DSM: A Shining Example of Enlightened Business

WEBVTT

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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 Cortes. 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 Cortes. 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 base for me. If
you've been tuning in for a while,

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

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

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

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

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The Gallop Organization reports that eighty five
percent of the global workforce does not want

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

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together. And instead make work an
enriching part of life that expresses meaningful contribution

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and helps us grow into our highest
selves, all in service of the organization's

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purpose. Each week in these conversations, I hope you walk away with something

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

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Much of the content we discuss on
this program as a reflection of the work

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

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I can do to help, go
to my website at leastcoretes dot com and

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use that 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 Violin inspired leadership program,

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

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at any rate. I'm glad we're
connected. Thanks for listening with us today.

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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 Exchange

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

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

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

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

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the globe. He will welcome back
to Working on Purpose. Thanks E Lise.

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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 my sandbox again. I

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did get scared off after the 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 you to
listen to that one again. By the

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way, listeners, if you didn't, it's easy to find out my host

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

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

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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 company

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in the Limberg province of the Netherlands, and the acronym DSM actually stands for

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Dutch State Mines. And over the
years it's sort of evolved from being a

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

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

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letter vitamins you're probably familiar with,
like vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin

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

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things like fish oil or algal oil
that you might find in other 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 pets a chemical company, we'd
have gone distinct long ago. But because

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

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

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

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

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biggest problems. So I like to
think that we've repurposed that DSM acronym from

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

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

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

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you come on the show again.
Hugh. You just can't run away from

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

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

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

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

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

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

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House in Washington, d C.
So you've stopped for a moment to talk

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with me and share 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 you interact with. Yeah,

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

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that's going to any way compromise the
health and safety of our employees or the

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communities where we operate. Well.
At the same time, we have to

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maintain business continuity. And business continuity
is not just about about maintaining cash low

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

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people need to stay healthy now more
than ever, and so we've always trying

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to find that balance between making sure
that all of our employees are not exposed

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to the virus, or if they
were exposed to the virus, that it's

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handled appropriately without having to shut down
operations anywhere. And so in China where

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this began, we had many employees
working from home for six weeks, but

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we never had to shut down a
manufacturing plant. And people are considering now,

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

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from home, and how to handle
you know, mitigation things at different manufacturing

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facilities. And there it worked really
well where because of the actions we took

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early on, we had no employees
who were infected and we were able to

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maintain our operations where we make quite
a few vitamins like vitamin C, which

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is very important to keep people healthy. Today, you know, in my

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area of responsibility, we're struggling with
what to do next, and so we've

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seen an escalation of the number of
cases here in the United States over the

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last week. It's hard to tell
if there's a spread of the virus or

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just the spread of the detection of
the virus because of increased testing. But

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

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

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

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

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that makes it better for them and
better for our business continuity. At the

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same time, we're trying to take
all measures that we can to make sure

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our employees stay healthy. And we
have a lot of really creative, resilient

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

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

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

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you do trade shows, you bring
a lot of product samples. We had

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

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

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your kids, you can drink yourself. We have thousands of these things that

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we're 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 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 vigional, and at

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the same time that's brilliant. Hugh. I really appreciate you being so specific

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about what you're doing, and I
can only imagine the responsibility you face because

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you run North America and are connected
to the overall international entity. I just

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

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

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that can take care of take care
of everything day to day, and I'm

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

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

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or 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 Adoctor Granny,

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so we know that the most vulnerable
to the coronavirus are 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 properer questions, 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 to 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, you of what doctor Raj

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Desodia was talking about last week or
the week before on the show. He

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wrote a book called The Healing Organization, and he talks about how business can

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be used as a force for good
to be able to address the sattle problems

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and heal woes. And that's exactly
what you're doing with with this adopted grannything.

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

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that. I know, and I
know you're like at least you know,

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you're just so easily amused. I'm
not. This is really amazing stuff.

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

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

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

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

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

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of them, and if they've introduced
any new or different initiatives that they're championing.

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

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So after I would call them thirteen
brilliant years, our CEO, Fik Sibisma,

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

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

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very difficult, nearly impossible, So
our supervisory board decided that he had

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such big shoes to fill they would
find four feet instead of two and you

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

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Deresa, who's been a managing board
member at TSM for some time, are

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co CEOs and sharing responsibilities for leading
this wonderful company. And it's only been

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i'd say about six weeks since they've
been officially co CEOs, and it's been

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quite a six weeks, i would
say, to get introduced to a new

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job running a big company. But
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 maybe

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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 been
It's not what they expected. But I

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think when they write their personal narratives
years from now, it'll play a key

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role. You know. I feel
like that what you're describing is extremely enlightened.

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And again, I host the show
trying to advance the conversation about how

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it is that we do business and
we work. So that's very refreshing to

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hear that you have two And really
quick on that note, you mentioned again

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you know this the coronavirus. We
have Lance and Penny weighing in here in

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the chat room wanting to know more
about this. Would you just quickly address

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if you can. Lance wants to
know, how is the coronavirus different from

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the flu? Do you know?
Well, I mean it's a novel and

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so in that way it's different than
the flu. There's currently no vaccine that

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you can take. There's currently no
therapeutics that you can take to mitigate the

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symptoms. From what we understand as
to what I understand today from the experts,

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is it is communicable very much like
the flu. So airborne droplets.

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You know, if you're within ten
feet of somebody, if they call for

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sts on you, if you touch
surfaces where it's living, you really have

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to watch out, particularly for metal
services, where it lives longer, you

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can become infected. But to this
point, we see that it has a

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slightly higher mortality rate than I think
the seasonal flu, and there's been some

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other very different presenting of this particular
virus has 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 seasonal
flu. So those at a very

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

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and what we understand is the seasonal
flu. Nicely done, thank you,

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

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

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lot of people think that purpose is
very fluffy. 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

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

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one of your tweets, is you
talk about that they're at DSM U tie

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short term bonus, money, long
term equity. And we talked about this

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that last time. But for those
of who haven't heard you talk about this

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or find this to be novel,
would you say more about these performance drivers?

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Why are they in place the way
that they are, and what are

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they intended to incent sure? I
mean, I mean, I think if

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

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

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a purpose, got a mission,
statement, got a vision, and in

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some respects that begins to dilute I
think what the initial idea of corporate purpose

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might be. But one differentiator that
I think separates those who live their corporate

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

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that purpose to corporate executive type.
And so in DSM, half of our

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short term incentives, as you noted, our annual bonus and a significant portion

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of our long term incentives that would
be restricted. Stock shares are tied to

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not traditional financial targets, so they're
tied to things like the company's greenhouse gas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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period of time. And that is
the data that I have as well,

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But hearing it directly from your mouth
is what I wanted, so thank you

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

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host, Alice Cortes. We've run
the air with Hugh Welsh, who is

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the President and General Council of DSM
in North America, which is a global

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leader in life sciences and material sciences. He joined today just two blocks from

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the White House in Washington, d
C. We've been talking a bit about

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some of the history of DSM and
its leadership. After the break, we're

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going to get into the twenty nineteen
Integrated Annual Report and talk about people,

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planet and profit. Stay with us, We'll be right back. Alise Cortes

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is a speaker and engagement and development
catalyst. She designs and delivers professional development,

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leadership and engagement workshops and can bring
her expertise to your organization. She

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will help ignite meaningful development within your
workforce that will increase employee engagement, performance

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and retention. To learn more or
to invite Elise to speak to your organization,

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please visit her at www dot Elisecortes
dot com. She would welcome the

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opportunity to help get your employees working
on purpose. This is working on purpose

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with Elise Cortes to reach our program
today send an email to a lease Alic

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00:17:47.440 --> 00:17:59.319
at Elisecortes dot com. Now back
to working on purpose. Thanks forestine with

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

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My guest is well Hugh Welsh,
who is the President and General Counsel of

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

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

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in annual sales. DSM develops manufacturers
and cells, nutritional and food ingredients,

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biomedical materials, specialty plastics and resins, fibers, and renewable energy. I'm

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your host at least Cortes, all
right, So, Hugh, the next

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thing I wanted to get into is
I took a look at your twenty nineteen

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Integrated Annual Report because I wanted to
then really look at how does purpose get

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operationalized. The very first thing that
I noticed about your report that I thought

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was stunning is that its focus is
people, planet and profit. Just so

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not having a ton of experience looking
at a lot of antid reports. First,

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let me ask you this, are
those categories common? They are and

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more and more common today, So
I think you will find folks who are

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like DSM, working on integrated annual
reports, will begin to report out on

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how they're working to help their people, of course, what their financial results

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are in terms of profit, and
then what they're doing to help the planet,

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and that could be with respect to
renewables, environmental efforts, protection of

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the oceans, any of the SDG
type goals. I think there aren't so

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many today that are doing the integrated
report like we do where you and you

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open the first page, you can
see both the financial results as well as

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all the ESG targets. But I
think we'll see more of that going forward.

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In the business community. You may
have seen letters from a guy named

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Larry Fink, who people know quite
well from black Rock, who is looking

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to all private corporations to begin to
report out this way. You see a

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lot of data around ESG investing,
so more and more big pension funds,

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insurance companies, folks who are putting
money to work are looking for companies with

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strong ESG targets to invest in,
so more companies will begin to report out

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in terms of people, planet profit. NGE today is that there's approximately six

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hundred different systems to measure those ESG
targets, and we're going to need to

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find some uniformity and some commonality there. So apples are apples to apples when

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we're comparing different companies. Okay,
God, if that helps tremendously. Well,

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let's start with the first thing that
I paid attention to because I do

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work in the people space. You
report a seventy four percent engagement figure in

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DSM, so the first thing I
have to know. Let me compare that

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to what we know from the GALP
organization. It says that eighty five percent

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of the globe doesn't want to go
to work on Monday morning, so that

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means fifteen percent are engaged on some
level. In the United States, the

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figure is more like forty percent engagement. How first, why in the world

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is yours seventy four percent? And
then also, what is the industry's standard

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for you? Yeah, we have
a very very high employee engagement result.

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We do an employee engagement survey every
year like many companies do, and we

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find that our employees worldwide, regardless
of culture, geography, or any demographic,

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are extremely engaged, extremely to work
for a company like DSM, and

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I like to think that there's a
number of reasons for that. One goes

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right to the DSM acronym. It's
you know, we truly believe that we're

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inviting some of the smartest people in
the world to come work with us to

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do something meaningful. And so employees
that work for DSM, wh whether they're

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in a function like legal or communications
or human resources, working on a production

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floor, working in research and development, can all tie the work that they're

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doing back to something meaningful that's going
on in the world. It could be

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working on a project that's going to
mitigate the impact of climate change. It

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could be working on product development that's
going to ensure that children in sub Saharan

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Africa don't have to suffer the scourge
of stunting. And when you're doing work

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like that, when you can see
the connection of your work to solving some

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of the world's biggest problems, it's
hard not to be engaged. But I

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can stop there, you know,
other we have other things we do.

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We try to find ways for them
to use the great skill sets, the

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great experiences that they have to help
other people outside the company. I mean,

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the adopted is just one of a
hundred different things we're trying to do.

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We have we work with different stakeholder
groups like like Partners and Food Solutions,

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which is a group we founded together
with General Mills and Cargo and Hershey's

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where we allow our employees, no
matter where they're sitting in the world,

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to donate their expertise and their knowledge
to help build up Sub Saharan African small

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businesses. So like I'm talking to
you, you know, through Skype or

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through through other digital media, they
can talk to somebody who's working in Kenya

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or Tanzania from their desk in Freeport, Texas or Canvas and explain to them

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what they need to do to make
their operations more sustainable or more profitable.

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Teach them marketing, show them how
to do better fortification with nutrition. And

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that is a tremendous experience for an
employee where somebody's not asking them for money

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or material. Somebody really just wants
their know how. You can imagine going

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home at night and talking to your
kids about how you help a small community

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in Tanzania improve their culture growing because
of your specific expertise. Two things stunningly

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beautiful. So one I know,
because of the work that I do with

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companies myself. I do work with
companies to help them create a culture in

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an operationalize purpose and meaning so that
they can presence what it is that you're

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doing for your employees. And I
know the work that that takes. So

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how is it though? There's got
to be several mechanisms that allow each of

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your employees to see how their individual
results affect what you're doing worldwide. There's

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got to be some measures or operations
in place so they can actually see that.

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How do you pull that off?
We do a lot of internal communications,

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and so we have a number of
different channels internally, from the traditional

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sort of news center that is static
and people can go and take a look

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at every day to how we run
video screens and all of our buildings,

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to yammer systems or internal social media
systems where employees can exchange their experiences,

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talk about what's going on in the
company, and find opportunity is where they

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might be able to help. I
think we also have a pretty unique employee

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development program we call X time,
and an X time, an employee can

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donate or use ten percent of their
time on any number of projects that are

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posted in the X time system,
and most of those projects that might have

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little to do with their day to
day job is but require somebody who's inspired,

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engaged and wants to make a difference. And so you know, this

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creates an ecosystem I think within the
organization that brings out not just the best

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of the people that we have,
but attract some of the best people in

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the industry. Okay, So I
don't know if you listened to what I

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said to my introduction for the show, but this is my show has evolved

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into a thought leadership platform, and
that is exactly what I'm trying to presence

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that to showcase examples of how it
is you're doing business and operationalizing what you

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do. Because what I mean,
what I'm very aware of you, what

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I'm out speaking is if people really, more and more are recognizing, really,

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you know, I've got one precious
life and I want to make a

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difference with it. And so the
fact that you give them an enormous platform

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and a more enormous megaphone, if
you will to make that difference, I

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would think that you probably have to
have you know, people literally straining to

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come to work for you because you've
given that opportunity. And this is exactly

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what I'm trying to get more organizations
to do. Because we spend at least

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a third of our lives at work, Why shouldn't it be incredibly fulfilling like

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what it is you're offering your employees. So just huge kudos for that.

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That's again, you're my example,
Hugh. You're gonna have to keep coming

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

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to keep on investing and coming up
with new programs and products. Yeah,

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keep that. And I'm very grateful
that you have us on the show because

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we do have a lot of folks
that want to come work for us.

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And when I have the opportunity to
speak externally, I'm approached by a lot

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of people that want to come work
for a company like this, where it's

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not just a job, it's a
vocation. But I also like to think

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sometimes that DSM is the biggest company
that nobody's ever heard of, and so

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although people use our products every day, they probably don't know the DSM name.

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So please invite me back every chance
you get. You got it,

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You got it? Okay, Since
you and I did meet at a Women's

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Conference a couple of years ago.
By the way, I'm going back again.

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They've asked me to come back to
moderate. I don't know if you're

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going to be there. But back
in the CPHL that we met at,

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you and I were engaged at that
time in trying to help develop and motivate

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the female leaders in the room.
There were about one hundred and twenty five

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of them. One of the things
that I noticed in your report is you

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report a twenty five percent female executive
rate. So the first thing I want

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to know is what's your target?
What would you like your female executive rate

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to be? So, I mean, we're we're very much looking to find

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parody, gender parody to the extent
that's possible across every level of our enterprise.

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And you know, we see that
at junior and mid levels of the

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enterprise where there is very much gender
parody, and that's that's really a reflection

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of society, but reasons that I
think many companies struggle with. As you

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move further up the corporate chain,
the number of women in our organization begins

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to fall off. And I think
that we're beginning we're really leaning hard into

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

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

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

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full potential. So that's where we'd
like to be. We are at the

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CEO level, we have co CEOs
Geraldine and Dmitri. We are at our

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executive committee level, where we have
actually a majority women relative to men.

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But we need to do a much
better job amongst the three hundred or so

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executives that we have in the company
worldwide. Okay, so ladies listening,

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that's your cue. Go step up
and talk to Hugh about leadership in DSM.

404
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There you go, the gate's opened, all right. So next,

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I want to talk about some of
your environment your environmental initiatives. You one

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of the things that I've really appreciated
about getting to know you inn DSM.

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And I'm from Oregon. We are
tree huggers there. I live in Texas

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now and I've studied various environmental issues
when I did my master's degree. So

409
00:28:14.079 --> 00:28:15.960
I'm interested in this and I have
no idea what this means. But you

410
00:28:17.079 --> 00:28:22.440
report something about your greenhouse gas something
about seventeen percent GHG scope. I don't

411
00:28:22.440 --> 00:28:23.960
know what any of that means.
Help me, help us understand what it

412
00:28:25.039 --> 00:28:27.880
is you're reporting there and why it's
important to you. So we're always trying

413
00:28:27.920 --> 00:28:33.799
to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions from
our own manufacturing operations, and that's what

414
00:28:33.880 --> 00:28:36.200
that's looking at. So there's a
number of different ways you can do that,

415
00:28:36.920 --> 00:28:41.400
moving away from using fossil fuels to
produce electricity or to produce power in

416
00:28:41.480 --> 00:28:48.160
the facility, through having a more
green fleet of salesforce automobiles or delivery trucks.

417
00:28:48.559 --> 00:28:52.160
And so when you look across DSM
print, you'll see initiatives where we're

418
00:28:52.160 --> 00:28:57.200
bringing in solar fields. So a
little more than a year ago, I

419
00:28:57.359 --> 00:29:02.440
opened at what was at the time
the largest net metered solar field in the

420
00:29:02.480 --> 00:29:06.799
state of New Jersey. And this
was in January, not the best month

421
00:29:06.839 --> 00:29:11.359
of the year to open a new
solar field. But this solar field is

422
00:29:11.400 --> 00:29:15.359
for a five hundred acre manufacturing plant. It covers the solar field itself in

423
00:29:15.519 --> 00:29:18.519
sixty two thousand panels. It looks
like a piece of modern art as it

424
00:29:19.319 --> 00:29:26.319
lays out across the landscape of sixty
six acres, but in June at peak

425
00:29:26.359 --> 00:29:30.799
sunshine, it can produce one renewable
electricity to run a very large manufacturing plant.

426
00:29:32.400 --> 00:29:34.720
And we've opened similar solar fields in
places like King Street, South Carolina

427
00:29:34.880 --> 00:29:38.559
and elsewhere around the world. And
where we can't open solar fields to run

428
00:29:38.599 --> 00:29:45.119
our plants, we do deals to
acquire renewable electricity. So we did a

429
00:29:45.200 --> 00:29:51.559
deal earlier this year in Oklahoma to
acquire renewable electricity that's wind powered, and

430
00:29:51.799 --> 00:29:55.319
very soon we'll announce a new one
in Houston, Texas or in the Texas

431
00:29:55.400 --> 00:30:00.400
area that will be renewable electricity generated
by a massive solar field. This is

432
00:30:00.519 --> 00:30:03.599
just a small example of the many
things we try to do to reduce our

433
00:30:03.640 --> 00:30:08.359
own greenhouse gas emissions, and that's
really one part of our story. It's

434
00:30:08.480 --> 00:30:11.880
reducing our own impact. The other
is to try to enable our customers to

435
00:30:11.960 --> 00:30:15.920
reduce theirs. And then the third
and you probably see me on social media

436
00:30:17.000 --> 00:30:21.640
quite a bit about this, is
advocacy, advocating to not just other corporations

437
00:30:21.680 --> 00:30:25.720
and consumers to reduce their environmental footprint, but really trying to use whatever modest

438
00:30:25.799 --> 00:30:30.960
political influence we have to get policymakers
to change their position with respect issues like

439
00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:33.480
climate change in carbon pricing. I
love it, love it, love it.

440
00:30:33.920 --> 00:30:37.839
It is so important to advocate for
this. Okay, So for our

441
00:30:37.920 --> 00:30:40.160
last little bit in this segment here, the last thing I want to cover

442
00:30:40.359 --> 00:30:44.240
from the report is of course,
the true financial piece of it. Whether

443
00:30:44.279 --> 00:30:47.440
you want to talk about profit or
ebit of growth, I want to make

444
00:30:47.480 --> 00:30:49.960
sure that we tie over just how
you do business and what that looks like

445
00:30:51.119 --> 00:30:56.119
from a purpose banage point to the
bottom line. We had good ebit of

446
00:30:56.160 --> 00:30:59.920
growth last year. We've gone through
a number of years now where we've had

447
00:31:00.200 --> 00:31:04.200
very strong growth across our business lines, particularly in nutrition. I think that's

448
00:31:06.200 --> 00:31:08.960
a result of having some very good
leadership in the company running these different businesses,

449
00:31:10.319 --> 00:31:12.839
a good strategy, a world that
is hungry for our products, be

450
00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:19.920
they vitamins or lipids or clean energy. But we also face headwinds and coronavirus

451
00:31:19.960 --> 00:31:26.640
will certainly be a headwind to our
probably first and second quarter at least operations.

452
00:31:27.440 --> 00:31:30.440
But you know, like I said
at the beginning, I think we

453
00:31:30.559 --> 00:31:34.400
have a very resilient and adaptable team
here at DSM All twenty three thousand and

454
00:31:36.079 --> 00:31:40.720
hopefully twenty twenty will prove to be
a year where that's reflected. I appreciate

455
00:31:40.759 --> 00:31:42.519
that very much. And with that, let's grab our last break. I'm

456
00:31:42.559 --> 00:31:45.880
Alice Cortez, your host. We're
on the air with Hugh Welsh, who

457
00:31:45.960 --> 00:31:48.400
is the President and General Council of
DSM North America, a global leader in

458
00:31:48.440 --> 00:31:52.039
life sciences and material sciences. You
joined it today just two bucks from the

459
00:31:52.079 --> 00:31:56.160
White House in Washington, d C. After the break, we'll continue the

460
00:31:56.200 --> 00:32:19.400
conversation. Stay with us. We'll
be right back. Alise Cortes is a

461
00:32:19.480 --> 00:32:24.279
speaker and engagement and development catalyst.
She designs and delivers professional development, leadership

462
00:32:24.400 --> 00:32:30.079
and engagement workshops and can bring her
expertise to your organization. She will help

463
00:32:30.119 --> 00:32:36.000
ignite meaningful development within your workforce that
will increase employee engagement, performance and retention.

464
00:32:36.359 --> 00:32:38.960
To learn more or to invite Elise
to speak to your organization, please

465
00:32:39.039 --> 00:32:45.599
visit her at www dot Elise Coortes
dot com. She would welcome the opportunity

466
00:32:45.640 --> 00:32:55.519
to help get your employees working on
purpose. This is working on purpose with

467
00:32:55.640 --> 00:33:00.200
Elise Cortes. To reach our program
today, send an email to a lease

468
00:33:00.559 --> 00:33:07.519
a l Se at a lease Coortes
dot com. Now back to working on

469
00:33:07.759 --> 00:33:15.640
purpose. Thanks for staying with us, and welcome back to working on purpose.

470
00:33:15.759 --> 00:33:19.240
If you're just tuning in. My
guest is Hugh Welsh, the President

471
00:33:19.279 --> 00:33:22.920
and General counsel of DSM North America, a global leader in life sciences and

472
00:33:22.960 --> 00:33:25.839
material sciences. I'm your host,
Allis Cortes. Okay, So for this

473
00:33:25.960 --> 00:33:29.599
last segment here, Hugh, I
just wanted to see if we can presence

474
00:33:29.640 --> 00:33:32.279
a few things that I think are
particularly interesting about ds that stand out for

475
00:33:32.400 --> 00:33:36.599
me. We were already talking in
the last segment about what you're doing with

476
00:33:36.799 --> 00:33:39.680
some of the environmental cleanup, but
for our listeners who haven't heard about some

477
00:33:39.839 --> 00:33:44.200
of your initiatives that I find very
interesting, like ocean cleanup and such,

478
00:33:44.440 --> 00:33:46.160
will you just share a little bit
about what you're doing to try to help

479
00:33:46.200 --> 00:33:51.200
the environment. Sure, I mean, I'll start with some of our big

480
00:33:51.319 --> 00:33:55.759
bet innovation. So again, like
with our compensation model, where we spend

481
00:33:55.920 --> 00:34:00.440
R and D dollars and our innovation
dollars is very much with our purpose and

482
00:34:00.519 --> 00:34:04.799
so we have a number of what
we call big bets in DSM that are

483
00:34:05.599 --> 00:34:08.719
massive projects to bring new products and
new solutions to the market that will help

484
00:34:08.760 --> 00:34:12.760
solve some of the world's biggest problems. One of them we call clean cow.

485
00:34:13.599 --> 00:34:15.280
And so if you follow the media, you follow the news, you

486
00:34:15.440 --> 00:34:22.079
see a lot of stories around farting
cows. M yes, right, so

487
00:34:22.880 --> 00:34:25.440
it's actually they don't fart, they
actually burn. So burping cows are a

488
00:34:25.519 --> 00:34:30.280
significant the sick of an area for
the release of methane. Methane is a

489
00:34:30.280 --> 00:34:34.679
greenhouse gas, and so it would
be wonderful if we can address this sort

490
00:34:34.719 --> 00:34:37.880
of agricultural source of greenhouse gas to
make not only cows but the products they

491
00:34:37.920 --> 00:34:42.920
produce more sustainable. And so when
DSM we invented a product, a feed

492
00:34:43.079 --> 00:34:46.239
ingredient that you would feed to the
cow that reduces those methane emissions by more

493
00:34:46.320 --> 00:34:52.239
than thirty percent, and that is
a massive amount of greenhouse gas reduction.

494
00:34:52.719 --> 00:34:55.840
And so we're bringing this product to
market in places today like New Zealand hopefully

495
00:34:55.920 --> 00:34:59.519
soon in Europe and then here in
the United States, and they will have

496
00:34:59.599 --> 00:35:05.119
a meeting full impact, a real
meaningful impact on reducing climate change related gases

497
00:35:05.280 --> 00:35:08.519
from the agricultural sector. Another area
that we were working on and we just

498
00:35:09.039 --> 00:35:14.880
launched in Jubai was a new plant
in Blair, Nebraska, and it's a

499
00:35:14.960 --> 00:35:20.519
joint venture with a German company called
Ivonyk called Vara Marius and Varamerius is the

500
00:35:20.599 --> 00:35:24.360
Greek words for green ocean. And
what this plant does is it produces an

501
00:35:24.480 --> 00:35:30.000
algal oil through fermentation that can be
fed to salmon so that you don't have

502
00:35:30.119 --> 00:35:37.239
to feed salmon wild caught fish.
So today most people one of the most

503
00:35:37.280 --> 00:35:39.800
popular fish to eat when you go
out as salmon. The overwhelming majority of

504
00:35:39.880 --> 00:35:44.800
salmon that served in restaurants or dubai
in a supermarket is farm raised, and

505
00:35:44.920 --> 00:35:49.760
that farm raised salmon has to be
fed fish oil or fish meal from fish

506
00:35:49.840 --> 00:35:52.960
out there cought in the wild.
And today the oceans are already seventy percent

507
00:35:52.039 --> 00:35:57.840
depleted, so that's becoming a challenge. Those products are becoming very expensive because

508
00:35:57.880 --> 00:36:01.360
of the there's few of them available, and as a consequence, a lot

509
00:36:01.400 --> 00:36:05.519
of the folks in the aquaculture industry
aren't putting a lot of that fish meal

510
00:36:05.599 --> 00:36:07.679
or fish oil in, so the
salmon you may be buying might not have

511
00:36:08.400 --> 00:36:14.360
the high levels of Omega three that
you expect. This ingredient does away with

512
00:36:14.440 --> 00:36:17.960
the need to use any of that
wild caught fish and raises the EPA dha

513
00:36:19.039 --> 00:36:22.480
omega three levels in those farm raised
salmons to immensely high levels. So it's

514
00:36:22.519 --> 00:36:27.719
making not only the fish healthier itself, but a healthier fish for the consumer.

515
00:36:28.159 --> 00:36:30.360
And we just opened that plant,
as I said, in Blair,

516
00:36:30.400 --> 00:36:34.559
Nebraska in July, Whye Nebraska,
because the feedstock to grow the algae is

517
00:36:34.960 --> 00:36:38.000
corn and they have a lot of
corn in Nebraska. In November, we

518
00:36:38.119 --> 00:36:43.320
opened up a similar joint venture in
Blair, Nebraska with Cargon and we're producing

519
00:36:43.320 --> 00:36:49.199
a product there called Eventsia. Now
with Entsia is a product that's designed to

520
00:36:49.280 --> 00:36:52.360
try to help challenge the obesity epidemic
that we're seeing not just here in the

521
00:36:52.480 --> 00:36:58.159
United States but growing around the world. And Eventsia enables us to produce a

522
00:36:58.199 --> 00:37:00.679
product called stevia, which might be
famili you're with not from a plant,

523
00:37:01.360 --> 00:37:06.079
but through fermentation, so today people
might enjoy stevia. I think there are

524
00:37:06.119 --> 00:37:09.199
products on the market like called Truvia
et cetera, but they're very expensive because

525
00:37:09.239 --> 00:37:13.920
you have to extract them from the
stevia plant, and doing that candidly is

526
00:37:14.000 --> 00:37:19.440
not particularly environmentally sustainable. We can
make that same molecule rather than from the

527
00:37:19.760 --> 00:37:25.119
plant itself in an algo fermentation tank
and produce stevia at scale, so now

528
00:37:25.239 --> 00:37:29.840
you'll be able to see it in
the market and replace of chemical sweeteners or

529
00:37:29.880 --> 00:37:31.719
in place of high foot disk coin
syrup, so that you can have the

530
00:37:31.760 --> 00:37:36.440
sweetness that you want in your beverage, your bar, whatever, without having

531
00:37:36.480 --> 00:37:38.800
to take a chemical sweetener or or
use sugar high flot doess coin syrup.

532
00:37:39.360 --> 00:37:44.719
Those are two examples. There there
are many, many others, and all

533
00:37:44.800 --> 00:37:47.880
of these are hundreds of millions of
dollars of investments. Last time I talked

534
00:37:47.880 --> 00:37:52.800
a little bit about the product that
we call Niaga. Now Niaga is the

535
00:37:52.840 --> 00:37:55.000
word again, spell backwards. It's
probably why we're the biggest company and nobody's

536
00:37:55.039 --> 00:38:00.760
ever heard of because of that the
genius in marketing. But we we make

537
00:38:00.840 --> 00:38:05.039
the world's only fully recyclable carpet.
So today here in the United States,

538
00:38:05.119 --> 00:38:08.000
the number two thing that goes into
landfills is carpet. Number one is diapers.

539
00:38:08.079 --> 00:38:12.480
We don't have a solution for that
yet, but we make this carpet

540
00:38:12.639 --> 00:38:15.719
that is fully recyclable, so when
it's done with it's useful life, you

541
00:38:15.840 --> 00:38:19.320
send it back to us. We
melt it down, we use the bead

542
00:38:19.400 --> 00:38:22.480
lists that are created to make brand
new carpet. Nothing goes to landfill,

543
00:38:22.639 --> 00:38:25.719
nothing is wasted. It's a real
application of what you might hear people talk

544
00:38:25.719 --> 00:38:31.880
about today as the circular economy.
We've now launched that to consumers. So

545
00:38:32.119 --> 00:38:37.000
there's a new company called the Canary
Company. We use the word canary hearkens

546
00:38:37.039 --> 00:38:40.360
back to our coal mining days,
Canary in the coal mine. And this

547
00:38:40.519 --> 00:38:45.519
carpet is, in addition to being
fully recyclable, doesn't off gas any of

548
00:38:45.599 --> 00:38:52.239
those candidly carcinogenic and harmful chemical gases
that come out of conventional carpet that's they've

549
00:38:52.239 --> 00:38:58.159
made with latex. That new car
smell that everybody knows that's actually off gassing

550
00:38:58.239 --> 00:39:00.239
from the carpets in the car.
And this carpet you can just you know,

551
00:39:00.440 --> 00:39:04.400
if it gets dirty, just throw
it in the washing machine. You

552
00:39:04.400 --> 00:39:07.639
can watch it that way. So
we have all of these this new innovation,

553
00:39:07.840 --> 00:39:13.079
these new developments that are are not
just good for business, but they're

554
00:39:13.159 --> 00:39:16.039
really working to solve some of the
world's biggest challenges. And again why I

555
00:39:16.079 --> 00:39:19.599
wanted to showcase you, Hugh,
because so much of what I'm trying to

556
00:39:19.679 --> 00:39:22.599
do with my own work, consulting
with companies and speaking is to really have

557
00:39:22.800 --> 00:39:28.599
us raise our gaze from that singular
tree in the forest to the whole entire

558
00:39:28.639 --> 00:39:32.079
forest and beyond and do business with
the aim of helping to solve these high

559
00:39:32.559 --> 00:39:37.639
societal problems, not just make a
profit today or handle an issue today,

560
00:39:37.719 --> 00:39:42.360
but where for the long term view? And so again, so much of

561
00:39:42.400 --> 00:39:44.039
what you're doing. I don't know
how you keep up with everything that you're

562
00:39:44.039 --> 00:39:47.239
doing inside DSM or if you do. And beyond that too is I think

563
00:39:47.280 --> 00:39:52.360
about your employees. They have literally
a buffet of things to be able to

564
00:39:52.480 --> 00:39:57.400
choose from to give their ten percent
to or their efforts to. What an

565
00:39:57.519 --> 00:40:02.119
incredible opportunity to give them, Hugh. I don't give them opportunity. They

566
00:40:02.159 --> 00:40:07.159
give me opportunity. It's a wonderful
place to work. As I've told you

567
00:40:07.280 --> 00:40:09.280
before, I have the greatest job
in the world you do, which I

568
00:40:09.480 --> 00:40:14.760
really probably shouldn't say on the radio, but I am, and I wake

569
00:40:14.880 --> 00:40:16.880
up every day and I wonder why
they pay me. It is really an

570
00:40:16.960 --> 00:40:21.199
inspiring and engaging place to work,
and I'm happy not just to have the

571
00:40:21.239 --> 00:40:24.039
opportunity to work with the thousands and
thousands of people that I do within the

572
00:40:24.119 --> 00:40:29.440
company, but the tens of thousands
of stakeholders outside the company that I've come

573
00:40:29.480 --> 00:40:34.280
to partner with and collaborate with over
the years, listeners, every single each

574
00:40:34.360 --> 00:40:36.880
and every one of you. I
want that for you too. I want

575
00:40:36.920 --> 00:40:38.159
you to be able to get out
of bed like he was talking about and

576
00:40:38.239 --> 00:40:42.519
feel like, Wow, I'm the
lucky skuy or gallon the planet and really

577
00:40:43.000 --> 00:40:45.039
know that you're making a difference in
the world. I mean, that's my

578
00:40:45.119 --> 00:40:47.400
wish for all of you. So
thank you, Hugh. Yet again.

579
00:40:47.599 --> 00:40:51.639
So while we're talking about that,
and I don't know if this is related,

580
00:40:51.679 --> 00:40:53.000
but you know, I have to
ask this of you. I did

581
00:40:53.119 --> 00:41:00.000
notice that you made the ROI Influencers
power list of twenty twenty of executives.

582
00:41:00.079 --> 00:41:02.920
So I want to know what this
means to you personally and to DSM.

583
00:41:06.039 --> 00:41:08.559
It's very flattering and humbling to me
personally, but I don't take it as

584
00:41:08.639 --> 00:41:13.119
meaning much about me. It's really
I think about DSM, and I think

585
00:41:13.159 --> 00:41:19.159
it's about a recognition by certain constituents
out there in the community and state across

586
00:41:19.199 --> 00:41:22.920
the country that CDSM is not just
a company that's producing products and selling them

587
00:41:23.000 --> 00:41:28.320
to customers or consumers, but really
a company that's trying to shape and develop

588
00:41:29.400 --> 00:41:31.400
the communities within which we operate,
in the countries within which we have the

589
00:41:31.440 --> 00:41:37.360
privilege to build our facilities. And
so you know, that's what I see

590
00:41:37.360 --> 00:41:40.400
it as. I see it as
a reflection of who we are as a

591
00:41:40.440 --> 00:41:45.800
company, that we're not just satisfied
with improving our own bottom line or improving

592
00:41:45.880 --> 00:41:52.079
our own environmental footprint, or improving
our own experiences for employees, but really

593
00:41:52.159 --> 00:41:57.119
trying to enable our customers to do
the same and perhaps even more importantly,

594
00:41:57.440 --> 00:42:01.960
shape the conversation that's happening in national
level around issues that we can meaningfully speak

595
00:42:02.000 --> 00:42:07.760
to again, like climate change or
nutrition, things like that. Beautiful,

596
00:42:08.000 --> 00:42:10.599
And that's about the answer I would
have expected you to give, knowing you

597
00:42:10.679 --> 00:42:14.599
as I do, But yes,
I do, and I would agree with

598
00:42:14.639 --> 00:42:15.840
you. I think you need to
still be the person that shows up in

599
00:42:15.920 --> 00:42:20.000
that space, and you are.
However, I do I do see you

600
00:42:20.159 --> 00:42:23.400
being attached to and being part of
a company idea. So it surely makes

601
00:42:23.440 --> 00:42:28.119
a big difference in being elected.
But I still I want to acknowledge this

602
00:42:28.480 --> 00:42:31.159
very much. It be itza,
It is a I want to say,

603
00:42:31.199 --> 00:42:37.639
a fitting fitting prize for you,
Hugh, Well, thank you. I

604
00:42:37.800 --> 00:42:42.239
appreciate it, and I accept that
on behalf of the thousands of people that

605
00:42:42.480 --> 00:42:45.599
do the real work every day.
Fair enough. Okay, while we're still

606
00:42:45.639 --> 00:42:47.960
talking about things that you're doing in
the world to make it a better place,

607
00:42:49.239 --> 00:42:51.760
I do want to ask you this. I noticed one of your other

608
00:42:51.960 --> 00:42:52.960
tweets, and I love how you
tweet by the way. I like a

609
00:42:53.039 --> 00:42:55.280
day goes by and I haven't seen
a tweet from Hugh. What do I

610
00:42:55.360 --> 00:43:00.039
do? How do I start my
day? But spend a lot of time

611
00:43:00.119 --> 00:43:04.280
on security lines and that's you know, when tweeting gets done. I love

612
00:43:04.360 --> 00:43:07.199
it. It works, It works. And I taught one that that announced

613
00:43:08.480 --> 00:43:15.039
a collaboration between DSM Royal DYSM and
I think it's maybe it's Generations United something

614
00:43:15.159 --> 00:43:19.719
like that for young entrepreneurs through the
development of agri food businesses and the aim

615
00:43:19.840 --> 00:43:22.760
is to reach and improve the lives
of an estimated one million young small holder

616
00:43:22.880 --> 00:43:28.360
farmers. Okay, what's that about? That sounds amazing. Yeah, I

617
00:43:28.400 --> 00:43:32.480
mean it's another initiative that that's taking
sort of our expertise in our global footprint

618
00:43:32.559 --> 00:43:38.159
and trying to use that at scale, at financial scale to enable a lot

619
00:43:38.199 --> 00:43:43.440
of other people. I'll start with
an example of something we did a couple

620
00:43:43.480 --> 00:43:46.360
of years ago, which was start
a business in Cagalli, Rwanda called African

621
00:43:46.440 --> 00:43:52.119
Proofoods. And we were approached by
a number of organizations that said, hugh,

622
00:43:52.199 --> 00:43:55.320
there, q are tsm. There's
a thirty eight percent childhood stunting rate

623
00:43:57.000 --> 00:44:00.599
in Rwanda, and no matter how
much that we want to go government spends

624
00:44:00.679 --> 00:44:04.920
on infrastructure and business development, if
thirty eight percent of their children have no

625
00:44:05.119 --> 00:44:07.679
chance of ever reaching their full potential, the country can never be successful.

626
00:44:08.239 --> 00:44:12.519
You are the biggest nutrition company in
the world, certainly you must be able

627
00:44:12.559 --> 00:44:15.599
to come with a solution. And
so we started there with building a plant.

628
00:44:15.719 --> 00:44:21.039
We make a nutritious porridge there that's
sold into the commercial market. It's

629
00:44:21.079 --> 00:44:25.039
called Nutrie Toto, Nutrie Mama,
Nutrie Family. And think of it if

630
00:44:25.079 --> 00:44:29.480
in the US terms, as like
cream of wheat with all the essential vitamins

631
00:44:29.480 --> 00:44:32.119
and minerals and things like that.
What makes this business special is that we

632
00:44:32.360 --> 00:44:37.079
source all of the raw materials from
Rwandan smallholder farmers. So there are ten

633
00:44:37.159 --> 00:44:42.000
thousand Rwandan smallholder farmers who sell us
their corn, their maize, their soy

634
00:44:42.639 --> 00:44:45.280
that we can then turn into this
product. And why is that important for

635
00:44:45.400 --> 00:44:49.119
them? Well, for the first
time, they're getting a contract that's forward

636
00:44:49.159 --> 00:44:52.880
looking that they can borrow against.
And when they can borrow against something,

637
00:44:52.960 --> 00:44:55.000
they have access to capital. When
they have access to capital, they can

638
00:44:55.079 --> 00:44:59.639
have better equipment, better seed,
and many of them, for the first

639
00:44:59.679 --> 00:45:04.880
time, are now running businesses rather
than being subsistence farmers. This was an

640
00:45:04.920 --> 00:45:08.480
eye opening experience when we saw agricultural
productivity in the country go up so much

641
00:45:08.519 --> 00:45:13.599
from one facility, we realized that
we could run not just a profitable business,

642
00:45:14.079 --> 00:45:17.280
but one that's making meaningful change in
parts of the world that such change

643
00:45:17.679 --> 00:45:22.519
has to happen. So this is
a continuing evolution of sort of that Grand

644
00:45:22.599 --> 00:45:28.480
experiment where if we can find if
we can work to enable a million small

645
00:45:28.480 --> 00:45:35.000
holder farmers to move from being subsistence
farmers to creating more agricultural productivity, healthier

646
00:45:35.079 --> 00:45:42.039
products, creating markets, we can
uplift without exaggeration, billions of people from

647
00:45:42.079 --> 00:45:45.760
poverty to the middle class. And
those people are our future employees, those

648
00:45:45.800 --> 00:45:50.760
people are our future customers, those
are the future global citizens that will share

649
00:45:50.800 --> 00:45:53.280
the planet with and so this is
one of the I think many ways that

650
00:45:53.400 --> 00:45:58.440
we as a company try to not
just do well ourselves, but do good

651
00:45:58.480 --> 00:46:05.119
for the communities where we can,
recognizing that one company being successful, one

652
00:46:05.159 --> 00:46:08.559
person being successful, doesn't mean anything
if it means nobody else has an opportunity

653
00:46:08.599 --> 00:46:13.440
to be successful. Okay, So
at the expense of embarrassing you, Hugh,

654
00:46:13.559 --> 00:46:15.679
let me do something for our listeners
really quick, right now. So

655
00:46:15.920 --> 00:46:20.320
listeners, what I want to really
showcase what he was doing is he is

656
00:46:21.280 --> 00:46:24.599
formidable in his ability to articulate a
message. So that storytelling. As a

657
00:46:24.679 --> 00:46:29.679
leader, being able to paint a
picture of vision for your employees to step

658
00:46:29.760 --> 00:46:34.800
into and be inspired by is all
the difference in the world for leadership.

659
00:46:34.880 --> 00:46:37.400
So what you just did there,
I have to believe that so much of

660
00:46:37.480 --> 00:46:43.519
your company is a heartbeat of people
who've learned over time through your leadership and

661
00:46:43.559 --> 00:46:46.920
that of those of your comrades to
be able to stitch together a narrative that

662
00:46:47.119 --> 00:46:52.679
is inspiring and helps them really understand
how they individually are making a difference all

663
00:46:52.679 --> 00:46:58.320
the way across the globe. I
think they all have wonderful stories to tell,

664
00:46:58.960 --> 00:47:01.400
and I'm just grateful day that they
share those stories with me and give

665
00:47:01.440 --> 00:47:07.559
me the opportunity at times to tell
them again. It's a place where all

666
00:47:07.639 --> 00:47:12.639
twenty three thousand have an opportunity every
day to do something meaningful, and you

667
00:47:12.760 --> 00:47:16.119
can't find a better purpose than that, especially in an organization that will also

668
00:47:16.239 --> 00:47:23.440
enable you to support your family and
grow personally. Agreed, now here,

669
00:47:23.519 --> 00:47:27.239
we are just about out of time, but we've got maybe a minute and

670
00:47:27.280 --> 00:47:30.000
a half, two minutes left to
Hugh, I wanted to give you a

671
00:47:30.079 --> 00:47:32.280
chance to just share whatever news from
the road that's going on the DSM that

672
00:47:32.320 --> 00:47:35.920
I have and yet heard about.
What else do you want to share with

673
00:47:36.000 --> 00:47:38.800
us that's up to good things there? Yeah? No, I mean I

674
00:47:38.920 --> 00:47:44.760
remain extremely optimistic. Despite the challenges
that we face as a global community with

675
00:47:44.840 --> 00:47:49.039
the current pandemic, despite the challenges
that we face as a global community as

676
00:47:49.079 --> 00:47:52.639
a consequence of climate change, I
remain very optimistic. I mean, I

677
00:47:52.840 --> 00:47:57.239
again have the privilege to travel the
world and meet some really fascinating people from

678
00:47:57.400 --> 00:48:00.719
again Rwandan smallholder farmers to you know, folks in the White House, and

679
00:48:02.320 --> 00:48:07.480
in meeting all of them and getting
an understanding of their different perspectives, I

680
00:48:07.599 --> 00:48:10.400
see common threads and values. I
see common threads and what we all aspire

681
00:48:10.840 --> 00:48:15.360
for not only ourselves, our families, our businesses, but the community.

682
00:48:15.719 --> 00:48:19.360
And so I'm very very optimistic,
and I'm very confident that going forward,

683
00:48:19.760 --> 00:48:22.639
d s M will continue to lean
into that optimism, and our business will

684
00:48:22.639 --> 00:48:25.199
continue to thrive and be successful,
our people will continue to thrive and be

685
00:48:25.320 --> 00:48:31.800
successful, and hopefully together we can
make not just a better DSM, but

686
00:48:32.239 --> 00:48:36.800
a better world. You know,
that's such an important message to finish with

687
00:48:36.920 --> 00:48:38.840
you in my view for two reasons. One of course, as a logo

688
00:48:38.920 --> 00:48:45.480
therapist, which is someone who heals
through meaning or adds adds motivation through meaning,

689
00:48:46.159 --> 00:48:51.559
I know that the importance to our
well being of optimism is well substantiated

690
00:48:51.599 --> 00:48:54.440
in literature. So having an optimistic
attitude is very, very, very important

691
00:48:54.639 --> 00:48:59.519
because it gives us a place to
stand from and look for ways to solve

692
00:48:59.599 --> 00:49:01.519
problems, versus saying, oh,
this guy is falling, what's the pointless?

693
00:49:01.599 --> 00:49:05.000
Just you know, stay in bed
today. So, especially at a

694
00:49:05.079 --> 00:49:08.360
time right like now, I appreciate
very much your optimistic word for us,

695
00:49:09.039 --> 00:49:13.280
So thank you for that. That
is a fantastic way to finish the show.

696
00:49:14.079 --> 00:49:16.840
Last thoughts before we go our separate
ways in thirty seconds. Thanks for

697
00:49:16.880 --> 00:49:19.960
having me back. I hope,
I hope I didn't ruin it for the

698
00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:23.880
next time, not at all.
In fact, I'm Kim in a chat

699
00:49:23.960 --> 00:49:28.000
room said, when you were talking
about cal farts. She said, oh

700
00:49:28.079 --> 00:49:30.199
my, he went there. He
sure did good one. So I think,

701
00:49:30.360 --> 00:49:34.199
actually, if anything, you've garnered
a few more listeners for us.

702
00:49:34.239 --> 00:49:38.159
You so thank you. That's all
it takes. You're very welcome. Absolutely,

703
00:49:38.239 --> 00:49:40.599
that was easy. Huh. All
right, so listeners. If you

704
00:49:40.599 --> 00:49:44.960
want to learn more about Hugh Welsh
and the amazing company he works with of

705
00:49:45.079 --> 00:49:49.320
DSM, go to the website.
It is simply DSM dot com. Last

706
00:49:49.360 --> 00:49:51.239
week, if you missed the show
live, you can always catch it be

707
00:49:51.320 --> 00:49:53.880
recorded podcast. We were on the
earth doctor Kerry Israel talking about his career

708
00:49:53.920 --> 00:49:58.320
as what I consider it to be
quite an enlightened leader in education. He

709
00:49:58.440 --> 00:50:01.280
shared lots of ways he made a
difference the college he was president of here

710
00:50:01.320 --> 00:50:05.840
in the Dallas area. Next week, we'll be talking with doctor Arthur Seer

711
00:50:05.960 --> 00:50:08.599
Maccoley about his book The Triumph of
Diversity. This is his third appearance on

712
00:50:08.679 --> 00:50:12.519
the show. As we discussed his
latest book, see you there. Remember

713
00:50:12.559 --> 00:50:14.840
that work is at least a third
of our life, So let's work on

714
00:50:14.960 --> 00:50:22.719
purpose. Well you hope you've enjoyed
this week's program. Be sure to tune

715
00:50:22.760 --> 00:50:28.639
in to Working on Purpose, featuring
your host Alis Cortes, each week on

716
00:50:28.760 --> 00:50:34.519
the Voice America Empowerment Channel. This
week, find your life's purpose at work.