IISRP managing director settles into leadership role

HOUSTON—It's been nearly four years since Juan Ramon Salinas took over as managing director of the Houston-based International Institute of Synthetic Rubber Producers, and he can honestly say that the job was exactly what he anticipated.

He said James McGraw, his successor and the man who recruited him for the post, was extremely helpful in explaining all the responsibilities and activities.

"I think comparing that moment and today I don't see very much difference between the expectations and the reality," Salinas said in an interview right before the IISRP's Annual General Meeting, held May 13-16 in Seattle.

That's not to say he's accomplished everything he's wanted to during his tenure as the head of the organization that advocates for the interests of the global synthetic rubber producers and others affiliated to the industry.

There are a number of successes he can point to, such as revamping the IISRP's statistical program and implementing its own forecast model. But there also are several things Salinas would identify as works in progress, such as automating the statistical program and getting separate committees active for the affiliated members.

And as is the case with any such institution, bringing in new members and retaining current ones will always top a director's "to do" list.

Improved statistics

One of the first things the IISRP's board wanted focused on from early in Salinas' tenure was to update the statistical information that is a key program the institute has provided throughout its history. A new proposal was prepared and approved in 2016.

"The main target is to increase the added value that we deliver to members," he said. "As I see the leaders and members, we focus very much on the intelligence information we provide them. We have tried to increase the reliability of this information."

One way this data was upgraded was by finding different sources of information beside that which it gets from its members, according to Roxanna Bauza-Petrovic, IISRP general director of programs. While members remain the main source for statistics such as capacity, production and utilization rates, the IISRP entered into a partnership with a group in China to bring in more reliable data from that country, home to an estimated 27 percent of global SR capacity.

"We receive information from the entire market, not just from Chinese members," Bauza-Petrovic said. "This helped strengthen a lot of the data. We have built up a lot on that."

When the Chinese market for SR started growing at a torrid pace, she said the IISRP was receiving a lot of data that it wasn't sure was accurate. "With this partnership, we get to confirm a lot of the information we receive. We have a very proactive service. Every quarter we get to review all the data and all the producers, and we give (members) an update on what's going on in China."

The IISRP also built its own forecast model in-house, Salinas said. "It's one of the projects members were asking for a lot at that time," he said. "This forecast is exclusively for the members. We don't provide it outside the institute."

The association used to work with another organization in creating the forecast, but it became difficult to come to an agreement about data, according to Salinas. The IISRP board decided it wanted to prepare its own forecast, which was first published in 2016. The group's managing director said it also was decided to remove the forecast from its book of statistics and offer it exclusively to members.

Bauza-Petrovic said one reason the partnership with the other organization was terminated was because the interests of the two groups became increasingly different. "There were some discrepancies with the data and we never got to an agreement to continue," she said.

The difference now is the data is built on a model the IISRP created and produces data it can trust. It is a five-year forecast, updated every two years. The last one released in 2018, with the next edition to be delivered next year.

The institute does have an expert on statistical modeling and, besides input from members and its Chinese partner, there have been discussions to possibly partner with consulting firms to add more expertise to the project, she said.

"Every edition really is a goal because we have to implement the new improvements," Salinas said. "And the next one we have to improve again. It's an endless project. Every year we have to put something into it."

Members seeking more types of information also led to the development of a monthly program of webinars. He said members began asking about the institute keeping them informed on a variety of topics such as innovations, the environment, sustainability, raw materials and others. It got to the point where it was more topics than could easily be covered in an annual meeting, or regional gatherings every six months or so.

Bauza-Petrovic said initially topics were covered in one session. Some topics, though, were more extensive than others, so the IISRP expanded some topics to two webinar sessions.

When they got to sustainability, she said there was a need to go even deeper, resulting in a six-session series called the Sustainable Supply Chain. It covered such items as transportation, storage, warehousing and regulations.

The webinars are offered to all employees of member companies as part of their membership, but are open to others in the industry for a cost.

Making progress

In 2018, Salinas said the association launched the creation of the Affiliated Members Committee, designed to give more input to the membership group that is populated largely by firms that either offer materials, machinery, goods or other services to synthetic rubber producers.

Salinas said the committee is designed to give affiliates opportunities to propose initiatives, projects and ideas, as well as more room to participate in the activities of the institute.

Thus far, the Affiliate Members Committee is operating in the IISRP's Americas section, he said, but still needs to be finalized in the Asia-Pacific and Europe, Middle East, Africa sections.

Also still in progress is a project to automate the association's statistical program, according to Salinas. The process has started but has taken longer than expected, because of initial difficulties in identifying the types of tools needed to get the initiative underway.

Another communication tool that has been planned but not implemented is an internal newsletter. Salinas said the scope more or less has been established, but the institute hasn't had the time to complete it yet.

Boosting membership

As the director of any industry association knows, their success or failure largely is judged by their ability to bring in new members as well as keeping the current roster happy enough to remain.

For the IISRP, Salinas knows there is a need to boost membership and, to do that, the group must convince prospects of the value of being part of the institute.

The association currently has more than 60 members, including affiliates, located in 22 countries. The SR producing members account for about 75 percent of worldwide capacity, he said.

One of the main targets worldwide is Arlanxeo, previously a joint venture between Lanxess and Saudi Aramco, but 100 percent owned by Saudi Aramco since the start of this year. According to data presented at the IISRP's meeting in Seattle, Arlanxeo is the No. 1 SR maker in terms of capacity, with its estimated annual capacity of about 2 million metric tons giving it a roughly 10 percent market share.

"It's difficult because they need to understand the benefits," Salinas said. "And sometimes it's not easy to explain because you need to participate in the activities in order to understand the value."

And in preparing information, the IISRP can tell prospects in general terms about the statistical program, but because of the group's confidentiality rules, it can't provide all the details of what is included.

Bauza-Petrovic said it's even more of a challenge when acquisitions and leadership changes are involved, because then the IISRP often has to start from scratch with new leaderships.

Arlanxeo in 2016 did in fact join the IISRP but stayed just one year. "When they decided to withdraw they told us it was because they could not participate widely in the statistical program," Salinas said.

But with the ownership change, the institute is starting again with the new administration to try to convince them of the value of membership. And the IISRP officials are hoping that Saudi Aramco's pending deal to buy a majority share of Sabic could help the efforts, as Sabic is an active institute member.

"We are expecting that Sabic will support the continuity of the membership," Bauza-Petrovic said.

Kraton is another potential membership target. The firm isn't among the top tier of overall SR capacity globally, but is an innovation leader. "That is something that we are also looking for," she said.

In terms of member retention, Salinas acknowledged that despite the IISRP's best efforts there have been some withdrawals, including ExxonMobil and Dynasol, the latter being the firm where both Salinas and Bauza-Petrovic both spent significant time during their SR industry careers.

Both firms gave reasons for the withdrawals, but Salinas said he couldn't share the information. In general terms, he said when leadership is changed within an organization, the new leaders often are focused on business results instead of focusing in participation in an organization such as the IISRP.

The institute's managing director said besides the intelligence information the association provides, it has a number of other selling points, such as conducting technical studies that can be done more cost-effectively for IISRP members than if the individual companies did them on their own.

"If you are new in a position and you are in a difficult market situation because of overcapacity (or other reasons), I think you will use your time and effort to focus on the results of your company," Salinas said. "We have communication with all of them in order to recover their trust and also the opportunity to show them the value of the institute."