Randall S. Dearth, LANXESS Corporation President and Chief Executive Believes "Mediocrity in our Culture is not an Option" as a Guest Speaker for Chester Engineers CEO Leadership Series

At the heart of the Chemical Industry, is Lanxess Corporation whose President and Chief Executive, Randall S. Dearth claims "Mediocrity in our culture in not an option," while speaking as one of Chester Engineers CEO Leadership Speakers on July 14, 2011.

LANXESS is a leader in specialty chemicals and operates in all important global markets. In 2010, the company, which is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, achieved sales of EUR 7.1 billion. With its extensive portfolio, it focuses on premium business. Its core business comprises the development, manufacture and sale of plastics, rubber, specialty chemicals and intermediates.

As a guest speaker for the CEO Leadership Series, Dearth shared with the group his thoughts about how he has managed to help build the company over the past seven years, the challenges he faces as CEO and opportunities for building the culture within the organization. One of the most important aspects to being a profitable and sustainable company Dearth believes is that great companies and great products shouldn't be bureaucratic, instead, he says keep it simple. "We needed to quickly at Lanxess come up with a mantra for our employees, to say we want to take the good things from Bayer, the really good things that will work for us in the future, give up bureaucracy. So we set down as leaders, we came up with what we call formula X. For every employee in the corporation, whether it's the person sitting at the front desk, whether it's someone in sales or somebody in research, anytime you have a problem, look at this, and is this exactly how you are viewing that problem or are you making it more bureaucratic. Take ownership and seek solutions, a lot of times its very easy in a large organization to point fingers, that's not my responsibility I don't have to make a decisions that's somebody else's at Lanxess we couldn't' deal with that," said Dearth.

In an effort to get positive results and to help reduce the complexity in the organization, Dearth felt the need as a leader to create a different way of thinking for his employees. "As a company, we wanted to take out the best things that worked at Bayer, and we also knew that we needed to come up with new ideas. So we set up programs in our corporation to reward innovation so people would look at things and say yeah, that's how Bayer did it we are going to do it this way."

At Lanxess, employees are encouraged to take some chances, to have an entrepreneurial spirit and to communicate their ideas clearly. With 15,800 or so staff in 30 countries, Dearth says he still holds everyone accountable for their day to day activities. "The folks that come in and don't show me what you've done for me today, I am going to question that. I want everybody to be able to contribute and move the bar forward. Organization is important to me. I have employees come in and talk about this and that and their thoughts aren't organized. We just don't have time in our fast paced world today. So I tell people and kids to be organized. Learn how to network, I think this is a skill that a lot of younger employees really don't understand or appreciate, I think it's so important to take advantage of all the experiences at a corporation. Stay true to who you are and treat people with respect and diversify," said Dearth.

"We have to have a culture that the vision is very cost driven, no matter where you sit in the organization I want to know what are you doing for me today. Every year that we have existed as a company, we've come up with a budget less than we are at before. If we started out with 90 million in overhead the next year we will probably be below 40. So we've taken a lot of the cost out and so I still to this day let my direct managers and my employees think about that," Dearth added.

Who says the customer is always right? On a daily basis Dearth says he questions whether or not a specific customer is worth the bottom-line. "As a German company, we had to really focus on the fact that not all customers are created equal. Yes the customer is king, I get that. When we have over 6 thousand customers in the U.S., I will be honest, they are not all equal. We really created a lot of the focus around who are the customers, who are driving our profits, who are the ones that we really need to focus on and who are better served by our distributors or in some cases better served by our competitor. So we've done a lot of work on customer segmentation analysis, where we take and look at the profitability of each and every customer. This was never known in the Bayer day we didn't' have a system, or it was too complex for a sales person to understand, that if we have given that responsibility to our sales people, I question them on a regular basis is this customer really worth it?"

There is a Lanxess culture of innovation, based on trust and entrepreneurial freedom which Dearth says helps to drive the company's business. "Innovate; this is this something that we inherited as a German company and something you can't lose sight of, to be competitive, going forward in a market, that's changing so rapidly, if you don't innovate you will not survive."

With 46 sites worldwide, Dearth says if you don't think global as a leader you will be missing out on a lot of great opportunities. "Global, I have to instill a lot of time in our folks in the states, the world just isn't southwestern Pennsylvania, it just isn't the United States, or North America. We are dealing now in a very complex global environment, the better you understand that and the better you have recognition of that, the more successful our company is going to be."

At the heart of the organization, Dearth encourages employees to give back to the community, and it's not all work and no play at Lanxess. "Fun, I tried to create a culture at Lanxess that makes people recognize that we have a lot of pressures, we have a lot of challenges, and we need to keep this company moving. I want fun. We do a lot of things relating to United Way, we have lots of events, we have a Penguins day, there's an element of fun that I think is important to any culture and we try to bring that into Lanxess," says Dearth.

The aim at Lanexx is through innovative products, optimized processes and new ideas, to generate added value for the customers and the company. LANXESS is treading the path that is inherent in its name: Combined from the French verb "lancer" meaning to thrust forward and the English noun "success", LANXESS represents the determined will to achieve and the readiness to embrace continual change. This vision and company philosophy is being driving by Dearth who is committed and determined to put into action these values as his company maintains a solid position energizing chemistry.  

BIO-Randall S. Dearth, LANXESS Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer

Randall S. Dearth was named president and chief executive officer of LANXESS Corporation in July, 2004. In August, 2008 LANXESS's Canadian service operations were added to Mr. Dearth's existing responsibilities, when he was named managing director, Region North America. Previously he had been president and CEO of Bayer Chemicals Corporation since 2003. Mr. Dearth joined Bayer in 1988 as a development chemist in the automotive coatings development laboratories. He then transferred to Bayer's Automotive Technical Center in a market development role from 1993 to 1997; Mr. Dearth was on assignment in Germany, where he was responsible for market development in Europe and Asia. Upon returning to the United States, he managed the coatings and colorants resins business before being named director of the division's monomers and adhesives business. Among other positions, he also was head of the global powder coatings business group. Mr. Dearth sits on the American Chemistry Council (ACC) Board. He serves on the boards of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development and the United Way of Allegheny County. Mr. Dearth is also Chairman of the Warhol Museum Board, a Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh trustee, and a member of Calgon Carbon Corporation's Board of Directors. In 2007, Mr. Dearth was recognized as an emerging top CEO with a Pittsburgh Business Times Diamond Award. Most recently, he won a PRSA Renaissance Award as the CEO Communicator of the Year. Mr. Dearth holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Hiram College, and a master's degree in polymer science and engineering from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

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