In this podcast, James Moorhouse talked with John Turner, a Vice President of International Operations at Lubrication Engineers (LE). LE  are a formulator, and manufacturer that uses their own proprietary additives to deliver real high-performance speciality oils and greases, headquartered out of Wichita, Kansas. You can learn about John’s career and how he got to where he is today. For listeners thinking about expanding their businesses into new international markets, John has a wonderful track record and stories to share about how to do it, and also what not to do.

As VP of International Operations at LE, John has cross-functional expertise in leading businesses to maximize profitable growth, with a focus on commercial execution and channel strategies in the industrial lubricants markets around the world.

With a passion for manufacturing developed from his family’s manufacturing business, John pivoted his career in 2010 in a territory sales role at Master Fluid Solutions. He progressed through various commercial roles, and his first international assignment was to explore the Brazilian market. Later, he took on global duties that led to Shanghai, China, which was a big jump then.

In 2020, John took on a new position at LE to build a new structure and expand the firm abroad.

Successful international expansion of any company regardless of its size, according to John Turner starts with:

“.. [global expansion] is not an overnight process. It's very much incremental, especially when you're going from scratch and then as you start getting some victories, I think it's really about continuing to try to build some momentum and, having a compelling story to tell to whether it's your distributor partners or your end -user customers or those sorts of things about the success that you're having in other parts of the world.” John Turner said.

Hiring the right people is where it starts. Clearly defining what/who your organisation wants and needs. That profile is critical from the get-go. As John highlighted, it's important to vet the person thoroughly beforehand to make sure they have the organisational and personal drive to take the business forward in their local market.

As an international leader, it is essential to check in with each of the employees on a regular basis to see how they are doing, what they need help with, and to make sure they don't feel alone - it means a connection to a regional office or corporate office, so they know support is available.

John reflects on organisational expansion processes. He shares the big learning points from his experience, risks, opportunities and some key ingredients to make it possible on a larger scale.

You can follow John Turner: LinkedIn

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In this podcast, our host James Moorhouse interviews Marc Lawn, the Executive Vice President at Calumet Speciality Products Partners about his broad-ranging career. The podcast has useful leadership tips for challenging economic conditions and strategies for transitioning into new sectors in your career.

Marc Lawn is Executive Vice President - Performance Brands at Calumet Specialty Products Partners. Throughout his career, Marc worked across many industries including Food & Beverage, Media, FMCG, Chemicals and the Lubricants industry. Marc took a different approach to his career in times when professionals specialised in specific functional areas through the 1990s and early 2000s. He built expertise in operations, HR, sales, marketing, and finance to ultimately position himself to run a performance brands business within Calumet.

Since Marc has successfully transferred industries throughout his career, James Moorhouse could not miss an opportunity to ask about the qualities and skills needed for a successful career transition.

The common themes Marc learned were:

One thing Marc advises to organisations within the oil industry “look to recruit talent from within and outside of the industry to blend, and develop… there's a lot more commonality [between different industries] than we would naturally think as we go along.”

High growth or recessionary environments can present unique difficulties. There are challenges and opportunities. As Marc mentioned in the conversation, the focus has been important to him throughout recessions. So... just because you enter a recession, it does not imply your strategy is useless. A strategy may require some tweaks for the modern-day economic environment. But if the fundamentals of the strategy were right before, it is still the right thing to do, and you should stay the course.

Marc said: “Focus on it and implement it. Protect your people and move on, but don't be blind to things that might change. Be agile with it. Don't get so blindly followed to the, oh, well, the plan says A, B, C. You know, actually, the plan might be a D.”

As Marc highlighted, leadership shows itself in various forms. In his opinion, humility is one of the most critical leadership traits. Undoubtedly, leaders must take charge at times, but too much power may create a lethargic team since everyone depends on the leader to decide. So profound humility is needed.

Fundamentally, the role of a leader is to clear the path, Marc said.

Leaders have to channel the right direction and ensure that the strategy is executed in the best way possible. So in any involved initiative, you should ask yourself the question, “Am I leading this initiative?”

Listen to more of this inspiring conversation now.

You can follow Marc Lawn: LinkedIn

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Our guest today, is Sanya Mathura, the Founder, and Managing Director of Strategic Reliability Solutions Ltd and the author of the book “Empowering Women in STEM Personal Stories and Career Journeys from Around the World”. James Moorhouse interviewed Sanya to talk about women in STEM, diversity and inclusion, the most in-demand skills necessary in the ever-changing lubricants industry, and tea!

Sanya Mathura is the Founder and Managing Director of Strategic Reliability Solutions Ltd, based in Trinidad & Tobago. Throughout her career in the lubricants industry, she worked for major organisations such as Shell and ExxonMobil. While writing her first book “Lubrication Degradation Mechanisms – A complete guide”, she also gained her ICML MLE certification becoming the first female (and only person) in the Caribbean at the time to do so.

In 2021, CRC press, her first book publisher, approached Sanya and asked if she would be interested in writing a book geared towards getting more women involved in STEM fields.

As she mentioned in the conversation with us, “I had a lot going on at the time and almost turned them down. But, after some thinking about the impact that the book would make across the industry, I decided to carve out some time for it. While I was growing up, there were no female role models who I could look up to or who looked like me. I wanted to make sure we changed that even if it meant that I would become the role model I wished that I had.”

According to Sanya, bringing more awareness of the many STEM areas and dismantling the misconceptions that act as obstacles to entry are excellent places to start when attracting more talent. To have a significant influence, the lubricants industry must begin with the next generation and raise children's consciousness as they develop. We should let them know that anybody may pursue a STEM area, and that Math proficiency is not a must (a common misconception!).

There are several newly published children's books on women in STEM fields, including "Energy Superheroes - women in Energy careers" by Erin Twamley and quite a few more. Another good way to raise awareness to larger groups of people.

In the recently published book “Empowering Women in STEM Personal Stories and Career Journeys from Around the World”, Sanya hopes to appeal to people who are preparing to enter the workforce or who are in the workforce and contemplating a shift out of STEM-related sectors.

Small actions such as ensuring women's participation in technical talks, placing them at the forefront, and acknowledging their contributions may have a significant influence to improving Diversity & Inclusion (D&I), according to Sanya.

Simply identifying and showcasing women and minority groups, the debate is already altered. When most people consider manufacturing and reliability, they assume, "That's a man's world, it's hard job." By boosting awareness of the amount of women and minority groups through podcasts such as these or highlighting examples in the industry as role model, we begin to alter the dialogue.

While asked about the key benefits of the diverse workforce, Sanya mentioned more room for creativity and more freedom for innovation. People coming from a variety of backgrounds usually mean different problem-solving approaches and that’s what distinguishes diverse teams. However, to create a true diverse workforce, the lubricants industry needs to get rid of labels, boxes, and anything else that stifles creativity, enabling teams to collaborate effectively.

In this episode our host, James Moorhouse, invited Nicolas Frizon, Global Head of Sales, Industry and Automotive Division at NYCO, to discuss three elements of successful leadership in the lubricants industry:

Nicolas Frizon is the Global Head of Sales, Industry and Automotive Division, at NYCO.

NYCO are a leading specialty lubricants and synthetic esters company. Nicolas is a Chemical Engineer with a Master's Degree in Cosmetics, Formulation, and Commercialization in Fine Chemistry. In his career to date, Nicolas has worked in chemical distribution, home care, industrial chemicals, crop care and lubricants. Starting in technical sales he has progressed into a key leadership position and is a great example of the type of varied, diverse and progressive career path a person can have in the lubricants sector.

Communication and Vision, according to Nicolas, are two key traits of a successful leader.

The ability to anticipate the future and to develop a vision, not only for future generations but also for the market and the business itself. This visionary side involves the ability to:

The other side of a great leader is the ability to communicate effectively with employees and clients, and above all, to have the capacity and talent to summarize and adapt to changes. A great leader is one that can bring individual ideas and individual experiences into one vision in a clear and simple way.

Mentorship is a practice which is becoming more visible and more common within lubricant organisations. It not only benefits newcomers in the path of growth and development but mentors themselves see a benefit to learning new things from younger generations.

With some exciting opportunities and changes in the lubricants marketplace, Nicolas and James shared their opinions on the biggest changes and the most exciting developments in the lubricants industry.

Listen to the very end to hear what it takes to close the bridge between generations and the important role the lubricant leaders have in the industry transformation we are facing today.

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James Moorhouse, Director at ABN Resource, was invited by Rafe Britton to participate in the Lubrication Expert podcast. In this episode, you can hear thoughts on talent attraction, talent retention, diversity and inclusion, career development tips and advice on how to overcome the key personnel challenges facing the lubricants industry.

About Rafe Britton

Rafe Britton is an experienced Mechanical Engineer with over a decade of experience in the energy industry. Formerly of ExxonMobil, Rafe went on to found a Lubrication Expert.

His mission is twofold: to raise the profile of lubrication technology throughout the industry, and to expand the knowledge base and technical expertise so industries can cash in on the value that lubricants can bring.

Talent in the Lubricants Industry

One of the initial topics in this episode highlights how diversity and inclusion can help overcome personnel challenges facing the industry.

James highlights the importance of cognitive diversity to solve problems and create opportunities. And also highlights the importance of knowledge transfer to the next generation of leaders whilst working hard to retain the existing great talents the sector currently employs.

By committing time and effort to talent attraction strategies shared in this recording, it is possible to acquire the right level of skills and experience to meet the job requirements in the lubricants industry. A key initiative James highlights are better communication by the lubricants industry about:

The lubricant sector is facing some exciting changes. Three key areas are:

1) Sustainability

2) Electric Vehicles

3) Digital Transformation

These changes bring new opportunities, requiring a new set of skills, and amazing career growth for those willing to adapt.

James Moorhouse concludes:

“Because if you get skilled up and trained in those areas, you're going to be allowed to pivot into those new growth sectors in the market and go on and have a really amazing career in corners of the world, which are becoming increasingly important with these new technologies.”

The episode is also available on the Lubrication Expert YouTube channel.

Read more about Lubrication Expert: https://lubrication.expert/

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About our Guest

Apu Gosalia is an independent expert adviser for sustainability and strategy in the lubricants industry and beyond. As partner of Germany-based sustainability consultancy Fokus Zukunft, he helps companies to measure their carbon footprint, minimize their CO2-emissions and maintain a carbon neutral status. Apu is also the contributing editor for sustainability to Lubes’n’Greases magazine, and a frequent keynote speaker on the topic. Besides, he serves as honorary lecturer on climate change and sustainable business models at various German universities. In 2018 Apu was appointed as Senator to the Senate of Economy in Germany, where he is heading the Climate Neutrality Council in the Commission Sustainable Economy since 2021. He worked for more than 20 years at Fuchs Petrolub Group, where he last had the position of Vice President for Global Competitive Intelligence and Chief Sustainability Officer. In the latter function Apu led the company to achieving global CO2-neutrality by 1 January 2020. He also helped creating and served as chairman of both, the German Sustainability Initiative (NaSch) and the Sustainability Task Force at the Union of the European Lubricants Industry (UEIL). Apu Gosalia graduated from the University of Mannheim with a Diplom-Kaufmann and obtained an MBA from Western Illinois University in the United States.

When achieving carbon neutrality, 2021 has brought many significant milestones for the oil and lubricant industry:

The worldwide first net-zero corporate standard - The Corporate Net-Zero Standard developed by the SBTi is the world's first framework for setting corporate net-zero targets based on climate science. It contains the guidelines, criteria, and suggestions that businesses will need to set science-based net-zero targets that are consistent with keeping global warming to below 1.5°C.

COP26 climate summit - Although the end of the summit brought some unexpected twists, it is very significant that more than 140 countries pledged to reach net-zero emissions

Progress in small and medium-sized companies – Apu outlines how lubricant companies of all sizes can be involved in the carbon neutrality and sustainability journey.

Calculate - Companies and other organizations must calculate their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions according to the GHG Protocol, the Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard to measure and manage climate-warming emissions.

Cut down - The most effective and scientifically sound strategy to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C is to make rapid, dramatic cutbacks in value-chain emissions. This is the Net-Zero Standard's main focus, and it must be a top priority for businesses.

Compensate – No company can be emission-free intrinsically. Therefore, unavoidable or not yet avoided emissions need to be compensated through investments in climate protection projects at the same time.

Sustainability is a journey, which never ends. That means sustainability is a dynamic, continuous process of continuous improvement, said Apu Gosalia. It goes beyond just making a profit, and it is also closely related to the environmental and societal investments which leads us to the most important insights in this ABN podcast.

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In this podcast, our host James Moorhouse is talking about the future of eMobility with our guest, Adam Banks, eMobility Marketing Manager at Afton Chemical.

The main themes of this inspiring dialogue are:

· Changes and evolution of mobility

· The challenges to face and overcome

· The future of job positions with the future changes

Adam Banks has over 15 years in the Chemical industry. He graduated from the University of Bath in 2002, in the Department of Chemistry and Industrial Training, and gained a Professional Diploma in Marketing at the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Since then, he gained a lot of experience in eMobility as Marketing Manager at Afton Chemical. Within his marketing career, he has given plenty of guidance to oil companies and manufacturers and has participated in many industry conferences with lubricants and electrification backgrounds.

By creating technology that will offer more durable vehicles with reduced carbon emissions, we can provide a better and more sustainable future along with electrification and eMobility. Technology and the global market will certainly change and offer new and challenging job positions.

Adequate infrastructure – Charging (home or mid-journey), battery manufacturers, and Li supply.

Consumer buy-in behaviour – the range of costs and the battery life as a priority.

Energy demand – Turning to a mix of renewable energy and non-carbon energy sources to meet energy demands.

You will hear why investments and proper distribution can overcome the challenges eMobility is facing.

The possible outcomes of eMobility in the future are:

Different partnerships – Large affiliate business models

Different collaborations – Commercial alliances essentials (Uber, Hertz, Apple, OEMs)

Structure of the industry will change – B2B might take share from retails

Is eMobility rather evolution or future revolution in the upcoming decades? Listen to the end and find out.

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In this ABN podcast, you have a unique opportunity to hear contemporary insights into the key values of digital transformation, the positive impact toward sustainability, customer deployment, and B2B industrial solutions it can provide within the downstream oil industry.

Romi Arman is the Global Head eCommerce & Digital Transformation at Shell. He has over 20-year background in consulting, strategy, marketing, and large-scale global digital transformations. Romi Arman has worked across various fields of digital program including: customer omnichannel data analytics, robotic process automation, automation, CRM deployment APIs, and e-commerce. He's currently focusing on Shell's award-winning B2B e-commerce platform, which is called Shell Market Hub ranking as the fifth largest e-commerce platform just behind the Apple Store.

When we talk about technology people tend to forget that its main value is to serve people and make everyday business easier and faster. To be able to use technology that is developing rapidly, it is necessary to change the mindset of the people we work with: our internal team, but also our customers.

‘Getting technology right is the easy piece, its only 30% of job. Getting change management right is 70% of the task with digital transformation.’

Romi gives very useful insights into modern marketing approaches:

1. Creating a customer program with a focus on the customer along with creating a problem-solving strategy in relation to the main benefits of the product.

2. Utilizing citizen development will save a lot of time and money during the application development process.

There are several different approaches within the digital transformation concerned:

· Retaining new talent - Automating the ordinary so people can focus around the extraordinary is a great approach and opportunity for new generations.

· Working in a safer environment – Augmented reality as remote assist tool for faster and better detection and control of emission from internal system to external sales channels and B2B business solutions.

· Sustainability and existential challenge within climate change –B2B industrial customers solutions – award-winning equipment management platform for comprehensive machine monitoring, cost reduction, and increased safety.

Listen to the full podcast to find out more about net-zero energy emission, the potential of biofuel, and why curiosity, humility, and range of skills are key values for long-term success in the downstream oil industry.

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In this ABN podcast, our host James Moorhouse is taking an in-depth dialogue with Apu Gosalia on two important questions:

How and Why lubricant companies should achieve carbon-neutral status.

Apu Gosalia is an independent sustainability expert adviser and a contributor to Sustainability InSite. He currently also works as partner for the sustainability consultancy Fokus Zukunft, based in Starnberg, Germany; lectures at several German universities and is a regular keynote speaker on sustainability. Apu was appointed as senator to the Senate of Economy in Germany in 2018 where he leads the working council on climate neutrality, part of the sustainable economy commission, since 2021. For more than 20 years, he had various roles at Fuchs Petrolub Group, last being chief sustainability officer and vice president of global intelligence. Apu holds a Diplom-Kaufmann from the University of Mannheim and an MBA from Western Illinois University, USA.

To answer the key question How carbon-neutral status can be achieved, it is necessary to start from the very core and answer the essential question:

Why is it necessary to strive for carbon neutrality in the lubricant industry today?

Apu Gosalia points out 3 important ESG elements:

● Environment – with reference to the Earth Day on April 22 and closely related to the Earth Overshoot Day.

● Sustainable Development Goals – Paris Agreement in 2015 and virtual Leaders Summit on Climate hosted by US president Biden on April 22 and 23.

● Governance – New stricter policies regarding the European Green Deal, agreement that there will be a stricter law to the objective of Europe being a climate-neutral continent by 2050.

To achieve carbon neutrality and change global awareness, it is necessary to understand that every company is a sustainable community in which each member has an essential role to play. In one such community, in which each member (employee, employer, or customer) works for the benefit of the wider community and a sustainable environment, the key focus is on social change and an agreed mindset on the alignment of values as a new humanity concept.

Providing sustainable value to the customer by providing more eco-friendly sustainable lubricants, which in the application phase lower his operational CO2 emissions, that is thinking beyond the profit and not only due to the profit and it consists of a 3C-approach as Gosalia explains, which a lubricant manufacturer should follow:

● Calculation - Measuring carbon footprint, feedprint, and fingerprint.

● Cutdown – Reducing CO2 emissions in own lubricant production.

● Compensation – Offsetting unavoidable CO2 emissions by investing in global climate projects

The 3 C’s is also one of the leading concepts of the sustainability consultancy Fokus Zukunft, based in Starnberg, Germany where Apu Gosalia currently partners with, being in charge of supporting lubricant, base oil and additive companies on their 3C-path.

Sustainability is in these times somewhere in between the recovery of the industry post-pandemic, but also between innovation which must come as part of sustainable solution.

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