Chemical giant Hoechst SA’s managing director, Reinhard=20 Traub, speaks to Aspasia Karras
Reinhard Traub, managing director of chemical company=20 Hoechst SA, which went public last week, had a long=20 career within Hoechst’s multinational network before=20 coming to South Africa in 1989.
He has a cosmopolitan air which he attributes to a=20 deep-seated appreciation for each culture he has lived=20 with. The same approach typifies Hoechst SA, he says.=20 It has culturally diversified to become a truly South=20 African company, particularly now that the parent=20 company has distanced itself to facilitate the listing.
Traub says the selling of shares to the public can be=20 seen as the culmination of his own work here.
Hoechst was severely criticised during the heyday of=20 apartheid, but, he says, its refusal to leave South=20 Africa was positive. “When the world was considering=20 disinvesting, we had the confidence to expand our=20 business competitively.”
The company’s strong position in the South African=20 chemical industry has encouraged the media to label it=20 as a very “sexy” option. The market has taken another=20 view. Hoechst’s shares have not exactly taken off since=20 the listing. One view is that it is just bad timing:=20 the issue price of R5,15 was too high, in the light of=20 the flat market and the cyclical nature of the chemical=20 and pharmaceutical sector.
Traub, seeing himself as the architect and designer of=20 the company’s rapid expansion in the past few years in=20 a difficult economic climate, is confident about the=20 firm’s future.
“We were in a position to expand and develop our=20 organisation very rapidly, and this has given me=20 tremendous satisfaction.”
Traub has helped launch Hoechst’s World Class 2000=20 programme, created to enhance the company’s operational=20 systems, products and services. The programme=20 complements the company’s “high chem” vision.
Traub maintains that “business is about the right=20 people working as a team, pursuing the same objectives=20 and goals”.=20
He has climbed Kilimanjaro twice and also likes scuba=20 diving and tennis.
Traub says the environment is a formative element in a=20 company’s ethos. And environmental issues in general=20 are taken seriously by Hoechst.
Says Traub: “The attitudes of the manufacturers and=20 consumers should be changed. As a manufacturer, Hoechst=20 adheres to international standards to prevent any kind=20 of detrimental effects on the environment, and ensures=20 that the handling of its products is done within these=20 constraints. But if one looks around the countryside=20 and sees the pollution, one realises that attitudes=20 have to be changed, especially when it comes to=20