Jennifer Abril and Michael Ott
The year was 1921. The location was New York City. That’s when and where stakeholders and leaders from across the specialty and fine chemicals industry came together to form The Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association. The world was coming out of a similar situation that we have found ourselves within this past year – a global pandemic affecting the livelihood of people and fracturing the success of businesses and industry around the world. SOCMA’s founders maintained a vision that still holds true today – a mindset of unity, growth and promotion of chemistries that are essential to the life and the health of local and global economies, and for the advocacy and protection of interests of specialty chemical businesses.
Just like the early days of our association, the global pandemic paved a path toward renewed, broader perspectives – jettisoning things that no longer serve us and replacing them with innovation and growth. Such opportunities create optimism, the same hope our founders maintained when forming SOCMA in a post-pandemic landscape. It is the same optimism you will find throughout the pages of Specialty Insights, as our thought leaders share their stories of strength and agility in addressing supply chain challenges and continuing to identify commercial opportunities in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In “Strategic marketing and growth plans,” hear how two SOCMA member companies – Genesis Custom Chemical Blending and Halliburton – pivoted expectations and shifted product lines, finding success through accelerated sales efforts.
Thought leaders from Southern Chemical & Textile and Texas Molecular share how focusing on their core strengths, utilizing digital tools and leveraging their technical expertise have fostered greater business growth and connections in ways they would not otherwise have been able to sustain in “Making the most of virtual sales.”
SOCMA’s Jenny Gaines, Senior Director, Communications & Engagement, shares insight from her outreach with member companies in “Diversifying supply chains.” These members shared ongoing challenges of supply chain diversification, varying short- and long-term impacts of disruption and an increasing focus on a circular economy, key themes magnified by the pandemic.
Highlighting SOCMA’s “Century of Solutions,” don’t miss our celebratory timeline and piece taking us back to our beginning in New York City and SOCMA’s inaugural President, Dr. Charles Herty, along with the association’s founding members.
As we embark on our 100th anniversary, SOCMA remains more committed than ever to being the resilient and personalized association our members and the industry have known us to be since the early 1900s. Carrying forward the purpose and determination of SOCMA’s founders, these pages contain a wealth of knowledge and insight that further convey our purpose of protecting the progress of SOCMA members, advocating against improper tariffs and for effective regulations, improving supply chains and promoting safety and operational excellence.
We hope you enjoy and absorb the valuable insight and intelligence shared by fellow colleagues and thought leaders across these pages that communicate what SOCMA’s founders fought so hard to protect – the importance of specialty chemicals and their safe use across every area of public life.
Here’s to the next 100 years,
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