank you.
So what is your origin story?
What got you interested in
chemicals and led to the founding
of Essential Ingredients?
Kris Maynard: Before I get to the
origin story, I co founded the
business actually in 1996 with a, with
a good friend and partner of mine.
That'll be part of our story we talk
about, but, , it's taken a lot of
us to build what we have here today.
So I don't want to take too
much credit for all that.
But, , I grew up in Southern Ohio.
, , very modest, , growing up
in a farming community.
, it was a three bedroom, one bath
house with three boys and mom and dad.
And, , I was the first one, yeah,
of the boys to go to college.
I was a middle, , middle child.
, So, my poor mother had to share a bathroom
with, , , for, , for me um, in fact, at
one point in our, my mom was so frustrated
with the cleanliness of the bathroom.
Dad had to put a shower in the,
, what we call the utility room
outside, which got very, very cold.
It wasn't insulated in the wintertime.
So you didn't want to be the 1st 1 to
take a shower in the wintertime because
you had to break the ice off the floor.
So, , I ended up going to Miami of Ohio.
My dad wanted me to be a doctor,
, , having kind of struggled with
finances, , pretty much all his life.
And he thought, well, , , Go
pursue a medical career.
So I was a premed guy.
Like, I think when I talk to
folks in our industry, it's like
9 out of 10 were premed and ended
up in the chemical industry.
Some reason.
, so coming out of college, I actually
thought it was gonna be a missionary.
, , I had spent some time in Russia behind
the iron curtain and on 1 of those trips.
Actually, I met this young
lady fell in love with her and
she, I wanted to marry her.
And when I went to ask her dad
for her hand in marriage, she
said, you need to find a job.
And, , so I went back to the
career planning center at Miami
and started digging through,
, potential career opportunities.
And I found this company step in
chemical company was advertising.
It was in the file cabinets course.
We didn't have computers
readily at hand back then.
And, . , I sent them a note and they
invited me up for a series of interviews
and and I got that job after being turned
down for so many other jobs that paid
literally half as much and, , started
my, career in chemicals as a trainee
inside of Stepan, which did a fantastic
job of training folks and my hats off
to them for their investment in me.
And spent about, , six years, , selling,
, chemicals here in the Southeast
for, , for Stepan before kind of
catching this idea with my, my founding
partner who happened to work for
one of our distributors at the time.
And, , he and I actually, the
first time we met, we were out
peddling chemicals in his car.
I always call it windshield time.
Right?
So, , I'm the supplier.
He's the distributor and we're starting
and we're both about the same age.
And we started sharing this passion.
We both had for starting
our own business someday.
And over a period of about 3 years,
we hatched this idea for a chemical
distribution company that really
did things a little differently.
Based on some of the frustrations I
had from the supplier side, some of
the frustrations he had from the, from
the distributor side and thought we
could do something a little different.
Victoria: Yeah.
That's really cool.
And you really were pretty young and
early in your career journey when you
guys decided to co found Essential.
Kris Maynard: Yeah.
Yeah.
I think I was 27, , he might have been 28.
I remember, coming home and telling my
wife, , that was my last day at work.
Both of us had brand new baby girls
at home, , less than 1 year old each.
And,
, , Had a minuscule part of a
plan, nothing you would really
call a sharp business plan.
Looking back on it.
I wouldn't advise anybody to do what
we did, but, , , , we started off in a
little incubator in Augusta, Georgia.
We couldn't afford a real office
in the incubator literally.
So we rented the server
closet in the corner.
It was where all the wires came
in for the phone service and,
.
We paid 125 a month
for that server closet.
It was just big enough for a desk
and a bookshelf for some samples.
And really what we wanted was
somebody answering the phone in a
professional way that said, , thank
you for calling Essential Ingredients.
And he and I ran off with two used
cars and a couple of Skytel pagers
and started beating the streets.
Victoria: That's awesome.
That's a great way.
A great story.
So tell us a little bit
about Essential Ingredients.
Kris Maynard: Yeah, so, obviously
we're a chemical distribution company
and, , Essential Ingredients was
the name that we founded in 1996.
And that's the name that's
been carried through and has
largely turned into our personal
care, , chemical distribution arm.
, , since then, , we became an ESOP
in 2000 and 2011, which we'll
talk a little bit more about.
I'm sure.
. ,
Victoria: Yeah.
Kris Maynard: and then since then,
we formed a holding company over
top of Essential Ingredients.
We call cathedral holdings and
it's allowing us to diversify the
verticals within chemical distribution.
So we can have a little bit more
of a focused approach on different
industries, whether it be personal
care or industrial care floor care,
.
In fact, we're looking at, the oil
and gas market right now as a new one.
Victoria: Cool.
So what makes Essential
Ingredients different?
I know you said you, you, you guys
founded this with this idea that there
was something different available.
You were frustrated as a supplier.
He was a little frustrated distributor.
What makes Essential
Ingredients different?
Kris Maynard: One of the common
frustrations that he and I both had was,
, , the lack of trust between people, , in,
in business and, and the typical way
that, that suppliers and distributors
work together, , it, it's really designed,
, , against building trust.
For example, it wasn't uncommon for me as
a step in sales rep to walk into one of
my distributors and constantly being kind
of beat over the head by the distributor
about, , the, the most recent price they
had gotten on a surfactant from, it could
have been Rome Polonka at the time, right?
Names that we don't recognize anymore for
some of the newer folks, but, , or could
have been WITCO or something like that.
Here I was, in the field with
their salespeople trying to
help them promote our products,
particularly our specialty products.
, , really trying to forge these really
deep and meaningful relationships,
which is I found myself really enjoying
that part of it, , getting to know
customers, , , their sort of their
family, their stories, getting to
know these sales reps really, really
well and, , , doing business together,
like in, in a combined success focus,
, versus, , my success over your success.
So, , we kind of took that and
said, 1 of our founding principles
is going to be, we're not going
to have competing product lines.
, we're going to have a surfactant supplier,
for example, and we're not going to
have 2 or 3, , we're going to have a
silicone supplier and then we're going
to start hitching our wagons to these.
To these folks and really, , give us a
platform to develop trusting, transparent,
meaningful relationships where we
can exchange information very freely.
, , we can, , , , and with that trust
as a backdrop, , it allowed us to
really just kind of put rocket fuel
in the engine, , because, , , if, if a
supplier, if I came to a supplier with
a competitive situation, , they could,
, They could believe it was because we
were truly a partner in that situation
and not necessarily a quasi partner
who was looking to leverage them for
better pricing to line my own pocket.
Victoria: You find that your
suppliers were really open to that,
to the idea of being kind of the
single one to one relationship?
Kris Maynard: From what I gathered,
it was based on my experience.
It was really new at the time.
So it was a bit revolutionary
in terms of, the way this
interaction was going to take place.
And once it got some steam, it became
really magnetic, , and very refreshing,
, for folks to be able to do that.
Because, for our suppliers these
days, and we did it back then,
but, . , we publish a quarterly
report for each of them that says,
here's where all your samples when
here's how our sales are doing.
, here's the projects we
have in the pipeline.
So it's a very, , transparent relationship
and it gives them, I think, a lot
more transparency to the marketplace.
What's going on?
so that feedback loop is very tight,
very transparent and they really,
really appreciate that because
suppliers, I think often find
find themselves and they may have.
, good line of sight on some
of their direct accounts.
But when it comes to the smaller
mid tiers or co packagers and these
sorts of things, they're relying on
their distributors to really feed
them, , that information, which the
smaller customers tend to move faster.
They pick up on the trends a little
bit quicker and that information is
really, really meaningful to them.
So, , we found it to be a
tremendous success and I think
a huge part of our story.
Victoria: Yeah.
I think that's great.
And, and I know I've always worked
on the supplier side and I've had
that, , , kind of confusion or wonderment.
Sometimes these conversations were like,
okay, well, how do you decide if you're
selling my material or somebody else's?
Like when, when do you
sell, , from supplier a versus
supplier B and there's this.
It's a bit of a conflict,
I think, in some ways.
it's certainly the way the business
runs and it's run successfully
for, , decades, obviously.
However, I could see where
there's also a lot of tension
that comes into the relationship
when you're not clear in terms of.
How the partnership is aligning, what
products are getting sold where, and,
, what really those decision factors
are, , in a way that you get more
transparent, it sounds like, when you've
got these one to one relationships.
Kris Maynard: Yeah, and that, the,
the 1 to 1 thing has gotten a lot
more complex since 1996, as you can
imagine, with all the consolidation
that's happened in our marketplace.
So we've really still kind of set that
as a goal, , , for the kind of the way
the story we tell, but it's gotten
much more challenging, , , with a lot
of the consolidation that happens.
So,
Victoria: I'm sure.
I'm sure.
All right.
So let's, let's jp into this whole
aspect of being privately owned.
So, in fact, Kris was, as you were
introduced to me by Cameron Whaley,
, from SCT, another privately owned
company, in family owned company, and
obviously now, , Essential Ingredients
is now ESOP, which is employee
owned, Why does this matter, right?
There's, there's not that many
private, truly privately owned
companies in the chemical industry.
Why do you think this is important?
Kris Maynard: yeah, there, we talked
about consolidation a little bit
already, but we've obviously seen it
on the chemical distribution side too.
And there's not many of us privately held.
One's left.
And I think the, who
owns you matters because,
whether it's a publicly traded
company or a private equity owned
company, , , typically, , I would argue
that those owners, have one thing
in mind, , it's financial outcome.
And in most cases, they're
willing to sacrifice a lot of
things, for a financial outcome.
if you're publicly traded, of course,
you're measured on a quarterly basis,
if not more often, on a daily basis, if
you look at the markets, but the idea of
standing in front of, the cameras every
quarter and reporting out your earnings.,
that's a, that's a hard thing to do.
They're sharply dialed in on the
financial results or what Milton
Friedman would say,shareholder valueover
a pretty narrow period of time.
So being privately held gives us
the luxury of saying,what,that's
not unimportant to us.
I mean, we're very, very driven.
By metrics and KPIs, and we define
what our own success looks like there,
but, , we can take a much longer view
of success, on the financial side and,
It also gives us a luxury of saying
we're going to make some changes to the
business here that may cost us a little
bit in terms of finances or even time.
but we're willing to take a longer view
of 5 or even 10 year period of time.
If we know that this is the
right thing for us and the right
thing for the business and where
we think things are headed.
It also allows us to, To focus
on the things that we think are
much more important than that.
You highlighted our purpose as we
started to be a blessing to others and
inspire them to be a blessing as well.
So, , I don't, I totally disagree
with Milton Friedman and the idea that
businesses are strictly for shareholder
value, creating shareholder value.
I think businesses can do tremendous
amount of good in their communities.
And for the people that they get to
touch, whether the people that work inside
the business, or the customers, even
the suppliers, the value of building
personal, meaningful relationships
again, I that's been the, the.
It's given me the most joy over
the years as these deep, meaningful
relationships that I've been able to
build with people and I think we've
proven that you can have both.
You can have a tremendously
successful, from a financial
metrics, measurement company.
And at the same time have a very strong
purpose that is focused on people
and doing good in our communities.
Victoria: Yeah.
I like that.
And I think the, I do think there's
this whole dynamic that takes
place with publicly held companies
or companies are owned by private
equity around always looking at short
term, short term financials, right?
So it's, it's whether it be a three
month financial or daily, as you say,
when you look at the stock market
and the way it moves on a day by day
basis, or even just an annual financial
that can make, can make businesses
make suboptimal decisions, right?
You're optimizing the short term, But
maybe sacrificing some of the longterm.
So from a private company perspective,
you can give yourself, as you say,
a five or 10 year horizon, truly
for some of your business decisions.
obviously, obviously always still
wanting to make some money so
you can make payroll and,have
profits in the business, et cetera.
But, but being able to take a longer
term, more strategic view than sometimes
happens, I think in the industry.
Kris Maynard: and one of our core
values is who before what, right?
So it's, it's the idea of valuing
people over things or results.
And, when you're measuring things
by financial results, it's,
it's, it's what before who,
Victoria: Yeah.
Kris Maynard: and, a lot of times
that learns to leads to layoffs.
and these are people's lives
and people's families that are
being impacted by these things.
And, so we, we just, we, we try
to focus on the who before the
what, and our results indicate
that it, it can, it can work.
Victoria: Awesome.
So, Essential Ingredients
became employee owned.
So in ESOP, like more than a
decade ago, what prompted that?
Kris Maynard: Yeah, I would say, so
at that time in 2011, we brought in
a 3rd partner a minority shareholder
and all of us were about the same age.
So we're still fairly young.
I'm in my, mid to early forties at
the time,but we started playing the
tape forward a little bit about,what
does this look like for us longterm?
And we had been courted by some
competitors and, private equity folks.
As this was going on, I had watched sort
of the, , the wake, I would say wake
of destruction in the path of some of
those events where these really, really
good companies that I admired and the,
and, and the people that were just
kind of just kind of got lost, , after
things were after the dust settled.
And so we didn't we knew that wasn't
the path that we wanted to take.
, I had been studying ESOPS.
1 of our suppliers had been in ESOP
for a number of years and I had been
studying employee ownership for a while.
So my partners and I were like, it's
not possible feasible for us to read a
kind of a generational family business
with 3 selling shareholders involved.
we all had kids and stuff.
Nobody showed a tremendous interest
in the business, but we just
felt like that would be messy.
Victoria: Yeah.
Kris Maynard: We didn't want
to take these other paths.
And so we started studying ESOPs
and thought, man, this could be a
really, really good thing for us.
I mean, we can all stay
involved if we choose to.
We can let our people who have helped us
build this business start enjoying the
fruits of it as an owner, quote unquote.
Victoria: Yeah.
Kris Maynard: And it really
gives us a path for retention.
Our attrition rate is very low.
It's less than 4%.
I mean, we don't, we tend not to lose
folks and, It allows us to cultivate
this culture where everybody has a stake.
every day they come to work.
They're influencing the, really
the financial results of the
business, the share price that we
get measured once a year as any shop.
So, we have evaluation team come in
and give us our share price rather than
daily, like a public traded company.
We get ours once a year.
Victoria: And do you use like a
third party, like a, One of the big
four accounting firms or something.
Is that how that plays out?
Kris Maynard: Yeah, I mean, not
typically a big 4, but there's companies
that specialize in ESOP valuation.
They'll come in and, take
a hard look at the books.
Of course, we have audited financials
and all those sorts of things.
But, and then they're, they're, they're
looking at things like what, what are
on your business plans for next year?
What does your budget look like?
any major, major events forecasting up
or down and they build, bake all that
in using a formula to create value.
But it allows our people to really have a
hand in what does that they're influencing
it I think when customers interact with
us, when suppliers interact with us,
we've got a beautiful culture here.
Some of that culture comes from that
ownership that folks are saying, this is
my business to this is my company too.
And I'm going to do a good job here.
I'm going to do a good job for you.
Mr.
Customer.
Mr.
Supplier.
because number 1, it's who we are.
Number 2, it influences that outcome.
Victoria: Yeah.
Do you find that it, it
becomes more personal then
versus public stock ownership?
Cause obviously a lot of companies use
stock options, public stock ownership
as part of their employee value
proposition or employee opportunities.
So do you see that it,
it shapes it differently
Kris Maynard: I think it can.
All ESOPs aren't created
equal, for example I am.
So there's some, there's some pretty
horrific stories about ESOPs out there.
but I think using the tool in the right
way, where you're very intentional about
educating your people on how the, how the,
how we make money, how do we lose money?
how does what you do every day impact,
how do we make money and lose money?
, we're an open book company.
so we in 2015, we, we deployed
a tool called the great game of
business that so every Monday,
if you came and visited us at 11
o'clock, we have an all hands huddle.
everybody gathers around and for the
remote folks, they dial in and it gives us
a time to share the sort of the metrics.
How's the business doing?
, we also use it as a time to thank,
1 of our peers for some, something
that did exemplary that week to
celebrate birthdays anniversaries.
And it's a wonderful gathering time.
So we were very intentional about
connecting our folks as employee owners
and educating them on what it means
to be an employee owner and how what
they do every day impacts results.
Victoria: Yeah, cool.
Awesome.
So let's talk a little bit about
what's going on in the industry.
it's, I think it's been a whirlwind
over the last several years.
Obviously, we've all faced
it COVID and post COVID.
I don't know, this year we've
got a lot going on as well.
It seems, there's, there's a lots
of ups and downs and changes.
what do you see as the challenges
facing the chemical industry today?
Yeah.
Kris Maynard: things, right?
I mean, it was actually
good for our business.
The supply chain crisis was
not good for our business.
last year was really, really difficult 23.
so I am thankful.
Well, we're We're beyond that now
and actually starting to see, buying
patterns come back to what I would
call sort of normal and normal for
us is really more pre COVID right?
Because you had the COVID spike and
then they had the supply chain ditch.
but I think,
there's some obvious challenges
around, how do we deploy AI?
you've always got environmental issues
and regulatory issues we're dealing with.
but I think it sort of comes back to
an earlier point in our conversation.
I think,
being privately held versus ownership,
whether it's public or private equity,
I, I see the impact of those things
really drilling down into sort of
the people's connectedness at work.
When Gallup tells us
that 70 percent of the U.
S.
workforce, depending on the year.
It's about 70 percent about every year.
The U.
S.
workforce comes to work every
day and they hate their jobs.
they don't have a best friend at work.
Right?
They don't respect their.
Manager, these sorts of things.
those things, I think particularly given
some of the newer generation, whether it's
millennials or the zoomers, those folks
really want meaning in their work and
they want a place that has a purpose that
stands for something more than just a job.
we spend most of our working hours,
working life hours, now with with
people we're working with and doing a
task and, we try really, really hard
to understand people's giftedness
and try to connect them with a job
that they can have joy in and, really
do that with a team that does that.
In a healthy environment.
Victoria: Yeah.
Yeah.
So, so you talked about giftedness,
, and I know that's part of your,
your mission and your vision and
your objectives of the company.
What does that mean to you and what is
it that you guys look for when you're
trying to help people connect with this?
Kris Maynard: Yeah.
So, it really starts early.
And we're interviewing a candidate
coming in we may have a job
opening and we're trying to
trying to match somebody to that.
So we've got a we're super
intentional about the front door.
I learned a long, long time ago,
we hire character, we train skills.
most folks Really look at, at skills,
and say characters optional perhaps.
so that's one of the things that makes
our culture, I think continually, I'd say
beautiful in a lot of ways, just by being
super intentional about the front door.
So, and then beyond that, once they
get here we're pretty intentional
about, they may come to us thinking
they're really good at this.
So this is really what their passion
is but we're really, really open
to helping them explore other
potential avenues for them.
And we've got a number of examples.
So we've got a, a gal that worked in our
customer service department for years.
And then, right before Covid happened,
she had sort of expressed along the
way a desire to kind of maybe tinker
in the lab a little bit, , and, , so.
We started giving her that
opportunity and then COVID happened
and we were all panicking, trying
to figure out different ways to
thicken alcohol for hand sanitizers.
And we couldn't get some of the more
traditional chemistries as readily
as we thought we could before.
And she and the team came up with
a lot of those solutions and she's
now a full time lab tech for us,
not a customer service person.
And we've got so many stories like that.
I could write a lot.
Probably another another dozen
of folks that came to us thinking
they were going to do this.
And now they're doing
something completely different.
great cultural fit, great character.
but wanted to take some time and
explore, man, is it possible?
I could do that because I never.
I never thought that was possible.
So, we give them a lot of freedom
to, to do some exploring and we've
got some assessments we do to help
them with that and try to put them
in a seat that really excites them.
Victoria: Yeah.
So, so when I think about that it sounds
like you're giving your employees a lot
of leeway in, in many ways to figure
out where their fit is and how they
want business to run and certainly
as owners they have a stake in that.
but how do you ensure that alignment then?
Is it tough to manage within that
environment or what do you see as
the opportunity to keep people?
On mission, even as they are maybe
shifting from where their focus is
because they have an idea about where
else they would be, would have a good fit.
Kris Maynard: Yeah.
So, this is where often I'll talk
about different roles, although we
are all employee owners, we have
different roles in the business.
Right.
So, my role is different than, maybe the
director of customer service, or even one
of our customer service reps doesn't mean
they don't have a voice in these things.
We're very proactive in making
sure our people do have a
voice in a lot of these things.
But at the same time, it is a business
and we make decisions and, occasionally
we've got to put somebody that there's
a job here that needs to be done today.
And we need to do that job today.
And what's.
let's back burner that and call
it a development opportunity
and we'll help you with that.
so just because somebody is as an employee
owner doesn't necessarily mean they come
in and start sort of calling the shots.
That sounds harsh, but it's really an
easy conversation to have in the right
cultural environment where people feel
like, I always picture it as , you
see these rowing competitions in the
Olympics and they're fantastic, as
everybody's doing their part in sync
and on step and you've got somebody
in the front of the boat who's making
sure everybody's on the right cadence.
but if everybody's got their oar in
the water and they're rowing the right
direction, it's a beautiful thing.
So Chris, we've talked a lot about.
The supplier relationship and how
the business that you formed with
essential ingredients is very supplier
centric in a lot of ways, right?
Changing some of that, uh, relationship.
And then as well as being, uh,
employee owned, very people centered,
and that has a significant impact
on your employee experience.
What about the customers?
How do you think about your customers
and the experience that they have
when they're working with you guys?
Yeah.
So even early in our business, I
remember walking around and telling
everybody, you know, Hey guys, the
customer pays our salary, right?
So not losing sight of the fact that,
uh, you know, without customers, we're
nothing in our case as a distributor
without suppliers, we're nothing.
So, um, we've always walked that, uh,
that tight rope of, making sure that
we are partnering well with suppliers,
but also partnering well with customers.
We've tried to be super intentional
about elevating the, what do we
call the customer experience here?
In fact, we've got a director
of customer experience.
Um, yep.
So, uh, her sole job, Julie Vibert,
you may want to have her on the show
someday, but, her sole job is, is
elevating the customer experience.
We do some fun things like, you know,
have a customer advisory panel where
we get feedback from some of our better
customers that tell us, you know, what's
working, what's not, what can we tweak?
We try hard to have dedicated customer
service reps that are building
relationships again at a different
level than the sales interaction.
In the customers, uh, customer
relationship managers, what we call
them actually, um, is, is probably
talking to that buyer, uh, three to
four or five times more often than
the seller, um, the salesperson.
So, you know, those relationships,
uh, and I've always said we sell
relationships, not chemicals.
Uh, it's this idea of building and
forging these relationships with
customers and, and kind of comes
back full circle to building trust
in that trusting environment.
So, uh, we're still,
I'd say we're really good at it.
We're not as good as I
want us to be at this.
And I think we can always
get a little better.
Um, It's a journey.
It is a journey.
Um, Yeah.
But, uh, we, we really, really try hard
to not, well, we say not satisfy our
customers, but delight our customers.
Yeah.
We can all think of situations we've
been in before when we walk out of a, uh,
you bought something or you had a meal.
When you walk out and you're like,
I can't believe that just happened.
It just kind of blow
your mind, uh, service.
Like I would have paid more for that.
They're not often, uh, you know, but
when you, when they happen, it's,
it's shocking because we, we sort
of get lulled into this mediocrity
when it comes to transactions.
And we want those experiences
for our customers to be delight,
not just a satisfactory.
True.
Yeah, I really like that.
I like the idea of having the
customer advisory panel, I think.
Um, I think that's probably lacking,
not that companies don't go in and
survey their customers and ask them
questions, but being very deliberate
about the form in which you bring that
input in and leverage it and harness
it, I think it's so critical because
It's easy to misunderstand why your
customers are doing what they do and
the experience that they actually have.
Uh, so, so fostering that
relationship is really critical.
The other thing that strikes me, um, is
of course you're based in Atlanta, which I
think is also where Chick fil A is based.
There's somewhere in the South.
I think about Chick fil A and, um,
And Dan Cathy and, and the, uh,
customer culture that they've built.
Right.
So even just the whole response
of, you know, my pleasure.
Right.
So I think, have you guys taken
any cues from that as you've, uh,
as you've developed what you do?
We have, you know, and I often compare
when I'm telling our story, when somebody
is coming in, like for an interview,
for example, and, and, you know, if
I get involved in those situations, I
often compare, you know, In contrast,
Chick fil A, an experience at Chick
fil A versus, you know, one of the
other fast food chains out there.
I asked him, I mean,
does it feel different?
Why do you go to Chick
fil A and pay a cashier?
You know, I'd say significantly
more for your lunch.
As a premium, yeah.
Um, you know, instead of going to
Wendy's, McDonald's, Burger King, I
think it helps them understand
a little bit more clearly, more
quickly, what we're trying to do here.
And we're fortunate to be in the same
geography as Chick fil A, because our
customer relationship manager earlier,
she takes crews down to Chick-fil-A
and they allowed us to come down and
kind of, we dip our folks in that tank
a little bit and, and, and they're,
they share some of their wisdom with
us about, how they do things, why they
do things more importantly, and, uh,
the outcomes of some of those things.
So, uh, it's a great,
comparison, I think.
Um, and they're a great model.
That's very cool.
Victoria: so let's talk a little
bit about a hundred year company.
, what does that mean to
you?
Kris Maynard: 100 years is a in the
air kind of a number, but, I was
really introduced to that through an
organization called Tugboat Institute.
It's a group of owners of businesses
that have this desire to build a business
to last for generations, generationally
owned, aren't in the camp of sort of
build to sell and really because some
of the things we've already talked
about, the value of people, the value of
businesses doing good in our communities.
Victoria: Yeah,
Kris Maynard: businesses have
been around a long, long time.
They're well known and they there's some,
there's legacy associated with that.
I'm not interested in my personal legacy,
but I am interested in our business being
able to propagate for generations of
employee owners and coming back to our
purpose of being a blessing to others.
I think about those others as potential
employee owners that folks that I will
never get to meet 30 years from now
when I'm gone but still enjoying the
this place that we call cathedral.
We call it cathedral intentionally,
because cathedrals take typically hundreds
of years to build the people that start
them don't get to see them finished.
but people typically recognize
cathedrals as something that's
there standing the test of time.
It was intended to be something
beautiful from the outset.
When I walk in an old cathedral I
often think about, man, how many
thousands and thousands of people
have walked over this threshold?
And I can see the concrete or the stone
is actually beaten down and it's got
marks in it from just wear of the amount
of shoes and have walked through there.
And I think about the people that have
been blessed in those opportunities.
And so that's the vision
in the meaning behind it.
really, it's the impact on people
over a long period of time.
Victoria: Yeah, that's awesome.
And, and I've been in a lot of cathedrals.
In fact, most recently
was in France this summer
, and we went to Chartres, which is in
France and they started building it in
1189, so almost a thousand years ago.
And there is the, there may
be a better name for it, but
they call it the choir wall.
So it would basically be the wall that
goes around the choir, around the whole
altar, , et cetera, immensely detailed.
this beautiful sculptured wall
that I don't know how long it took.
In fact, I mean, took hundreds
of craftsmen probably and in
skilled craftsmen and sculptors,
hundreds of years to do it.
And it's still there.
, it's still having the test of time.
And in fact, my husband, he's like,
what happened to all the sculptors?
Well, , a lot of things number, , one
of which was also in the middle ages.
Building the church was your job, right?
As opposed to today, we've
got all kinds of industry.
It's amazing really how some things
can live for generations, right?
It goes multiple generations and the
impact that that has, it's really cool.
Kris Maynard: often tell the story, there
was a, an architect in London after the
London fires, and I think it was around
1780, there was a big fire in London,
and he was charged with rebuilding the
cathedrals in London, and you probably
heard the story, but he goes to one
worker, and he says, what are you doing?
And he gets a gruff answer, and he's
dressed in plain clothes this day, and
this guy was a gentleman architect.
But the guy says, I'm laying
bricks and goes around the
corner and there's another one.
And he says, I'm building a wall.
And the 3rd, when he walks
around the corner there, you're
singing in the background.
And he's wondering, he walks in.
He says, what are you gentlemen doing?
He said, Hey, we're building a cathedral,
so really this vision of not doing this
task, laying bricks, building a wall,
but this vision of what we're doing over
a much longer, broader period of time,
even outside their lifespan brought
meaning to their work that gave them joy.
Victoria: Yeah.
Awesome.
Really cool.
So, so Kris, let's talk
about leadership advice.
And this is a question I've
been asking a lot recently.
what advice do you have for someone
entering the industry that perhaps
wants to follow in your footsteps
and achieve the success in the
vision that you've achieved?
What's your advice?
Kris Maynard: when I think back on
my college years, and I'm a Gen X.
so the Gen Xers were really
about pursuing a paycheck.
it was about being successful
quickly and these sorts of things.
And I think about all these folks
that I knew in college and went on
to these jobs, typically financial
jobs and these sorts of things.
I would ask first, why
do you want to do that?
what is what is driving you?
Is it a paycheck?
Is it some sort of income
associated with it?
Or is it something you really feel
like you're good at something?
That's going to bring you joy.
You're not going to come
home and kick the dog.
We all have bad days at work.
Believe me, I do.
but, thinking about what it is
that really, really excites you.
Inside or outside the chemical industry.
Then for leadership advice, when I
ask most leaders of businesses, why
you exist, it typically comes back to
some of those financial metrics that
we talked about before, shareholder
value, these sorts of things.
I just encourage folks to elevate
above that a little bit more and
think about humanity in a different
way and elevating above sort of
the task or the job or the company.
And think about the impact on people.
Victoria: Love it.
Cool.
Well, Kris, thank you.
This has been really cool.
And I love your perspective on business
and how visionary you are and how
people and human centered you are.
And it's really great to see.
So thanks for sharing that
Kris Maynard: you're welcome.
I'm glad to be here.
Thank you.
Victoria.
Victoria: Absolutely.
And thanks everyone for listening.
Keep listening, keep following,
keep sharing, and we will
talk to you again soon.