We’re proud to be launching this new CSW INNOVATION BLOG, where we hope to put a focus on the innovation and inventiveness of the companies and individuals who have helped our industry grow and prosper over the decades, as well as on the trends that will affect us all tomorrow. The creativity and integrity of these people – some our own here at Coast Southwest, many of them our suppliers, others our customers, and some even our competitors – deserves to be recognized. And that’s true now more than ever before.
It’s no secret that, along with the rest of the U.S. economy, the chemicals industry experienced a “wild ride,” as one analyst put it, in 2009. It’s our conviction that truly successful companies and outstanding individuals, when faced with the challenges and hurdles seen over this past year, find ways to maintain their headway even when the going gets tough.
A huge component of that is that they typically redouble their quest for innovation – whether through improved ingredients, new formulations, or more efficient ways of producing, distributing or marketing the mainstays they’ve already got in hand. That’s certainly been our approach over the years, to be a little self-serving: we’re proof that innovation can help a business flourish even in difficult times.
That kind of innovation is the key to continuous improvement, and to the health and growth of our category and businesses. Innovation helps secure the welfare of employees, and the satisfaction and delight of consumers. In short, innovation builds a future for every stakeholder in our industry, and it’s going on every day, in every corner of the chemicals business.
So Coast Southwest will use this blog to shed a special light on innovation, not only where it impacts our customers and suppliers for surfactants, silicones and personal care specialties, but also wherever innovation is making a difference for the industry in general.