DSM: A Shining Example of Enlightened Business

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There are some people that make their
work just another thing they have to do,

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and there are those that make their
work something that they want to do.

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Welcome to Working on Purpose with your
host Elise Cortez. In our program,

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we provide guidance and inspiration from those
people who have found deeper meaning and

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personal connection to their work life.
It's beyond nine to five, it's working

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on Purpose. Now Here is your
host, Elise Cortez. Welcome back to

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the Working on Purpose Show. Thanks
for tuning in again this week. I'm

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your host, doctor Elise Cortez,
joining alive from Dallas, Texas, which

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is home based for me. If
you've been tuning in for a while,

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you know this program as an inspirational
thought leadership platform that advances the conversation on

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living and working with passion, inspiration, and purpose. I'm communed to helping

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create a world where business capitalism are
a force for good, constantly working to

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address the immense number of problems society
faces, and serving all stakeholders. The

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Gallup Organization reports that eighty five percent
of the global workforce does not want to

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go to work on Monday or whenever
the shift starts. Let's change that together

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and instead make work an enriching part
of life that expresses meaningful contribution and helps

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us grow into our highest selves,
all in service of the organization's purpose.

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Each week in these conversations, I
hope you walk away with something that changes

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the way you think or that you
can immediately put to use. Much of

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the content we discuss on this program
as a reflection of the work I do.

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So as you listen, if you
catch a glimpse of anything I can

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do to help, go to my
website at a least Cortez dot com and

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use the contact me feature to message
me. Let's talk about what's going on

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for you and how I might be
able to help you, whether it's consulting

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on visioneering for a greater purpose among
your stakeholders, the Violent Inspire leadership program,

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the online catch Fire learning communities,
or speaking for your company or conference

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at in your rate. I'm glad
we're connected. Thanks for listening with us

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today. Is Hugh Welsh, the
President and General Council of DSM North America,

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a global leader in life sciences and
material sciences treated on the Amsterdam Stock

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Exchange with twenty three thousand employees worldwide
and twelve billion dollars in annual sales.

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DSM develops, manufacturers and sells nutritional
and food ingredients, biomedical materials, specialty

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plastics and resins, fibers, and
renewable energy. We'll be talking about this

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purpose sled and performance driven company and
how operating from purpose makes such an impact

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across the globe. He will welcome
back to Working on Purpose. Thanks Alas,

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I'm happy to be here. Yeah, me too. I'm so glad

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to have you back. As you
and I had a conversation a few months

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ago and I had you on the
air. I think it's been a couple

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of years ago. And you know, I'm a fan of DSM and you

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and I really believe that you are
in a really a critical capacity to really

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influence, as I like to say, the world about why purpose works.

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And so thanks for coming back and
agreeing to complain in my sandbox again.

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I didn't get scared of Festal last
time. Okay, good, okay,

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good. So for our listeners who
didn't catch the last episode that we had

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together, I would encourage it to
listen to that one again. By the

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way, listeners, if you did, and it's easy to find out my

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host page. But tell us a
little bit more about DSM and give us

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a history of this. I know
it's one hundred plus year old company and

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what has been doing in the world
today in terms of its offerings. Sure,

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about one hundred and twenty years ago, DSM began as a coal mining

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company in the Limburg province of the
Netherlands, and the acronym DSM actually stand

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for Dutch State Minds. And over
the years it sort of evolved from being

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a coal mining company to a petrochemical
company, to an industrial chemical company to

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the company we are today, which
is predominantly a nutrition company making all of

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the letter vitamins are probably familiar with, like vitamin C, vitamin D,

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vitamin E, the B complex vitamins, nutritional lipids. Most folks know those

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as things like fish oil or algal
oil that you might find another products,

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we'll call them protective materials, so
fibers that can be used in ballistic protection,

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but also in nets and ropes and
things like that, biomedical materials and

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engineering plastics. So it's evolved and
adapted over the years. We'd like to

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think to meet the changing needs of
the world. If we had stayed a

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coal mining company, we'd have gone
extinct long ago. If we had stayed

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the pet chemical company, we'd have
gotten the stinct long ago. But because

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of our I think our adaptive ability, in almost a corporate Darwinistic sense,

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we have the view that we're going
to sell companies that really don't fit into

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solving some of the world's biggest problems
and either require or develop on our own

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new products and new solutions that are
that are really helping solve some of the

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world's biggest problems. So I'd like
to think that we've repurposed that DSM acronym

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from Dutch State Minds, which truly
doesn't fit anymore, to do something meaningful.

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And I and all twenty three thousand
of our employees work to try to

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find a way to do something meaningful
every day, which is why I had

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to have you come on a show
again. You just can't run away from

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me, so's I'm such a fan. And again, as I've told you

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you, I really the reason I
wanted to have you come back is you

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are a perfect ambassador and spokesperson for
what this program stands for. So thank

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you for taking time out of that
crazy busy schedule of yours. You're galivanting

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across the globe. I failed to
mention when I brought you on that today

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you're calling in from, as you
said, two blocks from the White House

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in Washington, DC. So you've
stopped for a moment to talk with me

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and share what's what you're up to
there at DSM. And along those lines

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too, what I want you to
share if you would. This is on

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the top of all of our minds. It seems you can't go without hearing

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about it. The coronavirus. I
noticed a tweeter or two that it says

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DSM is staying on top of the
coronavirus. So what are you doing to

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protect your employees, your customers,
people that interact with Yeah, it's a

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really complex situation because you know,
we don't want to do anything that's going

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to any way compromise the health and
safety of our employees or the communities where

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we operate. Well. At the
same time, we have to maintain business

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continuity. And business continuity is not
just about about maintaining cashlow and profit.

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It's we make products that people need
to stay healthy, and people need to

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stay healthy now more than ever,
and so we've always trying to find that

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balance between making sure that all of
our employees are not exposed to the virus,

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or if they were exposed to the
virus, it's handled appropriately without having

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to shut down operations anywhere. And
so in China where where this began,

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we had many employees working from home
for six weeks, but we never had

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to shut down a manufacturing plan.
And people are considering now, you know,

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sending folks to work from home,
if they can work from home,

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and how to handle you know,
mitigation things at different manufacturing facilities. And

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there it worked really well where because
of the actions we took early on,

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we had no employees who were infected
and we were able to maintain our operations

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where we make quite a few vitamins, like vitamins C, which is very

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important to keep people healthy. Today, you know, in my area of

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responsibility, we're struggling with what to
do next, and so we've seen an

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escalation of the number of cases here
in the United States over the last week.

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It's hard to tell if there's a
spread of the virus or just a

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spread of the detection of the virus
because of increased testing. But we're considering

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here now whether or not we're going
to have those employees who can work from

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home work from home, and that's
done not just to protect them, but

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to protect the people who have to
come into a facility to work. If

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we can lower the chance that they'll
be infected by their coworkers, that makes

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it better for them and better for
our business continuity. At the same time,

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we're trying to take all measures that
we can to make sure our employees

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stay healthy. And we have a
lot of really creative, resilient people that

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work in this company, and we
have a lot of trade shows that are

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canceled. I'm sure everybody's confronting the
same situation where trade shows all over the

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country, conferences all over the country
are being canceled. And when you do

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trade shows, you bring a lot
of product samples, and we had thousands

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of product samples of something called an
immunity stick, and it's a blend of

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vitamins and minerals that's what are soluble
that you would you could feed to your

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kids, you can drink yourself.
We have thousands of these things that we're

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all going to go to landfill because
the trade shows are canceled. Instead,

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we distributed these to all of our
employees across the every five sites here in

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North America, and so little things
like that I think go a long way

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to keeping the community together, to
keeping everybody calm but vigilant at the same

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time. That's brilliant you. I
really appreciate you being so specific about what

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you're doing. And I can only
imagine but the responsibility you face because you're

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run North America and are connected to
the overall international entity. I just that's

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a lot of weight on your sholders, and I appreciate how you're handling that.

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We have many, many, many
very good people in the company that

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can take care take care of everything
day to day, and it's I'm just

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inspired by them and the work that
they do and the resilience and perseverance that

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they show in the face of every
challenge. It could be the coronavirus or

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it could be a hurricane. They
always write to the occasion and they will

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for this one as well. And
I'm also trying to kick off another thing

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for them to do. It might
sound a little strange, but I'm encouraging

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our employees, particularly those that may
end up working from home to adoptor granny,

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so we know that the most vulnerable
to the coronavirus or those that are

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older. And you know, we
want to do things that help our neighbors,

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the people that live in the buildings
with us, our families who are

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elderly, to not have to go
out and get what they need and expose

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them the greater risk. So I'm
asking employees if they have the chance to

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work from home, they're not sick, they take proper precuestions, adopted granny,

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look after somebody in the community that's
a little older that needs a little

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more help to help them reduce their
risk of exposure by not having you go

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out. Oh my gosh, you
you are. That is so thank you

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for sharing that. That is profoundly
beautiful and inspiring. And yes, please

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listeners go do something like that inside
your companies. You have such an opportunity

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to make a difference in your community
through the organizations that you work with.

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That is a great example, by
the way of what doctor Rojasdia was talking

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about last week or the week before
on the show. He wrote a book

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called The Healing Organization, and he
talks about how business can be used as

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a force for good to be able
to address a sidle problems and heal woes,

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and that's exactly what you're doing with
is with this adopted or anything that

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is stunning. Thank you didn't even
have any idea you were doing that.

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I know, and I know you're
like at least you know, you're just

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so easily amused. I'm not.
This is really amazing stuff. Now,

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speaking of leadership, Hugh, you
told me sometime back when we had a

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conversation that you were going to get
a new CEO, and then just before

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we got on air, you said, no, no, I'm just kidding.

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It's not one, but two.
You have two new CEOs. So

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I'm interested to know what kind of
change you're witnessing inside DSM because of them,

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and if they've introduced any new or
different initiatives that they're championing. Yeah.

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No, it's been a very interesting
time in the company. So after

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I would call them thirteen brilliant years, our CEO, Fika Cibisma, who

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is extremely well known in the international
community for his work on climate change in

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nutrition, decided to retire. And
replacing somebody like that is very very difficult,

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nearly impossible. So our supervisory board
decided that he had such big shoes

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to fill they would find four feet
instead of two, and you have pot

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CEOs, and so Geraldine Matchett who's
our CFO, and Dmitri Devreza, who's

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been a managing board member at DSM
for some time, our co CEOs and

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sharing responsibilities for leading this wonderful company. And it's only been i'd say about

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six weeks since they've been officially co
CEOs, and it's been quite a six

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weeks, i would say, to
get introduced to a new job running a

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big company. But they're doing it. They're doing a fantastic job so far,

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and I like to think that it's
a very progressive move that I think

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maybe we'll see more companies doing it
going forward. There's been very few so

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far, but maybe we'll see more
going forward, because you get the best

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of two people who have very different
personalities, very different perspectives, very different

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views on the world at times,
but are so passionate and committed to the

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mission and vision of DSM that they'll
always find a way to work together.

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And so far, I'm very impressed
with the job that they've done. I'm

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very impressed with the way that they
motivate the people in the company and are

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working to change the culture of the
company and if nothing else, I'm really

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impressed with the way of the first
couple of weeks in forced to confront the

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global pandemic like coronavirus. It's it's
been Uh, it's not what they expected.

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But I think when they write their
personal to narratives years from now,

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it will it'll play a key role. You know. I feel like that

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what you're describing is extremely enlightened.
And again, my host the show every

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trying to advance the conversation about how
it is what we do business and we

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work. So that's very refreshing to
hear that you have two And really quick

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on that note, you mentioned again, you know, the coronavirus. We

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have Lance and Penny weighing in here
in the chat room wanting to know more

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about this. Would you just quickly
address if you can. Lance wants to

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know, how is the coronavirus different
from the flu? Do you know,

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Well, I mean, it's a
novel that is so in that wags different

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than the flu. There's currently no
vaccine that you can take. There's currently

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no therapeutics that you can take to
mitigate the symptoms. From what we understand

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as to what I understand, today
from the experts is it is communicable very

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much like the flu, so airborne
droplets. You know, if you're within

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ten feet of somebody, if they
call for stees on you, if you

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touch surfaces where it's living, you
really have to watch out, particularly for

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metal surfaces where it lives longer,
you can you can become infected. But

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to this point, we see that
it has a slightly higher mortality rate and

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I think the seasonal flu, and
there's been some other very different presenting of

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this of this particular virus. It's
it's as a much higher fatality rate amongst

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the elderly and those who have high
blood pressure, diabetes or respiratory concerns.

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And very interestingly, it seems to
present with very few symptoms in younger people,

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which is very different than the season
flu. So those at at a

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very high level, maybe some of
the differences between what's been designated as COVID

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nineteen and what we understand as the
seasonal flu. Nicely, don thank you,

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Hugh. Okay, let's go back
to the business topics here again.

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I wanted to focus our conversation on
the business of purpose because again I think

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a lot of people think that purpose
is very fluffy and it's oh, that's

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really nice, and you know,
but what's the point we need to run

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a business here. One of the
things that you and I talked about the

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last time we were on air,
and then I saw it again in one

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of your tweets is you talk about
that they're at dcmutie short term bonus money,

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long term equity. And we talked
about this that last time. But

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for those of who haven't heard you
talk about this or find this to be

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novel, would you say more about
these performance drivers? Why, why are

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they in place the way that they
are, and what are they intended to

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insent? Sure? I mean,
I mean, I think if you if

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you look at the word purpose in
the corporate context today, it's almost becoming

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ubiquitous. It is where every company, every company's got a got a purpose,

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got a mission, statement, got
a vision, And in some respects

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that begins to dilute I think what
the initial idea of corporate purpose might be.

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But one differentiator that I think separates
those who live their corporate purpose and

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those who may or may not be
engaging in some greenwashing is tying that purpose

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to corporate executive tech and so in
DSM half of our short term and centers,

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as you noted, our annual bonus, and a significant portion of our

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long term and centives that would be
restricted. Stock shares are tied to not

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traditional financial targets, so they're tied
to things like the company's greenhouse gas emissions,

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so the company's waste to landfill,
or the company's water usage, or

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the percentage of the company's renewable electricity. And when you tie that sort of

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rhetoric to remuneration, you not only
I think, show some credibility to the

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external world that you're living your purpose, but you're also incentivizing those who are

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making decisions to make decisions not just
about short term financial results, but make

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decisions that are consistent with earning their
bonuses, earning their stock options, by

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introducing renewable energy, by introducing best
practices with employees, by focusing on inclusion

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and diversity, all these other metrics
that we use, and I think that

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there's good data out there today.
They're certainly reflecting the DSM share price over

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the last years that companies that focus
on those things and deliver against promises on

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those things are better performers in terms
of total shareholder return over a period of

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time, and that is the data
that I have as well, but hearing

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it directly from your mouth is what
I wanted. So thank you for that.

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And with that, let's grab our
first break. I'm your host,

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Alice Cortez. We're on the air
with Hugh Welsh, who is the President

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and General Council of DSM North America, which is a global leader in life

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sciences and material sciences. You judge
today just two blocks from the White House

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in Washington, DC. We've been
talking a bit about some of the history

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of DSM and its leadership. After
the break, we're going to get into

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the two nineteen Integrated Annual Report and
talk about people, planet and profit.

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Stay with us, we'll be right
back. Elise Cortez is a speaker and

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engagement and development catalyst. She designs
and delivers professional development, leadership and engagement

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workshops and can bring her expertise to
your organization. She will help ignite meaningful

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development within your workforce that will increase
employee engagement, performance and retention. To

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learn more or to invite Elise to
speak to your organization, please visit her

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at www dot Elise Cortez dot com. She would welcome the opportunity to help

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get your employees working on purpose.
This is working on Purpose with Elise Cortez.

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To reach our program today, send
an email to Elise ali Se at

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Elise Cortez dot com. Now back
to working on purpose. Thanks for steing

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with us, and welcome back to
working on purpose if you're just joining us.

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My guest as well, Hugh Welsh, who was the President and General

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Council of DSM North America, a
global leader in life sciences and material sciences,

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traded on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange with
twenty three thousand employees worldwide and twelve

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billion dollars in annual sales. DSM
develops manufactures and cells, nutritional and food

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ingredients, biomedical materials, specialty plastics
and resins, fibers, and renewable energy.

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I'm your host, Alice Quartez,
all right, So, Hugh,

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the next thing I wanted to get
into is I took a look at your

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twenty nineteen Integrated Annual Report because I
wanted to then really look at, you

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know, how does purpose get operationalized. The very first thing that enters about

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your report that I thought was stunning
is that its focuses people planet and profit.

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Just so not having a ton of
experience looking at a lot of anual

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reports. First, let me ask
you this, are those categories common?

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They are? They are and more
and more common today. So I think

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you will find folks who are like
DSM working on integrated annual reports, will

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begin to report out on how they're
working to help their people, of course,

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what their financial results are in terms
of profit, and then what they're

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doing to help the planet, and
that could be with respect to renewables,

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environmental efforts, protection of the oceans, any of the STEG type goals.

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I think there aren't so many today
that are doing the integrated report like we

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do where you and you open the
first page, you can see both the

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financial results as well as all the
ESG targets. But I think we'll see

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more of that going forward. In
the business community. You may have seen

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letters from a guy named Larry Fink, who people know quite well from Blackrock,

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who is looking to all private corporations
to begin to report out this way.

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You see a lot of data around
ESG investing, so more and more

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big pension funds, insurance companies,
folks who are putting money to work are

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looking for companies with strong ESG targets
to invest in, so more companies will

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begin to report out in terms of
people planet profit. The channel today is

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that there's approximately six hundred different systems
to measure those ESG targets, and we're

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going to need to find some uniformity
and some commonality there. So, so

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apples are apples to apples when we're
comparing different companies. Okay, God,

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if that helps tremendously. Well,
let's start with the first thing that I

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paid attention to because I do work
in the people's space. You report a

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seventy four percent engagement figure in DSM, so the first thing I have to

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know. Let me compare that to
what we know from the GALP organization.

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It says that eighty five percent of
the globe doesn't want to go to work

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on Monday morning, so that means
fifteen percent are engaged on some level.

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In the United States, the figure
is more like forty percent engagement. How,

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First, why in the world is
your seventy four percent? And then

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also what is the industry standard for
you? Yeah, we have a very

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very high employee engagement result. We
do any employee engagement survey every year,

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like many companies too, And we
find that our employees worldwide, regardless of

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culture, geography, or any demographic
are extremely engaged, extremely or to work

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for a company like DSM. And
I like to think that there's a number

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of reasons for that. One goes
right to the DSM acronym. It's you

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know, we truly believe that we're
inviting some of the smartest people in the

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world to come work with us to
do something meaningful. And so employees that

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work for DSM, whether whether they're
in a function like legal or communications,

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or human resources, working on a
production floor, working in research and development,

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can all tie the work that they're
doing back to something meaningful that's going

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on in the world. It could
be working on a project that's going to

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mitigate the impact of climate change.
It could be working on product development that's

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going to ensure that children in Sub
Saharan Africa don't have to suffer the scourge

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of stunting. And when you're doing
work like that, when you can see

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the connection of your work to solving
some of the world's biggest problems, it's

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hard not to be engaged. But
I can put stop there. You know,

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we have other things we do.
We try to find ways for them

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to use the great skill sets,
the great experiences that they have to help

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other people outside the company. I
mean the adopted and he's just one of

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a hundred different things we're trying to
do. We have. We work with

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different stakeholder groups like like Partners and
Food Solutions, which is a group we

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founded together with General Mills and Cargo
and Hershey's where we allow our employees,

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no matter where they're sitting in the
world, to donate their expertise and their

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knowledge to help build up subs to
how an African small businesses. So like

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I'm talking to you, you know
through Skype or through through other digital media,

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they can talk to somebody who's working
in Kenya or Tanzania from their desk

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in Freeport, Texas or Kansas and
explain to them what they need to do

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to make their operations more sustainable or
more profitable. Teach them marketing, show

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them how to do better fortification with
nutrition. And that is a tremendous experience

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for an employee where somebody's not asking
them for money or material, somebody really

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just wants their know how. You
can imagine going home at night and talking

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to your kids about how you helped
a small community in Tantonia improve their ult

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growing because of your specific expertise.
Two things stunningly beautiful. So one I

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know because of the work that I
do with companies myself. I do work

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with companies to help them create a
culture and an operationalize purpose and meaning so

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that they can presence what it is
that you're doing for your employees. And

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I know the work that that takes. So how is it though? There's

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got to be several mechanisms that allow
each of your employees to see how their

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individual results affect what you're doing.
World why there's got to be some measures

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or operations in place so they can
actually see that. How do you pull

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that off? We do a lot
of internal communications, and so we have

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a number of different channels internally,
from the traditional sort of new center that

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is static and people can go and
take a look at every day to how

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we run video screens and all of
our buildings, to yamour systems or internal

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social media systems where employees can can
exchange their experiences, talk about what's going

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on in the company and find opportunity
these where they might be able to help.

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I think we also have a pretty
unique employee development program we call X

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time, and an X time an
employee can donate or use ten percent of

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their time on any number of projects
that are posted in the X time system,

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and most of those projects that might
have little to do with what your

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day to day job is, but
require somebody who's inspired, engaged and wants

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to make a difference. And so
you know, this creates an ecosystem I

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think within the organization that brings out
not just the best of the people that

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we have, but attracts some of
the best people in the industry. Okay,

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So I don't know if you listen
to what I said to my introduction

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for the show, but this is
my show has evolved into a thought leadership

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platform, and that is exactly what
I'm trying to presence that to showcase examples

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of how it is you're doing business
and operationalizing what you do. Because what

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I mean, what I'm very aware
of you, what I'm out speaking is

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if people really, more and more
are recognizing really, you know, I've

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got one precious lie and I want
to make a difference with it. And

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so the fact that you give them
an enormous platform and more an enormous megaphone.

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If you will to make that difference, I would think that you probably

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have to have you people's literally straining
to come to work for you because you've

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given that opportunity. And this is
exactly what I'm trying to get more organizations

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to do. Because we spend at
least a third of our lives at work.

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Why shouldn't it be incredibly fulfilling like
what it is you're offering your employees.

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So just huge kudos for that.
That's again, you're my example.

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You're gonna have to keep coming back
on the show. I'm gonna have to

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keep on. I'm gonna have to
keep on investing and coming up with new

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programs and products. Yeah, keep
at it. I'm very grateful that you

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have us on the show because we
do have a lot of folks that want

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to come work for us. And
when I have the opportunity to speak externally,

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I'm approached by a lot of people
that want to come work for a

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company like this, where it's it's
not just a job, it's a vocation.

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But I also like to think sometimes
that DSM is the biggest company that

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nobody's ever heard of, and so
although people use our products every day.

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They probably don't know the DSN name. So please invite me back every chance

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you get. You got it,
You got it. Okay, Since you

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and I did meet at at at
a women's conference a couple of years ago.

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By the way, I'm going back
again. They've asked me to come

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back to moderate. I don't know
if you're going to be there. But

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the CPHL that we met at,
you and I were engaged at that time

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in trying to help develop and motivate
the female leaders in the room. There

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were about one hundred and twenty five
of them. One of the things that

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you know, I noticed in your
your report is you report a twenty five

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percent female executive rate. So the
first thing I want to know is what's

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your target? What what would you
like your female executive rate to be?

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So, I mean, we're we're
very much looking to find parody, gender

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parody to the extent it's possible across
every level of our enterprise. And you

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know, we see that at junior
and mid levels of the enterprise where there

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is very much gender parody, and
that's that's really a reflection of society.

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But for reasons that I think many
companies struggle with as you move further up

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the corporate chain, the number of
women in our organization begins to fall off.

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And I think that we're beginning.
We're really leaning hard into trying to

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solve that problem, trying to really
understand what the root causes are so that

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we can create an environment where everybody, regardless of gender or race, or

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age or any demographic has a full
and fair opportunity to reach their full potential.

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So that's where we'd like to be. We are at the CEO level,

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we have co CEOs Geraldine and Dmitri. We are at our executive committee

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level where we we have actually a
majority women relative to men. But we

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need to do a much better job
amongst the three hundred or so executives that

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we have in the company worldwide.
Okay, so ladies listening, that's your

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queue. Go step up and talk
to you about about leadership and DSM.

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There you go. N Kate's opened, all right, So next, I

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00:27:57.240 --> 00:28:00.559
want to talk about some of your
environment are your environmental initiatives you one of

408
00:28:00.599 --> 00:28:04.000
the things that I've really appreciated about
getting to know you, N DSM and

409
00:28:04.039 --> 00:28:07.359
I'm from Oregon. We are tree
huggers, there. I live in Texas

410
00:28:07.400 --> 00:28:12.960
now and I've studied various environmental issues
when I did my master's degree, so

411
00:28:14.079 --> 00:28:17.000
I'm interested in this. I have
no idea what this means. But you

412
00:28:17.039 --> 00:28:22.240
report something about your greenhouse gas and
something about seventeen percent GHG scope. I

413
00:28:22.240 --> 00:28:23.839
don't know what any of that means. Help me, help us understand what

414
00:28:23.880 --> 00:28:27.599
it is you're reporting there and why
it's important to you. So we're always

415
00:28:27.640 --> 00:28:33.720
trying to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions
from our own manufacturing operations, and that's

416
00:28:33.720 --> 00:28:36.079
what that's looking at. So there's
a number of different ways you can do

417
00:28:36.160 --> 00:28:41.200
that, moving away from using fossil
fuels to produce electricity or to produce power

418
00:28:41.319 --> 00:28:47.799
in the facility, through having a
more green fleet of salesforce automobiles or delivery

419
00:28:47.839 --> 00:28:52.400
trucks. And so when you look
across DSM DSM print, you'll see initiatives

420
00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:57.000
where we're bringing in solar fields.
So a little more than a year ago,

421
00:28:57.119 --> 00:29:02.359
I opened at what was at the
time the largest netmetered solo field in

422
00:29:02.400 --> 00:29:06.559
the state of New Jersey. And
this was in January, not the best

423
00:29:06.559 --> 00:29:11.240
month of the year to open a
new solar field, but this solar field

424
00:29:11.279 --> 00:29:15.319
is worth a five hundred acre manufacturing
plant. It covers the solo field itself

425
00:29:15.319 --> 00:29:18.200
in a sixty two thousand panels.
It looks like a piece of modern art

426
00:29:18.240 --> 00:29:25.359
as it lays out across the landscape
of sixty six acres. But in June

427
00:29:25.359 --> 00:29:29.160
at peak, at peak sunshine,
it can produce one hundred percent renewable electricity

428
00:29:29.559 --> 00:29:33.000
to run a very large manufacturing plant. And we've opened similar solar fields in

429
00:29:33.039 --> 00:29:37.920
places like King Street, South Carolina
and elsewhere around the world. And where

430
00:29:37.920 --> 00:29:41.720
we can't open solar fields that run
our plants, we do deals to acquire

431
00:29:42.319 --> 00:29:48.920
renewable electricity. So we did a
deal earlier this year in Oklahoma to acquire

432
00:29:48.440 --> 00:29:52.440
renewab electricity that's wind powered, and
very soon we'll announce a new one in

433
00:29:52.599 --> 00:29:57.200
Houston, Texas or in the Texas
area that will be renewable electricity generated by

434
00:29:57.240 --> 00:30:00.640
a massive solar field. And so
this is just a small example of the

435
00:30:00.680 --> 00:30:06.119
many things we try to do to
reduce our own greenhouse gas emissions. And

436
00:30:06.160 --> 00:30:10.880
that's that's really one part of our
story. It's reducing our own impact.

437
00:30:10.960 --> 00:30:14.400
The other is to try to enable
our customers to reduce theirs. And then

438
00:30:14.440 --> 00:30:17.720
the third and you probably see me
on social media quite a bit about this

439
00:30:17.759 --> 00:30:22.559
is advocacy, advocating to not just
other corporations and consumers to reduce their environmental

440
00:30:22.559 --> 00:30:26.640
footprint, but really trying to use
whatever modest political influence we have to get

441
00:30:26.640 --> 00:30:32.319
policymakers to change their position with respect
issues like climate change in carbon pricing.

442
00:30:33.359 --> 00:30:36.240
I love it, love it,
love it is so important to advocate for

443
00:30:36.279 --> 00:30:38.240
this. Okay, So for our
last little bit in this segment here,

444
00:30:38.240 --> 00:30:41.880
the last thing I want to cover
from from the report is of course the

445
00:30:41.880 --> 00:30:45.559
true financial piece of it. Whether
you want to talk about profit or ebit

446
00:30:45.559 --> 00:30:48.359
of growth. I want to make
sure that we tie over just how you

447
00:30:48.400 --> 00:30:52.920
do business and what that looks like
from a purpose banished point to the bottom

448
00:30:52.920 --> 00:30:56.920
line. We had we had good
even to growth last year. You know,

449
00:30:56.960 --> 00:31:00.039
we've gone through a number of years
now. We've had very strong growth

450
00:31:00.640 --> 00:31:06.759
across our business lines, particularly in
nutrition. I think that's a result of

451
00:31:06.799 --> 00:31:10.599
having some very good leadership in the
company running these different businesses, a good

452
00:31:10.640 --> 00:31:14.839
strategy, a world that is hungry
for our products, be they vitamins or

453
00:31:14.880 --> 00:31:19.960
lipids or clean energy. But you
know, we also face headwinds and coronavirus

454
00:31:19.960 --> 00:31:26.640
will certainly be a headwind to our
probably first and second quarter at least operations.

455
00:31:27.400 --> 00:31:30.119
But you know, I, like
I said at the beginning, I

456
00:31:30.200 --> 00:31:33.559
think we have a very resilient and
adaptable team here at DSM all twenty three

457
00:31:33.599 --> 00:31:38.279
thousand and hopefully twenty twenty will prove
to be a year where that's reflected.

458
00:31:38.640 --> 00:31:42.039
M I appreciate that very much.
And with that, let's grab our last

459
00:31:42.039 --> 00:31:45.440
break. I'm at Least Cortez your
host. We're on the air with Hugh

460
00:31:45.480 --> 00:31:48.759
Welsh, who is the President and
General Council of DSM North America, a

461
00:31:48.759 --> 00:31:52.880
global leader in life sciences and material
sciences. You joined today just two bucks

462
00:31:52.880 --> 00:31:56.079
from the White House in Washington,
DC. After the break, we'll continue

463
00:31:56.119 --> 00:32:19.279
the conversation. Stay with us.
We'll be right back. Elise Cortez is

464
00:32:19.319 --> 00:32:23.640
a speaker and engagement and development catalyst. She designs and delivers professional development,

465
00:32:23.799 --> 00:32:29.839
leadership and engagement workshops and can bring
her expertise to your organization. She will

466
00:32:29.880 --> 00:32:35.359
help ignite meaningful development within your workforce
that will increase employee engagement, performance and

467
00:32:35.559 --> 00:32:38.519
retention. To learn more or to
invite Elise to speak to your organization,

468
00:32:38.680 --> 00:32:44.880
please visit her at www dot Elise
Cortez dot com. She would welcome the

469
00:32:44.920 --> 00:32:55.400
opportunity to help get your employees working
on purpose. This is working on Purpose

470
00:32:55.440 --> 00:33:01.599
with Elise Cortez. To reach our
program today an email to Elise ali se

471
00:33:02.000 --> 00:33:14.559
at Elise Cortez dot com. Now
back to working on purpose. Thanks for

472
00:33:14.599 --> 00:33:16.160
staying with us, and welcome back
to working on purpose. If you're just

473
00:33:16.240 --> 00:33:20.039
tuning in, my guest is Hugh
Welsh, the President and General Council of

474
00:33:20.119 --> 00:33:23.200
DSM North America, a global leader
in life sciences and material sciences. I'm

475
00:33:23.200 --> 00:33:27.759
your host, Ellis Cortez. Okay, So for this last segment here,

476
00:33:27.799 --> 00:33:30.279
Hugh, I just wanted to see
if we can presence a few things that

477
00:33:30.440 --> 00:33:34.880
I think are particularly interesting about DSMUT
standout for me, we were already talking

478
00:33:34.880 --> 00:33:37.200
in the last segment about what you're
doing with some of the environmental cleanup,

479
00:33:37.200 --> 00:33:42.359
but for our listeners who haven't heard
about some of your initiatives that I find

480
00:33:42.440 --> 00:33:45.720
very interesting, like ocean cleanup and
such, will you just share a little

481
00:33:45.720 --> 00:33:49.359
bit about what you're doing to try
to help the environment. Sure, I

482
00:33:49.400 --> 00:33:53.200
mean I'll start with some of our
big bet innovation. So again like with

483
00:33:53.559 --> 00:33:59.000
with our compensation model where we spend
R and D dollars and our innovation dollars

484
00:33:59.279 --> 00:34:01.279
is very much an with our purpose. And so we have a number of

485
00:34:01.319 --> 00:34:07.199
what we call big bets in DSM
that are massive projects to bring new products,

486
00:34:07.239 --> 00:34:09.800
new solutions to the market that will
help solve some of the world's biggest

487
00:34:09.800 --> 00:34:14.599
problems. One of them we call
clean cow. And so if you follow

488
00:34:14.719 --> 00:34:16.800
the media, you follow the news, you see a lot of stories around

489
00:34:16.880 --> 00:34:22.960
farting cows. Yes, right,
so it's actually they don't heart, they

490
00:34:22.960 --> 00:34:30.280
actually burn. So burping cows are
a significant a sycom area for the release

491
00:34:30.280 --> 00:34:32.559
of methane. Methane is a greenhouse
gas, and so it would be wonderful

492
00:34:32.599 --> 00:34:37.400
if we can address this sort of
agricultural source of greenhouse gas to make not

493
00:34:37.480 --> 00:34:40.320
only cows but the products they produce
more sustainable. And so when DSM,

494
00:34:40.599 --> 00:34:44.559
we invented a product, a feed
ingredient that you would feed to the cow

495
00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.360
that reduces those methane emissions by more
than thirty percent, and that is a

496
00:34:49.559 --> 00:34:53.239
massive amount of greenhouse gas reduction.
And so we're bringing this product the market

497
00:34:53.280 --> 00:34:58.119
in places today like New zealand hopefully
soon in Europe and then here in the

498
00:34:58.199 --> 00:35:00.719
United States, and they'll have a
meaning full impact, a real meaningful impact

499
00:35:01.119 --> 00:35:07.239
on reducing climate change related gases from
the agricultural sector. Another area that we

500
00:35:07.199 --> 00:35:13.519
were working on and we just launched
in Jubi was a new plant in Blair,

501
00:35:13.599 --> 00:35:16.360
Nebraska, and it's a joint venture
with a German company called a vonic

502
00:35:16.639 --> 00:35:22.960
called Vamiris and Verameris is the Greek
words for green ocean. And what this

503
00:35:22.000 --> 00:35:28.960
plant does is it produces an algal
oil through fermentation that can be fed to

504
00:35:29.039 --> 00:35:35.960
salmon so that you don't have to
feed salmon wildcat fish. So today most

505
00:35:35.960 --> 00:35:38.039
people one of the most popular fish
to eat when you go out as salmon.

506
00:35:38.480 --> 00:35:42.920
The overwhelming majority of salmon that served
in restaurants or you buy in a

507
00:35:42.960 --> 00:35:46.679
supermarket as farm raised, and that
farm raised salmon has to be fed fish

508
00:35:46.760 --> 00:35:50.960
oil or fish meal from fish that
they are caught in the wild. And

509
00:35:51.039 --> 00:35:54.079
today the oceans are already seventy percent
depleted, so that's becoming a challenge.

510
00:35:54.480 --> 00:36:00.559
Those products are becoming very expensive because
of there there's few of them available,

511
00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.119
and as a consequence, a lot
of the folks in the aquaculture industry aren't

512
00:36:04.159 --> 00:36:07.280
putting a lot of that fish meal
or fish oil in, so the salmon

513
00:36:07.320 --> 00:36:10.199
you may be buying might not have
the high levels of a Mega three that

514
00:36:10.280 --> 00:36:15.800
you expect. This ingredient does away
with the need to use any of that

515
00:36:15.840 --> 00:36:20.000
wild caught fish and raises the EPA, DHA, and Mega three levels in

516
00:36:20.039 --> 00:36:23.519
those farm ray salmons to immensely high
levels. So it's making not only the

517
00:36:23.559 --> 00:36:28.559
fish healthier itself, but a healthier
fish for the consumer. And we just

518
00:36:28.679 --> 00:36:30.239
opened that plant, as I said, in Blair, Nebraska in July,

519
00:36:30.679 --> 00:36:35.800
lying Nebraska, because the feedstock to
grow the algae is corn, and I

520
00:36:35.880 --> 00:36:38.679
have a lot of corn in Nebraska. In November, we opened up a

521
00:36:38.719 --> 00:36:43.800
similar joint venture in Blair, Nebraska
with Cargill and we're producing a product they

522
00:36:43.800 --> 00:36:49.519
are called Aventsia. Now, Aventsia
is a product that's designed to try to

523
00:36:49.559 --> 00:36:53.000
help challenge the obesity epidemic that we're
seeing not just here in the United States

524
00:36:53.079 --> 00:36:58.679
but growing around the world. And
Avncia enables us to produce a product called

525
00:36:58.719 --> 00:37:01.719
stevia, which it might be familiar
you're with not from a plant but through

526
00:37:01.760 --> 00:37:06.519
fermentation, so today people might enjoy
stevia. I think there are products on

527
00:37:06.559 --> 00:37:09.280
the market, like called truvia,
etc. But they're very expensive because you

528
00:37:09.360 --> 00:37:14.119
have to extract them from the stevia
plant, and doing that candidly is not

529
00:37:14.280 --> 00:37:20.039
particularly environmentally sustainable. We can make
that same molecule rather than from the plant

530
00:37:20.079 --> 00:37:25.159
itself, in an algal fermentation tank
and produce stevia at scale, so now

531
00:37:25.199 --> 00:37:29.840
you'll be able to see it in
the market and replace of chemical sweeteners or

532
00:37:29.840 --> 00:37:32.199
in place of high fricto scorn syrup, so that you can have the sweetness

533
00:37:32.239 --> 00:37:36.519
that you want in your beverage,
your bar, whatever, without having to

534
00:37:36.559 --> 00:37:39.519
take a chemical sweetener or or use
sugar or high frodose cooin syrup. Those

535
00:37:39.559 --> 00:37:44.840
are two examples, are there are
many, many others, and all of

536
00:37:44.840 --> 00:37:47.840
these are hundreds of millions of dollars
of investments. Last time, I talked

537
00:37:47.880 --> 00:37:52.719
a little bit about a product that
we call Niaga. Now, Niaga is

538
00:37:52.760 --> 00:37:55.159
the word against fell backwards. It's
probably why we're the biggest company nobody's ever

539
00:37:55.199 --> 00:38:00.599
heard of because of that genius in
marketing. But we make the world's only

540
00:38:00.679 --> 00:38:05.599
fully recyclable carpet. So today here
in the United States, the number two

541
00:38:05.639 --> 00:38:08.119
thing that goes in the landfills is
carpet. Number one is diapers. We

542
00:38:08.119 --> 00:38:12.960
don't have a solution for that yet, but we make this carpet that is

543
00:38:13.000 --> 00:38:15.280
fully recyclable. So when it's done
with it's useful life to send it back

544
00:38:15.320 --> 00:38:19.800
to us, we melt it down. We use the bead lists that are

545
00:38:19.840 --> 00:38:22.440
created to make brand new carpet.
Nothing goes to landfill, nothing is wasted.

546
00:38:22.880 --> 00:38:27.360
It's a real application of what you
might hear people talk about today as

547
00:38:27.400 --> 00:38:32.679
the circular economy. We've now launched
that to consumers. So there's a new

548
00:38:32.679 --> 00:38:37.519
company called the Canary Company. We
use the word canary harkens back to our

549
00:38:37.920 --> 00:38:40.960
coal mining days, canary in the
coal mine. And this carpet is,

550
00:38:42.199 --> 00:38:47.079
in addition to being fully recyclable,
doesn't off gas any of those candidly carcinogenic

551
00:38:47.119 --> 00:38:53.119
and harmful chemical gases that come out
of conventional carpet that's they made with latex.

552
00:38:53.440 --> 00:38:58.920
That new car smell that everybody knows
that's actually off gassing from the carpets

553
00:38:58.960 --> 00:39:00.679
in the car. And this carpet
you can just you know, if it

554
00:39:00.719 --> 00:39:04.920
gets dirty, just throw it in
the washing machine. You can watch it

555
00:39:04.920 --> 00:39:09.119
that way. So we have all
of these these new innovation these new developments

556
00:39:09.159 --> 00:39:14.119
that are are not just good for
business, but they're really working to solve

557
00:39:14.119 --> 00:39:16.840
some of the world's biggest challenges.
And again why I wanted to showcase you,

558
00:39:16.960 --> 00:39:20.719
Hugh, because so much of what
I'm trying to do with my own

559
00:39:20.760 --> 00:39:24.480
work, consulting with companies and speaking
is to really have us raise our gaze

560
00:39:24.599 --> 00:39:29.920
from that singular tree in the forest
to the whole entire forest and beyond and

561
00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:35.199
do business with the aim of helping
to solve these high societal problems, not

562
00:39:35.320 --> 00:39:39.000
just make a profit today or handle
an issue today, but where the long

563
00:39:39.079 --> 00:39:42.719
term view. And so again,
so much of what you're doing, I

564
00:39:42.760 --> 00:39:45.079
don't know how you keep up with
everything that you're doing inside DSM, or

565
00:39:45.079 --> 00:39:49.199
if you do. And beyond that
too is I think about your employees.

566
00:39:49.199 --> 00:39:52.719
They have literally a buffet of things
to be able to choose from to give

567
00:39:52.760 --> 00:39:59.360
their ten percent to or their efforts
to what an incredible opportunity to give them.

568
00:39:59.440 --> 00:40:05.679
You I don't give them opportunity,
They give me opportunity. It's it's

569
00:40:05.679 --> 00:40:07.239
a wonderful place to work. As
I've told you before, I have the

570
00:40:07.239 --> 00:40:10.599
greatest job in the world. You
do, which I really probably shouldn't say

571
00:40:10.599 --> 00:40:15.440
on the radio, but I am, and I wake up every day and

572
00:40:15.480 --> 00:40:17.880
I wonder why they pay me.
It is really an inspiring, an engaging

573
00:40:17.920 --> 00:40:22.039
place to work, and I'm happy
not just to have the opportunity to work

574
00:40:22.079 --> 00:40:24.920
with the thousands of thousands of people
that I do within the company, but

575
00:40:25.039 --> 00:40:30.000
the tens of thousands of stakeholders outside
the company that I've come to partner with

576
00:40:30.039 --> 00:40:34.920
and collaborate with over the years.
Listeners, every single each and every one

577
00:40:34.920 --> 00:40:37.199
of you. I want that for
you too. I want you to be

578
00:40:37.239 --> 00:40:38.599
able to get out of bed like
he was talking about and feel like,

579
00:40:38.639 --> 00:40:43.239
Wow, I'm the luckiest guy or
gal on the planet and really know that

580
00:40:43.239 --> 00:40:45.440
you're making a difference in the world. I mean, that's my wish for

581
00:40:45.480 --> 00:40:49.440
all of you. So thank you, Hugh. Yet again. So while

582
00:40:49.440 --> 00:40:51.719
we're talking about that, and I
don't know if this is related, but

583
00:40:51.760 --> 00:40:53.760
you know, I have to ask
this of you. I did notice that

584
00:40:53.920 --> 00:41:00.480
you made the ROI Influencers Power List
of twenty twenty of executive So I want

585
00:41:00.519 --> 00:41:06.920
to know what this means to you
personally and to DSM. It's very flattering

586
00:41:06.920 --> 00:41:09.440
and humbling to me personally, but
I don't take it as meaning much about

587
00:41:09.480 --> 00:41:13.599
me. It's really I think about
DSM, and I think it's about a

588
00:41:13.639 --> 00:41:19.639
recognition by certain constituents out there in
the community and state and across the country

589
00:41:20.239 --> 00:41:23.039
that c DSM is not just a
company that's producing products and selling them to

590
00:41:23.440 --> 00:41:29.440
customers or consumers, but really a
company that's trying to shape and develop the

591
00:41:29.480 --> 00:41:31.880
communities within which we operate, in
the countries within which we have the privilege

592
00:41:31.880 --> 00:41:37.360
to build our facilities. And so
you know, that's that's what I see

593
00:41:37.360 --> 00:41:40.400
it as. I see it as
a reflection of who we are as a

594
00:41:40.400 --> 00:41:45.840
company, that we're not just satisfied
with improving our own bottom line or improving

595
00:41:45.840 --> 00:41:52.079
our own environmental fliprint or improving our
own experiences for employees, but we're really

596
00:41:52.119 --> 00:41:57.159
trying to enable our customers to do
the same and perhaps even more importantly,

597
00:41:57.400 --> 00:42:01.960
shape the conversation that's happening in national
level around issues that we can meaningfully speak

598
00:42:01.960 --> 00:42:07.760
to again, like climate change or
nutrition, things like that. Beautiful,

599
00:42:07.880 --> 00:42:10.639
And that's about the answer I would
have expected you to give, knowing you

600
00:42:10.679 --> 00:42:14.599
as I do, But yes,
I do, and I would agree with

601
00:42:14.599 --> 00:42:15.800
you. I would think you need
to still be the person that shows up

602
00:42:15.800 --> 00:42:20.239
in that space and you are.
However, I do see the you being

603
00:42:20.280 --> 00:42:23.639
attached to and being part of a
company ideas. It surely makes a big

604
00:42:23.639 --> 00:42:28.760
difference in being elected. But I
still I want to acknowledge this very much.

605
00:42:28.840 --> 00:42:31.840
It's a it's a it is a
I want to say, a fitting,

606
00:42:32.119 --> 00:42:37.239
fitting prize for you, Hugh.
Well, thank you. I appreciate

607
00:42:37.280 --> 00:42:42.480
it, and I accept that on
behalf of the thousands of people that will

608
00:42:42.480 --> 00:42:45.599
do the real work every day.
Fair enough, Okay, while we're still

609
00:42:45.599 --> 00:42:47.960
talking about things that you're doing in
the world to make it a better place,

610
00:42:49.239 --> 00:42:51.760
I do want to ask you this. I noticed one of your other

611
00:42:51.920 --> 00:42:52.920
tweets, and I love how you
tweet by the way. I like a

612
00:42:53.039 --> 00:42:55.280
day goes by and I haven't seen
a tweet from Hugh. What do I

613
00:42:55.320 --> 00:43:00.800
do? How do I start my
day? But there was a lot of

614
00:43:00.840 --> 00:43:02.840
time on security lines, and that's
you know, when tweeting gets done.

615
00:43:02.679 --> 00:43:07.119
I love it. It works,
it works, And I taught one that

616
00:43:07.400 --> 00:43:14.320
that announced a collaboration between DSM Royal
DSM and I think it's maybe it's Generations

617
00:43:14.400 --> 00:43:19.280
United something like that for young entrepreneurs
through the development of agrafood businesses. And

618
00:43:19.320 --> 00:43:22.840
the aim is to reach and improve
the lives of an estimated one million young

619
00:43:22.000 --> 00:43:28.239
smallholder farmers. Okay, what's that
about. That sounds amazing. Yeah,

620
00:43:28.320 --> 00:43:32.480
I mean it's another initiative that's taking
sort of our expertise and our global footprint

621
00:43:32.519 --> 00:43:38.159
and trying to use that at scale, at parential scale to enable a lot

622
00:43:38.159 --> 00:43:43.440
of other people. I'll start with
an example of something we did a couple

623
00:43:43.480 --> 00:43:46.039
of years ago, which was started
a business in ge Gallery we wanna called

624
00:43:46.039 --> 00:43:51.880
African Proof Foods, and we were
approached by a number of organizations that said

625
00:43:51.960 --> 00:43:55.639
you there or are DSM. There's
a thirty eight percent childhood stunting rate in

626
00:43:57.159 --> 00:44:00.639
Rwanda, and no matter how much
that we want to go from it spends

627
00:44:00.679 --> 00:44:04.960
on infrastructure and business development. If
thirty eight percent of their children have no

628
00:44:05.079 --> 00:44:07.679
chance of ever reaching their full potential, the country can never be successful.

629
00:44:08.199 --> 00:44:12.519
You are the biggest nutrition company in
the world, certainly you must be able

630
00:44:12.519 --> 00:44:15.280
to come with a solution. And
so we start it there with building a

631
00:44:15.320 --> 00:44:20.800
plant. We make a nutritious porridge
there that's sold into the commercial market.

632
00:44:20.880 --> 00:44:23.079
It's called new Tree Toto, new
Tree, Mamma, New Tree Family.

633
00:44:23.639 --> 00:44:28.280
And think of it and if in
US terms as like cream of wheat with

634
00:44:28.320 --> 00:44:31.039
all the essential vitamins and minerals and
things like that. What makes this business

635
00:44:31.079 --> 00:44:36.960
special is that we source all of
the row materials from Rwandan smaholder farmers.

636
00:44:37.440 --> 00:44:40.119
So there are ten thousand Rwandan smaholder
farmers who sell us their corn, their

637
00:44:40.159 --> 00:44:44.519
maze, their soy that we can
then turn into this product. And why

638
00:44:44.559 --> 00:44:46.760
is that important for them? Well, for the first time, they're getting

639
00:44:46.760 --> 00:44:51.840
a contract that's forward looking that they
can borrow against. And when they can

640
00:44:51.920 --> 00:44:53.920
borrow against something, they have access
to capital. When they have access to

641
00:44:53.960 --> 00:44:59.159
capital, they can have better equipment, better seed, and many of them,

642
00:44:59.159 --> 00:45:01.840
for the first time, are now
running businesses rather than being subsistence farmers.

643
00:45:02.440 --> 00:45:07.599
This was an eye opening experience when
we saw agricultural productivity in the country

644
00:45:07.639 --> 00:45:12.360
go up so much from one facility, we realized that we could run not

645
00:45:12.440 --> 00:45:15.760
just a profitable business, but one
that's making meaningful change in parts of the

646
00:45:15.760 --> 00:45:22.159
world that such change has to happen. So this is a continuing evolution of

647
00:45:22.199 --> 00:45:27.199
sort of that grand experiment where if
we can find if we can work to

648
00:45:27.320 --> 00:45:32.880
enable a million smallholder farmers to move
from being subsistence farmers to creating more agricultural

649
00:45:32.920 --> 00:45:39.280
productivity, healthier products, creating markets
we can uplift without exaggeration, billions of

650
00:45:39.320 --> 00:45:45.519
people from poverty to the middle class. And those people are our future employees,

651
00:45:45.559 --> 00:45:50.360
those people are our future customers,
those are the future global citizens that

652
00:45:50.400 --> 00:45:52.880
will share the planet with And so
this is one of the I think many

653
00:45:52.920 --> 00:45:57.960
ways that we as a company try
to not just do well ourselves, but

654
00:45:58.039 --> 00:46:04.960
do good for the communities where we
can. Recognizing that one company being successful,

655
00:46:04.960 --> 00:46:07.960
one person being successful doesn't mean anything
if it means nobody else has an

656
00:46:08.000 --> 00:46:13.239
opportunity to be successful. Okay,
So at the expense of embarrassing you,

657
00:46:13.320 --> 00:46:15.559
Hugh, let me do something for
our listeners really quick, right now.

658
00:46:15.599 --> 00:46:20.480
So listeners, what I want to
really showcase of what he was doing is

659
00:46:19.920 --> 00:46:24.400
he is formidable in his ability to
articulate a message. So that storytelling.

660
00:46:24.400 --> 00:46:29.320
As a leader, being able to
paint a picture of vision for your employees

661
00:46:29.320 --> 00:46:32.719
to step into and be inspired by
is all the difference in the world for

662
00:46:34.360 --> 00:46:37.039
leadership. So what you just did
there, I have to believe that so

663
00:46:37.119 --> 00:46:42.599
much of your company is a heartbeat
of people who've learned over time through your

664
00:46:43.000 --> 00:46:46.039
leadership and that of those of your
comrades to be able to stitch together a

665
00:46:46.119 --> 00:46:52.079
narrative that is inspiring and helps them
really understand how they individually are making a

666
00:46:52.079 --> 00:46:57.920
difference all the way across the globe. I think they all have wonderful stories

667
00:46:57.960 --> 00:47:00.599
to tell, and I'm just grateful
every day that they share those stories with

668
00:47:00.639 --> 00:47:06.159
me and give me the opportunity at
times to tell them. It's again,

669
00:47:06.320 --> 00:47:09.840
it's a place where all twenty three
thousand have an opportunity every day to do

670
00:47:09.880 --> 00:47:15.880
something meaningful, and you can't find
a better purpose than that, especially in

671
00:47:15.880 --> 00:47:22.559
an organization that will also enable to
support your family and grow personally. Agreed.

672
00:47:23.000 --> 00:47:25.280
Now here, we are just about
out a time, but we've got

673
00:47:25.360 --> 00:47:29.599
maybe a minute and a half,
two minutes left too. I wanted to

674
00:47:29.639 --> 00:47:31.639
give you a chance to just share
whatever news from the road that's going on

675
00:47:31.679 --> 00:47:35.599
the DSM that I haven't yet heard
about. What else do you want to

676
00:47:35.599 --> 00:47:38.559
share with us that's up to good
things there? Yeah? No, I

677
00:47:38.559 --> 00:47:44.159
mean, I remained extremely optimistic despite
the challenges that we face as a global

678
00:47:44.159 --> 00:47:47.360
community with the current pandemic, Despite
the challenges that we face as a global

679
00:47:47.360 --> 00:47:52.400
community as a consequence of climate change. I remain very optimistic. I mean,

680
00:47:52.440 --> 00:47:55.679
I again have the privilege and travel
the world and meet some really fascinating

681
00:47:55.679 --> 00:48:00.199
people, from again Rwandan smallholder farmers
to you know, folks in the White

682
00:48:00.239 --> 00:48:06.159
House, and in meeting all of
them and getting an understanding of their different

683
00:48:06.159 --> 00:48:09.559
perspectives, I see common threads and
values. I see common threads in what

684
00:48:09.599 --> 00:48:14.480
we all aspire for not only ourselves, our families, our businesses, but

685
00:48:14.719 --> 00:48:17.519
the community. And so I'm very, very optimistic, and I'm very confident

686
00:48:17.599 --> 00:48:22.000
that going forward, d SAM will
continue to lean into that optimism, and

687
00:48:22.039 --> 00:48:24.760
our business will continue to thrive and
be successful, our people will continue to

688
00:48:24.800 --> 00:48:31.079
thrive and be successful, and hopefully
together we can make not just a better

689
00:48:31.159 --> 00:48:36.079
DSM, but a better world.
You know, that's such an important message

690
00:48:36.079 --> 00:48:38.199
to finish with you in my view
for two reasons. One of course,

691
00:48:38.239 --> 00:48:44.840
as a logotherapist, which is someone
who heals through meaning or ads ads motivation

692
00:48:44.960 --> 00:48:50.320
through meaning, I know that the
importance to our well being of optimism is

693
00:48:50.639 --> 00:48:53.760
well substantiated in the literature. So
having an optimistic attitude is very, very,

694
00:48:53.840 --> 00:48:58.480
very important because it gives us a
place to stand from and look for

695
00:48:58.559 --> 00:49:01.079
ways to solve problems versus saying,
oh, this guy's falling, what's the

696
00:49:01.079 --> 00:49:04.920
pointless? Just you know, stay
in bed today. So, especially at

697
00:49:04.920 --> 00:49:08.360
a time right like now, I
appreciate very much your optimistic word for us.

698
00:49:09.000 --> 00:49:13.039
So thank you for that. That
is a fantastic way to finish the

699
00:49:13.039 --> 00:49:16.800
show. Last thoughts before we go
our separate ways in thirty seconds. Thanks

700
00:49:16.800 --> 00:49:19.880
for having me back. I hope, I hope I didn't ruin it for

701
00:49:19.880 --> 00:49:23.840
the next time, not at all. In fact, Kim in the chat

702
00:49:23.920 --> 00:49:28.000
room said, when you were talking
about caw farts, she said, oh

703
00:49:28.039 --> 00:49:30.199
my, he went there. He
sure did good one. So I think

704
00:49:30.320 --> 00:49:34.199
actually, if anything, you've you've
garnered a few more listeners for us.

705
00:49:34.199 --> 00:49:38.159
You so thank you. That's all
it takes. You're very welcome. Absolutely,

706
00:49:38.239 --> 00:49:40.760
that was easy hum all right,
so listeners. If you want to

707
00:49:40.840 --> 00:49:45.519
learn more about Hugh Welsh and the
amazing company he works with, DSM,

708
00:49:45.559 --> 00:49:49.519
go to the website. It is
simply DSM dot com. Last week,

709
00:49:49.519 --> 00:49:52.159
if you missed the show live,
you can always catch it be recorded podcast.

710
00:49:52.280 --> 00:49:54.159
We were on the Earth doctor Kerry
Israel talking about his career as what

711
00:49:54.239 --> 00:49:58.920
I consider it to be quite an
enlightened leader in education. He shared lots

712
00:49:58.960 --> 00:50:01.440
of ways he made a difference the
college he was president of here in the

713
00:50:01.480 --> 00:50:06.719
Dallas area. Next week, we'll
be talking with doctor Arthur Sierra McCauley about

714
00:50:06.760 --> 00:50:08.719
his book, The Triumph of Diversity. This is his third appearance on the

715
00:50:08.719 --> 00:50:12.599
show, as we've discussed his latest
book, See you there. Remember that

716
00:50:12.639 --> 00:50:15.320
work is at least a third of
our lives, So let's work on purpose.

717
00:50:20.320 --> 00:50:22.880
Well you hope you've enjoyed this week's
program. Be sure to tune in

718
00:50:22.920 --> 00:50:28.639
to Working on Purpose, featuring your
host, Alice Cortez, each week on

719
00:50:28.719 --> 00:50:34.480
the Voice America Empowerment Channel. This
week, find your life's purpose at work.