The Chemical Show: Leadership Conversations on Strategy, Supply Chain, Innovation, Talent and Trends

In early February, I attended the ever-popular  American Cleaning Institute (ACI) Annual Conference. This week, I am sharing with you all some insights that I’ve learned from that conference. There are valuable insights coming from companies across the cleaning value chain. It's everything from ingredient suppliers, surfactants, enzymes, and fragrances to formulators and industrial consumer product companies. 

Topics discussed this week: 

• Sustainability is a topic in every industry. Partnering is critical to creating innovation and helping support the sustainability journey. 
• The importance of transparency. How to create transparency around products, their impacts, and what they do and what they don't do.
• Economic headwinds - As we enter 2023, a concern about the duration and impact of these headwinds on demand and profitability. 
• Growth and innovation across the cleaning products industry. 
• Being green and buggy - The impact of green and bio-based raw materials and formulations.

Tune in as Victoria shares all of the interesting key themes for the cleaning industry in 2023 from the ACI Annual Conference and a lot more juicy pieces of information that you need to know about this industry. 

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The energy sector is a category of companies that are responsible for extracting, refining, or supplying consumable fuels, like coal, oil, and gas. These companies are involved in the production and sale of energy and that includes fuel extraction, manufacturing, refining, and distribution. 

So in the upcoming years, with the continuous advancement of technology, we will see massive progression in engineering and innovation that will bring us inventions we can use, which are more sustainable and environment-friendly. 

In this episode of The Chemical Show, join Victoria Meyer as she interviews Mr. Tom Swanson regarding the commercialization of bio-based chemistry for energy. ​​Mr. Swanson currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Sales for Locus Bio-Energy focused on surfactant solutions designed for crude oil recovery, transport, and remediation. 

Lucas Bio-Energy Solutions took that technology looking at what could we use from a fermentation standpoint to take agricultural products and create something that would be a performance product that could be used in oil and gas.

According to Mr. Swanson, he sees that there’s a host of different processing techniques used globally for crude, oil, and gas. But he kept his mind open to understand that people have a reason why they’re doing what they’re doing. Then, he realized the need of making that chemistry fit within the processes that those people are using. And this led him to the path where he is today.  

Also, listen to this podcast as Mr. Swanson shares his story of how he go into the chemical industry, and explains more important details about what Locus Bio-Energy does, the products and the technology that Locus is bringing to market that makes it really unique or valuable, and so much more. So tune in! 

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Sustainability and carbon reduction are key focus areas of the chemical industry. Many countries and companies have Net Zero targets to support a more sustainable future, including decarbonization.  Innovation is critical.     One of the key innovators in decarbonization is Syzygy Plasmonics and its co-founder Trevor Best.

In this episode, Victoria Meyer speaks with Trevor Best, CEO of Syzygy Plasmonics about the importance of decarbonization and the innovations that Syzygy is bringing to the chemical industry. 

Victoria and Trevor discuss: Syzygy’s founding from technology-based at Rice University, the importance of hydrogen, and the role of light and energy in the chemical industry.  And, the focus on green chemical manufacturing. 

This episode of The Chemical Show is packed with valuable information that you don’t want to miss. So make sure to listen to this podcast. Tune in! 

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Digital transformation is the process of integrating digital technology into all aspects or areas of your company or organization. In this episode, Victoria Meyer has a conversation with two experts in digital transformation. Christophe Cabarry is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of SpecialChem, who also brings more than 20 years of experience in strategic digital marketing in chemicals and materials. The second guest is Jay Bhatia, who is the Founder and CEO of Agilis Commerce, a technology startup based in Newark, NJ. 

Listen in as Victoria talks about digital transformation in the chemical industry, the significant changes that occur, the critical aspects of a partnership that you should know, and how companies build a business for digital and chemicals. 

Christophe and Jay also share their personal experiences in this industry, how they started their companies, and tell us some important details about them launching a new solution together in the market. This podcast is so exciting with the knowledge and expertise that Victoria and her guests share in this episode. So tune in! 

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Companies across the chemical industry have some of the same drivers - a focus on value, process safety, product quality, customer excellence, and ultimately profitability.  Yet, some companies and industries do it better than others.  The difference?  Operational excellence.

Operational excellence is in a simple form, systematic problem-solving, and improvements. It allows people in business and its leadership to improve in decision-making, profitability, partner services, customer service, marketing, and many other important areas in keeping the business up and running in the market. 

Listen in as Victoria Meyer talks about the Importance of Operational Excellence with John Yagel, VP of continuous improvement, capital implementation, and innovation excellence for Huber Engineered Materials. In this episode of The Chemical Show, John explains the important details of operational excellence, how important it is in this industry, and the difference between the operational excellence of today versus many years back. 

John also provides some concrete examples of how companies are using operational excellence in normal day-to-day operations to improve customer experience, digitization, and process control. He also talks about the role of sustainability in business and the response of people in this industry when the pandemic hit and when the challenges of freezes and hurricanes across the country happen. This is surely an exciting conversation as John is bringing his expertise, knowledge, and experience to our today’s podcast. Tune in! 

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The year 2022 has ended and we are now in 2023 with so many things ahead of us in our industry. Join Victoria and Trey Hamblet, the Vice President of Research at Industrial Info Resources (IIR), as they talk about the 2023 outlook on chemical investment, how that affects the chemical industry, and what people are expecting this year. 

In this episode, he’s going to give us some insights into capital spending, economic outlook, and many other interesting topics that we should be dealing with. We know that there are a lot of rumors in the investment world and capital spending world maintenance. But Trey was able to shed light on this as he shares his thoughts about his matter. He also mentioned in the interview that growth in demand for the chemical industry is very dependent on consumer consumption, global growth, and global markets. To learn more about that, join his interview with Victoria Meyer as they further discuss all of these in detail. 

To hear Trey’s 2022 Outlook, check out Episode 33 of The Chemical Show.

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A lot of the things that happened this year will define what the chemical industry will look like in 2023. Geopolitical and economic upheavals have had a significant impact on the industry on a global scale. In today’s episode, we take a look back at what happened this year and glean some useful insights and lessons as we move forward into the new year. The discussion goes from the relationship between Russia and Ukraine and the gas shortage to inflation, supply chain issues, digitization, and more. Tune in to this episode as Victoria Meyer gives us a quick summary of the most significant events of 2022 that will shape the industry in the next couple of years.

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When it comes to chemical prices, the China market has a big role to play. Their economy is at a halt, and no one really knows how long it will stay that way. Join Victoria Meyer as she talks John Richardson, a Senior Consultant at ICIS. Find out how China's Zero COVID Policy and the ongoing demand destruction are damaging the entire chemical market. Take a deep dive into the state of polymers across the continents of Asia and Europe, specifically Polyethylene and Polypropylene.  

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There are changes in what matters to the customers in the chemical industry. Kevin Huntsman, President of Mastio & Company, shares these trends and how businesses must respond to these insights into the customer experience. Kevin specializes in survey design and data collection in the chemical and energy industries and does a lot of work in transportation and logistics. He has been helping provide data-based insights into customer value for over two decades. In this episode, he openly shares how they gather this data and its impact on how business leaders in the industry should look at their processes and operations. Join his chat with host Victoria Meyer as they discuss the customer perspective and share thoughts on the current state of supply chain challenges.

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Current technology and the power of the internet gave birth to an interconnected world. In this age of globalization, there are countless opportunities to build a global enterprise – only if you know the right strategies to do so. Victoria Meyer sits down with Yubo Li, who talks about transforming Jiahua Chemicals from a Chinese private company into a global enterprise group through a systematic global synergetic lean management. He discusses how they pulled this off while navigating a major market decline by working with research universities and prioritizing customer needs. Yubo also explains how they combine technology with chemistry and manage a global team composed of people from different cultures.

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