According to Lori Ryerkerk, CEO of Celanese, it is incumbent upon the oil, gas and petrochemical industry to recognize discrimination and address it wherever it exists.
"[Celanese is] a global company, and we should look like a global company at the top. It's not just that we should look for diversity because it's the right thing to do, but also because it's the right thing to do for our company," Ryerkerk said. "How do we run an effective Asian footprint if I don't have Asian leaders telling me what's really happening there on the ground? Or if I'm still staffing only with ex-pats or people who don't really know or understand local culture? How do I make sure I'm meeting the needs of my employees in other countries if I don't have anybody to tell me what their needs are in a way that's specific to them?"
Speaking as a member of an executive panel discussion at the World Petrochemical Conference 2021, Ryerkerk said she believes diversity is about more than how it is perceived in the U.S.
"It's really about making sure you are getting the best possible employees who are fully bringing themselves to work every day, and everyone around the globe feels that they have the opportunity to be successful and contribute in their own unique ways," she said. "For me, it's about what 'inclusion' means."
Ryerkerk said businesses don't need every leader to lead the same way, or for every employee to approach their work in the same way.
"In fact, I'm going to be better off because our company depends on creativity and innovation," she said. "If I get eight different people who approach [a problem] eight different ways, we will ultimately come to a better solution."
Ryerkerk added that diversity and inclusion recognize "people who look the same on the outside may be very differently motivated, and they may have a different way that their brains work. We need all of that. People need to be comfortable."
Making history
Jim Fitterling, chairman and CEO of Dow Chemical, said he agrees with Ryerkerk's assessment of what the concepts of diversity and inclusion mean, and added there is room for industry-wide improvement.
"We've had some historical success," Fitterling said, pointing to Dow's hiring of its first research chemist (Sylvia Goergen Stoesser, who helped invent styrene as well as develop Saran Wrap, vinyl plastics and Styrofoam) nearly a century ago. "We've always had successful women in our organization."
Fitterling himself made Dow history when he publicly came out as a gay man to his professional colleagues.
When he came out, former Dow board of directors chair and CEO Frank Popoff called him and said, "Good for you for doing that. I want you to know that's the best thing you could have ever done," according to Fitterling.
Each member of Dow's board then unanimously encouraged Fitterling, echoing Popoff's sentiment that coming out was the right thing to do.
"That's the culture we have at Dow," Fitterling said.
"People aren't perfect, and we shouldn't expect them to be perfect, but they should care about the people who work with them and beyond what happens in the workplace," Fitterling said. "To act like corporate America or the corporate world is a different world that's not connected with what's happening outside is kind of crazy."
"We all have something about us that is unique that maybe doesn't quite fit into the mold we think everybody else does," Ryerkerk concluded. "But as long as we appreciate and celebrate those differences rather than thinking they're a problem, then we really and truly have an inclusive work environment."
