Perspective can be an instrumental tool in pursuit of exploring, discovering and creating new ways to enhance life. Across a breadth of industries, our associates contribute their talents, skills and perspectives towards achieving this vision - highlighting the collaborative spirit of innovation.
Vincent Wang, Asia Marketing & Communication Leader for Milliken Chemical, speaks to the direct impact perspective can have on our work. His international perspective as part of the Milliken Chemical team reiterates the belief that different perspectives can unite to form something far greater than one perspective alone could conceptualize.
What is your role with Milliken Chemical in Asia?
I handle marketing and communication for Milliken Chemical in Asia, as well as lead a focus group currently deploying new growth strategies developed for this market. The team combines the knowledge and experience of downstream sales veterans with the skill sets and know-how of our newly hired packaging sales team members. This combination of talent helps fuel the growth pipeline for our plastic additive business in the booming packaging market, as we replace standard packaging materials with our polyolefin innovations. Leading this team is challenging and rewarding, and I look forward to seeing how we can excel in our goal for mid- and long-term sustainable growth.
What is new in the world of chemicals?
Milliken has always worked to advance our world through innovation, and we continue to do so in Asia as well. Our global headquarters challenges what is possible in the chemical industry with fundamental new additives, while in Asia, we focus on downstream innovation – including exploring new applications for existing products and applying our products to industries not currently served by Milliken.
Over the past few years, we have been leading the way on novel application development, such as replacing OPS/PET with NX™ UltraClear polypropylene (PP) in microwavable packaging and using PP to advance the engineering capabilities in appliance construction. Our work is very important in that we are able to bring new applications to market in an increasingly technical and challenging chemical market.
Milliken Chemical utilizes a self-coined process of “molecular tourism” - where chemical components are imported to one location and the finished compound is then exported back out to various buyers globally. What do you find most intriguing about this process?
“Molecular tourism” is really an interesting concept to watch, especially when we are a globally successful company powered by worldwide trade.
For me, it is even more fascinating to examine the journey our products’ raw material make – take, for example, crude oil. Originally formulated by the decomposition of plants a billion years ago, we transform the molecular structure of crude oil into functional plastic additives, adding it to plastic resins. After these plastic resins reach the end of their lives in people’s homes, restaurants, cars and more, they eventually are incinerated to generate energy and are restored back to nature – completing a journey over the course of a billion years.
How does your global perspective contribute to your work?
Although we do tremendous business with global customers, it is also interesting to note that more and more of our local and regional customers are expanding their businesses to a wider market. A global perspective is extremely important for doing business with them, as we are able to provide the right solutions and value-adding services. Our global market know-how helps our regional customers penetrate new markets faster, and we are able to support their new branches anywhere in the world. We offer local market insights for MNC customers, so they can capture emerging local needs. Such perspective has been one of Milliken’s key focuses, not only for me but for the whole company as we emerge in the global marketplace.
How does working with global associates improve the innovations created by Milliken Chemical?
Working with global associates brings three major benefits regarding innovations. First, background and cultural diversity always bring new perspectives of a problem and encourage new approaches to innovative solutions. Second, working with global associates provides more opportunities to learn from each other – on both practical and innovative levels. Global perspective invites conversation around sharing, so that insights and knowledge acquired by others can be shared throughout the company. Last but not least, it provides cross-cultural and regional development opportunities to expand our talent pool. Growing our access internationally invites new associates from across the globe to join Milliken and contribute to our community of innovators.
As an international manufacturer, Milliken provides a wide array of opportunities to cultivate your talent and challenge your career in a global setting. Discover more by visiting our careers page.
