Its now 18 months since Jack Welch publicly abandoned his views on the importance of shareholder value, and said it was “a dumb idea for executives to focus so heavily on quarterly profits and share price gains“. This was very significant, as Welch was generally credited with popularising the idea in a 1981 speech, when […]
Chemicals and the Economy
US consumers turn to Dollar stores
Major changes are taking place in US retailing. They echo the changing focus of emerging Asian markets. Taken together, these must have important implications for chemical demand. US retail markets have been evolving over the past 3 years, as the Crisis began to hit, and the baby-boomers moved beyond the peak 25 – 54 age […]
Brainstorming on biomass
The blog has come across a useful new tool for global brainstorming, run out of San Francisco by DiscoveryCast. They have recently organised a major event with Paris-based SpecialChem to review the current state of play in bio-based initiatives. This involved a group of 550 experts from 400 companies (including 3M, Dow, Michelin, DuPont, Arkema, […]
CEOs remain cautious over 2010 Outlook
The blog’s quarterly survey of company Outlook statements shows CEOs remain very cautious. There has been a rebound after the destocking disaster of Q4 2008 – Q1 2009. But there seems little confidence that we will quickly return to the levels of demand and margin seen in the 2003-7 Boom period. China’s stimulus and loan […]
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