2024-06-26-KPMG-REACTION_Magazine_39_40页_2mb

总结

39th Edition of Reaction Magzine: Success in Challenging Times: Resilience and Innovation

This edition of Reaction magazine explores resilience and innovation in the face of economic challenges, offering insights and strategies for the chemicals, materials and agriculture inputs sectors. The editorial highlights ongoing economic challenges, including sluggish growth, geopolitical concerns, and climate-related regulations.

Economic Outlook and Strategic Approaches

Strong global recovery effort has mitigated recessionary impacts, though some markets have experienced significant downturns. To rebound into growth, the article suggests four key strategies:

1. Double down on performance improvement and efficiency to capture synergies from operations and acquisitions.
2. Adopt an asset-lite approach, divesting non-core activities to reduce overhead and operational responsibilities.
3. Prepare for M&A, carefully evaluating investments and due diligence to enhance value creation.
4. Explore new markets and technologies like digital tools, cloud migration, and emerging technologies, including AI. Additionally, awareness of regional regulatory and carbon pricing shifts is critical.

Artificial Intelligence as Catalyst

AI offers substantial opportunities for efficiency gains, cost savings, and innovation. Use cases include:

• Supply chain optimization, enhancing demand forecasting, inventory management, and logistics.
• Energy management, improving consumption efficiency and reducing waste.
• R&D acceleration, modeling chemical synthesis and discovering new materials.
• Safety and compliance, improving monitoring and predictive analytics.

Successful AI implementation requires:

• Strong governance to mitigate risks.
• Cultural adaptability and integrated training to encourage adoption.
• Focused use cases, starting small and scaling up.

Internal Carbon Pricing

As climate policies grow, internal carbon pricing (ICP) is becoming an essential tool for risk management and value creation in the chemicals sectors. ICP not only prepares companies for regulatory compliance but also helps:

• Drive decarbonization
• Align investments and acquisitions with sustainability goals
• Attract investors aligned with environmental objectives

Two common ICP types are shadow/pricing and internal fees, with varying scopes of emissions covered (Scope 1, 2, or 3). Companies should consider strategic implications, especially on transfer pricing—in particular for cross-border operations.

Diversity and Inclusion Leadership

A case study highlights DuPont’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, demonstrating strong company performance and broad stakeholder benefits, including innovation acceleration, customer engagement, and talent attraction. The Vice President and CFO shares insights on championing diversity, stressing sponsorship networks and clear organizational frameworks for driving inclusion.

Concluding Thoughts

The magazine emphasizes a holistic approach to navigating the current economic and climate challenges, asserting that resilience and innovation are vital for continued growth. Harnessing technologies like AI, embedding sustainability through internal carbon pricing, and championing diversity are key to future success.

Paul Harnick, Global Sector Lead for Chemicals and Performance Technologies at KPMG International, transitions the role to Gillian S. Morris, effective after seven years leading the sector. The advisory firm continues to support clients through its specialized teams and extensive market knowledge.