“WE ARE VERY CLOSE TO OUR CORE BUSINESS”

No and yes. In the area of production plant operation, I believe we are clearly a pioneer in the processing industry. The chemical industry has long been using process control systems—comprehensive digital package solutions for intelligently managing and visualizing plants. It also uses process simulation, which speeds up and simplifies the development and optimization of technical processes. But when it comes to comprehensively connecting customers and suppliers with our operations, making consistent digital customer experiences possible, and using established digital marketing tools— in these areas, other industries are ahead of us.

I wouldn’t say that. Digitalization isn’t a revolution that happens overnight. It’s an evolutionary process. And the chemical industry is in a comfortable situation: Our customers appreciate us because of the added value we reliably create. But will things stay this way? I doubt it. We are part of an industrial network consisting of customers, suppliers, and competitors, and digitalization is changing our interactions within this network. The sharing of information is becoming simpler, faster, and more direct. In the future, the focus won’t be only on what we produce but also on how we interact with our customers. And that will have an impact on our processes.

One practical example would be logistics services. More and more producers are connecting with their customers and thus gaining direct access to their business software. They are processing orders via digital channels and platforms, and as a result they can plan their carriers’ capacity utilization much more effectively. Customers that don’t use this option and prefer to use fax machines, phones, and e-mails are slowing down their own operations. They can no longer cooperate efficiently with many providers of logistics services.

We have to make sure we adapt our own processes to this development. And by that I mean not only production but all of our business processes, from human resources to research, application technology, and finance. That also includes the use of artificial intelligence, although I prefer to use the term “augmented intelligence.” At the same time, we should forge ahead with our own digital integration within our industrial network, create new digital channels, and develop new digital platforms. Above all, we have to get our customers enthusiastic about our offers in this regard. One example of that is the PLEXIGLAS^® online shop for our business customers in the UK.

Take a look at the end consumers. They don’t buy products from an online shop because the transactional processes behind it are so wonderfully efficient. They shop there because it’s convenient and because it’s fun if the shop is well-organized. I think that our shopping behavior in the private sphere will spill over into industrial purchasing—that one day our customers will even expect to be able to buy our products online without having to take our business hours into account. And that will make the customer experience increasingly important.

Let me give you a small example. At the beginning of last November we opened a store on the B2B platform Alibaba. There we offer silica, anti-foaming agents, and PLEXIGLAS^®. Through this store we want to primarily address small and midsized companies in China that we might not reach otherwise. We received our first order even before we had officially announced we would be represented on Alibaba—even though nobody could have known about our store at that time. The customer had found us nonetheless while surfing through the platform.