JONATHAN CHETTY The way in which specialist chemicals companies and their clients innovate, collaborate and operate does not “change overnight”
Multinational speciality chemicals producer Clariant hired 2 142 new employees in 2018 – an increase of 8%, compared with that of the previous year – to support its profitable growth strategy.
The ratio of 689 women and 1 453 men is also more equal than that of 2017.
Although Clariant’s workforce declined slightly to 17 901 full-time employees, owing to normal fluctuation, it continued to secure the required skills and capabilities to remain a high- performing organisation through targeted employer branding activities and training programmes.
“Clariant’s business model illustrates how the company transforms various resources into innovative, sustainable solutions. As expressed by its brand values of performance, people and planet – the outcomes, if achieved, would benefit all stakeholders, and their feedback helps the company to continuously improve value creation,” says Clariant Business Unit Catalyst sub-Saharan Africa technical sales manager Dr Jonathan Chetty.
The company is guided by its three value-creation phases – idea to market, market to client, and customer to cash – to further fuel growth and profitability.
Chetty explains that the ‘idea to market’ encompasses all processes that contribute to a well-filled and high-performing innovation pipeline; ‘market to client’ includes all steps of a truly client-experience-centred marketing and sales process; and ‘client to cash’ ensures safe and efficient production, as well as reliable delivery.
Further, with its vast product portfolio and applications, Clariant serves multiple industries and continuously translated client needs into innovative and sustainable solutions.
The global economic climate in 2018 led to increased sales throughout Clariant’s portfolio, while increasing environmental awareness in the markets presented business opportunities that further fuelled growth.
Clariant is divided in four business areas – Catalysis, Care Chemicals, Natural Resources and Plastics & Coatings – serving multiple industries and continuously translating customer needs into innovative and sustainable solutions.
Catalysis – which has further contributed to Clariant’s growth and profitability – helps clients increase yield while decreasing energy consumption and emissions. After developing an innovative process to produce biofuels using biological catalysts, Catalysis entered a new, promising market.
“The business areas strategy accelerated our innovation processes, for example, by applying high-throughput experimentation. Our strategic partnerships led to innovation breakthroughs, such as the development of a liquid organic hydrogen carrier,” says Chetty.
The company’s implementation of its marketing organisation initiative in the form of the business areas strengthened its marketing capabilities, helped to better identify client insights along with value chains and refined client segmentation.