Solvay

Présentation de Rhodia

Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, thank you very much for joining us today on “Inside the new Solvay”. What is your ambition and vision of Solvay?

Solvay today is among the ten largest global chemical companies. Our vision is really to be a strong leader and to participate in the reshaping of the chemical industry. I think our industry will be facing a lot of challenges in the next few years. We will see also a lot of people who are coming from emerging economies, who want to enter into this group of top leaders in the chemical industry. Solvay wants to stay in this group, with the ability to participate in the reshaping of this industry.

What direction is the industry taking that Solvay will be able to take advantage of?

There are two major trends which are very important for us. The first one is that we have a geographical move; I mean the global economy is moving toward high growth countries, Latin America, but also Asia, India, Russia…

I think we are very well positioned, with 40% of our sales and 1/3 of our workforce already in these regions. But this is just a good start. I mean, we need to continue to build on this base to continue to be part of the development of these regions. 

The other element is sustainability. I think that there is today a need for more and more sustainable solutions and I think that Solvay, with our unique capabilities, but also with a fact that we’ve understood probably sooner that some other chemical companies, that sustainability is key. I think that we are ideally positioned to bring to our customers more and more of the solutions they need to be able to ensure the challenges they are facing, each of them in their own market.

And if you take a simple example like global warming, I do believe that the chemical industry has a lot of products and solutions which could allow participating in the fight against global warming. And, in fact, when you look at our own emissions and we compare it to the reduction of emissions that our products could make possible in downstream industries, the balance is very positive.

What key advantages does Solvay have in this environment which is so rapidly changing and constantly changing?

I think the quality of our people is probably the key advantage that we have. When I participate today in various types of meetings internally to explain what the new Solvay is, to explain what is changing now, I see a lot of energy. I see also a lot of professionalism, I see a lot of commitment from our people and I think that this is clearly a key advantage.

Then we have, I think, the right leadership positions in our various businesses. We have the right geographical positions, we have a very long date industry in Brazil, where we have been operating for more than ninety years, more than thirty years in China and today, China seems to be part of the daily experience of any large industrial companies but, thirty years ago, they were not that many people operating in China and Solvay was there.

I think also that, in terms of R&D resources, we have the right teams focussing on the right subject.

Value creation is at the heart of your strategy. What does creating value mean exactly?

I think we need to create value for all of our stakeholders, which means offering opportunities for employees to develop themselves for the construction of a new Solvay, which means bringing to our customers very innovative products which will help them face the challenges that they are facing in each of their market.

This means also offering to the local communities where we operate opportunities to see our sights, being part of their own development projects. So really, value creation should be understood in a very broad sense, although obviously the financial part of it is very important as we want to be among the most effective companies within this group of leaders in the chemical industry.

Today, Solvay is ranked eighth in its sector. What will it take to go even further?

I think that there are plenty of players coming from emerging markets, companies who we are willing to play in the top league, so we shouldn’t take our positions for granted. And then, clearly, our mission is to grow, to grow through this by developing a very interesting business position that we have today within our portfolio, by looking at opportunities for potential external growth activities, which will allow us to continue to be a very strong player within this group.