Industries rarely are static in terms of their growth, profitability and industry structure. These changes can come in many forms, whether it is a change in core technologies (example, gasoline driven cars to electric cars), a shift in raw material costs and sources (example, the discovery of shale gas and oil in the US), the preferences of the stock market (example, in favor or out of favor diversified and specialty chemicals), and so on.
Transportation, health care, information technology and fossil fuels; four significant end use markets for chemicals and specialty materials; are in the midst of being transformed. Separately, the chemical and life science industries are also facing numerous industry and market structural changes on top of the end use market changes.
In addition, any company that you own or are part of, separate from these industry and market changes, may have weaknesses that are an impediment to success, such as inadequate vertical integration, lack of scale, lack of focus or excess diverse, etc.
The key to success is to identify the relevant macro structural changes and your company's impediments to success and to formulate a plan of action that deals with them and allows your company to pivot to a more successful path. Anticipating and positioning your company to thrive in the future will require rethinking of every aspect of your portfolio, investment, business model and talent.
Raj Gupta, former CEO of Rohm & Haas (specialty chemicals), Chairman of Avantor (life science materials and distribution), and Chairman of Aptiv (automotive parts, systems and software), has a unique personal history of accomplishment with regard to steering the companies he has managed along the best path to survive and thrive in the midst of structural changes and to improve the configuration and operations of the company. He will share his experiences and philosophies that resulting in the success of Rohm & Haas; the growth and reconfiguration of Avantor as it became focused on a high growth, high profitability life science strategy; and the resilience of Aptiv as it deals with changing technologies, self-driving cars, and the movement to electric vehicles.
Peter Young, CEO of Young & Partners, the chemicals and life sciences investment bank, will conduct the fireside chat interview of Raj Gupta.
Speaker:
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Raj Gupta,
Chairman of Avantor and Aptiv,
former CEO of Rohm and Haas
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About our Speaker: Rajiv L. Gupta
Currently Chairman of Avantor and Chairman of APTIV PLC (formerly Delphi Automotive PLC). From 1999 - 2009, Mr. Gupta was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Rohm and Haas. Mr. Gupta held a variety of posts at the company beginning in 1971. He was elected a vice president of the company and was named director for the Pacific Region in 1993. Early in 1996, Mr. Gupta became one of six members of the Chairman's Committee and was given oversight responsibility for the company's Electronic Materials business group. In December 1998, Mr.Gupta was elected to the Board of Directors and named Vice Chairman in January 1999. He became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer on October 1, 1999. Mr. Gupta assumed the additional title of President in early 2005 and held that title until May 2008.
Mr. Gupta holds a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (1967), a M.S. degree in Operations Research from Cornell University (1969) and a M.B.A. in Finance from Drexel University (1972). Mr. Gupta is a past Chairman of the American Chemistry Council and the Society of Chemical Industry, America Section. He has also served on the boards of DuPont, HP, IRI, The Vanguard Group and Tyco International, Arconic (Howmet Aerospace), amongst other companies.