We’re proud to number Lubrizol among our suppliers, not only because of the superior products it brings to market, but because it’s one of the true leaders in the industry.  That was recognized by Chemical & Engineering News, which has spotlighted Lubrizol as its Company Of The Year for 2009.

As their article puts it,

The most impressive performance among chemical companies last year was Lubrizol’s. Looking at the firm’s results, one would hardly know a recession was going on. Its earnings for the first three quarters increased 67%, to $385 million, on sales of $3.4 billion. Executives expect earnings to increase 78% for the full year and hit a company record. James L. Hambrick, Lubrizol’s CEO, credits his employees. “It’s not an exaggeration for me to tell you that every single person in our company did more with less this year,” he told analysts in October.

What makes this even more impressive are the companies also in the running for the title; worthy and statured firms, all of them.  Lubrizol made the best of tough times in the industry, setting itself up for success as the economy rebounds.

Dr. Kligman, the dermatologist and educator who led Retin-A to market, among other achievements, passed away on February 9, 2010, at the age of 93.  He was a signature example of the commitment and sense of inquiry and innovation that’s led to so many breakthroughs over the years in both the sciences, and their  practical application in the realm of personal care products.   His endowments to the University of Pennsylvania, and the influence he’s had on generations of students, will ensure the progress and good works he initiated will continue well into the future.

Our valued supplier AkzoNobel is investing heavily in innovation,  pointed up by this article about their significant outlay to enhance their research establishment at Felling, in the UK.  The benefits of this will undoubtedly be felt by customers, like ours, who depend on exactly this sort of heads-up investment to assure them of ingredients and formulations that will advance their own competitive edge.

We’re fortunate to have suppliers, such as AkzoNobel, that haven’t relented in their R&D spending during the recession because they recognize how critical it is to future success.  And their products will be foremost among those that prime the pump for a strong recovery.

Here’s a very good post from Business Week about why those in business who complain and feel victimized don’t invent — they find reasons not to succeed, so they don’t bother to try, and accept failure as inevitable consequence, not as an opportunity to learn and move forward.  So they don’t innovate.  Often, even the best of us place our faith (or cynicism) in larger forces, whether in the marketplace, in our business or in our life, and default to those forces; we don’t attempt change or invention because we think the deck is already stacked against us.  There’s no greater untruth!

Some years ago, a book called Luck Factor scientifically examined the psychology of “luck” and how it’s not a predetermined external factor (the “gambler’s fallacy” of belief in lucky streaks that helps casinos keep raking it in, in Vegas) but a function of attitude — people who saw life as offering opportunity would invariably have good things happen to them, because they’d see situations differently from those who saw the glass half-empty, and who would manufacture negative attitudes, hold back in potentially beneficial situations, and otherwise lose out on the “luck” circumstances offered them. 

So if you audit your attitude, believe in the time-tested values of elbow grease and imagination, then you’ve got every chance of succeeding.  Maybe even more, considering there are others who may get hung up on their own doubts!

The second quotation is especially timely, since the consumer electronics and media industries are waiting with bated breath right now for Apple’s latest innovation, its rumored tablet computer.

Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship… the act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.

Steve Jobs

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.

Thomas Edison