While the chemical industry contributes around 5.7 trillion to global GDP, the actual profit margin for chemical companies is relatively small. If you want to make a profit in this competitive industry, you’ll need to take measures to make your company the best it can be.

So what do you need to do to get ahead in the chemical industry? This article tells you everything you need to know.

1. Flexible Supply Chains

The COVID-19 crisis has illustrated why you need to have a certain amount of flexibility in your supply chain. In the chemicals business, you can’t create a product without the necessary raw materials.

This means if you run into problems with your supply chain, you might need to shut down production. You can avoid this scenario by building a certain amount of flexibility into your supply chains.

For example, you might consider getting certain materials from multiple suppliers instead of just one. This means if you have a problem with one supplier, you might be able to get a larger amount from the other one.

You might also try to anticipate when shortages might occur and stockpile materials accordingly. This means you can avoid shutting down production due to shortages.

Given that the margins for chemical production are pretty small, you can’t afford to shut down production entirely due to a crisis.

2. Sustainability

One of the defining characteristics of the chemical industry and the relatively low profit margins. This means companies that run a sustainable operation can maximize their profits.

For example, you might recycle the waste from specific products to create a new revenue stream.

But, there’s more to sustainability than just making more money. Sustainability is also vital for growing your customer base. Customers these days are very environmentally conscious. They’re much more likely to work with companies that take a positive stance on sustainability.

If you start making sustainable business decisions, make sure you make it clear to your customer base.

3. Consider Talent and Knowledge

The chemical industry is based on a lot of specialist knowledge. This means that having the right employees in the right place can make all the difference to your operation.

If you want to get the best talent to work at your company, you’ll need to have a great recruiting process. If you’re struggling to find the best talent, you might consider working with a recruitment consultant.

Of course, finding the talent is only half the battle. You’ll also need to retain great workers if you want to accelerate growth. You can do this by creating a great work environment and rewarding your top talent.

If you’re struggling in the chemical industry, you may be able to turn things around by hiring the right talent.

4. Have a Strong Safety and Security Culture

The world of chemical manufacturing can be incredibly dangerous. This means you need to have a strong safety and security culture at the forefront of your organization.

This means everyone working at your company has safety and security in mind at all times. To create a safety culture, you need to have regular safety training.

Too many organizations simply have one day of safety training a year. This certainly isn’t enough for a chemical manufacturing company. You need to have regular training days and seminars to ensure safety is always a top concern.

You also need to ensure the best safety tools and equipment are available for your employees. For example, SDS software reduces the potential for confusion about chemicals.

You also need to consider your security situation. People may try to steal certain kinds of chemicals, and all too often, this is too easy to do. You need to have reliable mechanisms for loss prevention in place.

It might be worth hiring a security consultant to do a security audit for you. This can often illuminate many shocking problems that you will need to address.

The key to safety and security is to take a proactive approach. Too many companies wait until a disaster happens before they start taking things seriously. By this point, the damage has already been done.

It makes much more sense to focus on these issues proactively to prevent problems before they can occur.

5. Take a Dynamic Approach

In the past, the way to run a business was to come up with a solid business plan and then do your best to execute that plan. These days that might not be the best approach. Recent events have shown how quickly markets and supply chains can be disrupted.

The most successful companies will be those that can pivot quickly in response to changes. For example, during the COVID-19 crisis, some chemical manufacturing companies switched to producing hand sanitizer.

Those that got on board with this quickly were able to make a lot of money. On the other hand, companies that hesitated didn’t manage to profit.

If you want to take advantage of these global events, you’ll need to have a decision-making system that’s geared towards making quick choices.

Find Sucess in the Chemical Industry

As you can see, being successful in the chemical industry isn’t easy. You’ll need to have robust supply chains, talented employees, and strong safety culture.

You also need to be able to adapt quickly to changing markets. In the next decade, the companies that can take a more dynamic approach will be the companies that find the most success. This is especially true in the chemical industry.

If you want to learn more about some other business-related topics, check out the rest of our blog posts.