Dow's Liveris Says Chem Industry Needs to Look at Big Picture

Chairman and CEO of Dow Chemical, Andrew Liveris, foresees a revolution in advanced manufacturing and exhorts chemical engineers to play a key role in it, says a report in our sister publication, Chemical Processing.

Liveris has big ideas and big plans for his fellow chemical engineers, but he says, they can't be achieved if those engineers keep their eyes down and focus only the current products they’re making. The money quote: "But too often, I think, we, and others, believe they are the extent of what we can produce — the outer limit of what we can achieve. We believe that we are simply in the commodity chemicals business—or only in the specialty chemical business. Well, I think that view — and those terms, which reflect it — are outdated.

"And I think they diminish the opportunities that we — with our singular expertise — may uniquely be positioned to seize. Like the opportunity to help master humanity's most pressing problems — from raising the quality of life… to feeding a growing global population… to decreasing our carbon footprint.

"…The most meaningful work is not done — and cannot be done — within a chemical industry that is siloed. The most meaningful work is done at the intersections. It happens when we collaborate across boundaries, across industries, across markets and value chains, across disciplines, across all discontinuities."

To read the full article on Chemical Processing.