Thank you

Two small words. Two small words that are often taken for granted or thrown away without much thought. Two small words that are often uttered in a sort of robot-like response. But, two small words that when said together – with real thought, with real sincerity and with real kindness and gratitude, can have a very big and powerful meaning.

I’d like to offer each of you a big, thoughtful and sincere thank you! 2019 is soon to be but a memory and each of you played an important part in making 2019 yet another successful and memorable year for Michelman.

A year in the life of Michelman is really no different from a year in our own lives. Wins. Losses. Ups. Downs. Successes. Failures. Great days and days that can’t seem to end fast enough! That’s life and that’s business. Fortunately the wins outnumber the losses. The ups are higher than the downs. And those seemingly endless days are the exception rather than the rule. And, the reason why this is so at Michelman is because of all of you. Through it all we are an organization full of really good people who are inspired by our Purpose of innovating a sustainable future, and who live by our values. And, in the final analysis that is what matters the most.

As I remind us often, at Michelman we’ve got a strong and recognizable brand. We’ve got impressive intellectual property. We’ve got excellent physical assets. And, we’ve got a robust and healthy balance sheet. And, of course, we’ve got an organization committed to providing service, attention, and focus to our great customers around the world. And, while all of that is wonderful, what really differentiates us from other businesses is not that stuff. Rather, it is our people; all of you. It is the Michelman people who commit to the purpose and live our values that make us the business that we are. So, again, thank you!

People

Thank you for your honest and candid feedback to this year’s associate engagement survey. We also got powerful insight here in the U.S. from our Queen City Certified work on gender and racial diversity. We learned that most of you are engaged in our business. You understand our purpose. You understand and live our values. You are passionate about what we do and you understand how your work matters. And, many of you feel as though you’ve got great opportunity for learning and advancement. And, yet, we also know that we have work to do in order to engage everyone, and to create opportunity for everyone. We’ve got some issues that absolutely must be addressed. I ask you to stay tuned for communications that will share information about these learnings and the specific actions we plan to take to address them. Thank you for your willingness to share honestly.

Planet

Thank you for the work that you’ve been doing to help Michelman to be a more sustainable company. Our green teams around the globe did a marvelous job in helping to create more awareness and also helping us to be more thoughtful in our facilities. Due to their work we throw away less, we’ve lowered our energy usage, and we’ve made a statement to our associates and our visitors that we take this seriously. These things may seem small but they make a huge difference. Thank you to our strategic communications team for helping us to better tell our story about how Michelman technology helps to green the planet. Whether it is through the use of renewable materials, or how we help to make packaging recyclable, or how we help to lightweight cars and airplanes and therefore reduce carbon emissions, or how we help to feed the planet with our seed coatings, our products make a difference. Thank you!

Profit

Thank you for making 2019 a successful year financially. As you are all aware by now, it was a challenging sales year. We’re up against a lot economic headwinds around the globe. From US-China trade tensions, to the automotive industry slowdown, to Brexit, to political unrest, all of this creates uncertainty. And, the markets don’t like uncertainty. In addition to all of this, we screwed up a few things that resulted in lost sales. It happens of course, and we’re fighting to win back lost business, but when you add all of these things together we’re way off of our sales plan. And yet, due to strong management we’ll come very close to our EBITDA target. That’s a great result. That’s not necessarily a repeatable and sustainable result, yet in a tough sales year like this one we’ll call it a win. Let me also recognize the tremendous collaboration that took place throughout the organization on the general financial management of the business. It takes great work amongst Finance, Operations, Customer Service, and Sales to effectively manage inventory, receivables and payables. Thank you for that great work in 2019.

We talk a lot about the Triple Bottom Line of People, Planet, and Profit. Yet, far too often when someone asks “how’s business?” we revert to a purely financial (profit) answer. I’ve just given you a high level look at how Michelman did in 2019 in all three categories. So, there’s my triple bottom line answer to how’s business. And, I thank you for all that you did in 2019 to be a part of this strong year and this good answer.

As we head into 2020 I make few promises other than it stands to be another interesting year. As per usual, it will likely be a full year of great things and challenging things. It will be a year that will excite us, challenge us, and test us. It will be a year of striving to fulfill our purpose while doing our very best to live by our values. That means committing to sustainability and a focus on the elimination of less environmentally friendly materials from our products as we endeavor to fulfill our purpose. And, it will be a year where Michelman people – all of you – continue to define who we are, serve our customers, make our communities better places, support one-another, and continue to differentiate us from the rest. And, for all of that, I offer you a big, thoughtful, and sincere

Thank you!