Interview: The foundation of modern life

Published on Sunday 22 March 2009 20:05

LIKE many scientists, it was a teacher at secondary school who inspired Sandy Dobbie to don a white coat for his career. But although he spent his working life in the chemicals industry, Dobbie originally headed to Glasgow to study physics.

Dobbie – who is now the chairman of Chemical Sciences Scotland (CSS), a body that brings together industry, academia and government to promote the sector – was drawn into chemistry by its "real-life" applications.

"Within probably about six weeks of starting at university, I realised physics wasn't for me," Dobbie says. "But chemistry was much more interesting, particularly organic chemistry, because it related to things that you could actually feel and touch – it wasn't theoretical, it was about real things, like plastic and drugs."

That ability to adapt from one subject to another served Dobbie well in his career, moving between research and development, then production and later management with Kelco, a division of the big American firm Merck & Co.

Now as a consultant on chemical industry mergers and acquisitions and as chairman of CSS, Dobbie thinks adaptation is also the secret to the survival of the chemical industry, in Scotland and round the world.

"There is a lot of turmoil at the moment because a lot of the drivers of the global chemical industry are things like the electronics, car and construction industries," explains Dobbie. "When people stop buying houses, the demand for PVC gutters goes down.

"It's a very direct relationship, but it takes a while to flow through the supply chain. The car industry is in a mess and so the demand for plastics, paints and everything else that goes into a car inevitably goes down.

"But chemicals is a very resilient sector – it basically rides the waves. The impact on Scotland is variable – some companies are seeing a downturn, some are not.

"Eventually, the global recession has to have an impact on everybody. The issue for everybody is that their business is as robust as it can be and as cost effective as it can be.

"Some business won't make it. The key for us in Scotland is to make sure our businesses are winners not losers, but there's no guarantee of anything in the current environment."

Yet Scottish industry has been through downturns before and Dobbie seems confident that the ability to adapt will see the industry through again. "The chemical industry is incredibly adaptable," he says. "It was one of first industries to globalise.

"Take Grangemouth, for example: what used to be the ICI complex is now several different firms. For most of them, the base business was established 90 years ago, but they're still there and doing different things."

Helping firms to adapt and evolve is part of the remit for Dobbie's role at CSS. The organisation will hold its inaugural conference in Dunblane on Wednesday and the chairman is keen to bring in fresh ideas.

But CSS is not about short-term goals – reflecting his belief in the continued longevity of his sector, Dobbie launched CSS's ten-year strategy in 2007 and is now keen to test the water and get reactions from key players.

"We now want to look at what we've been doing, get other people involved, ask are we doing the right things, what else we should be doing and start to map out the next steps," he says. "Part of the issue with all of these things is the question of 'what does chemical sciences actually mean'?

"It's a very fuzzy boundary, but its best not to define your boundaries too clearly. If you try to clarify these too much, then you create too much separation. The reality is that it's the key underpinning to so many things, from electronics through to the energy sector. Chemical sciences are really the foundation for modern life."

Another part of CSS's remit is to promote the sector within Scotland – the latest Global Connections report revealed that the chemicals industry is Scotland's second largest exporter, valued at 2.2 billion a year.

"A lot of chemical science companies in Scotland have been here for a very long time and there's a tendency in that kind of situation to just keep your head down and get on with your job," Dobbie explains.

But he is quick to dismiss the suggestion that chemistry is suffering in the shadow of Scotland's life-sciences sector, which is often in the media spotlight.

"If you're in a young sector, then you tend to be more visible because you're looking for funding or make connections" says Dobbie. "It's a consequence of age. I don't have a problem with it at all because the reality is there isn't really any differentiation in terms of the skills involved.

"In my book, it's not a case of either or – life science of chemical science – it's both. They just get on and work together and get things done. We'd encourage that because if we try to draw lines, then it creates the wrong imperatives."

One of the early CSS success stories to which Dobbie points is a partnership with the Scottish Funding Council to fund PhD research. "We've got 31 PhD students in Scottish universities who are working on projects for Scottish chemical sciences companies," he says. "There's a significant desire to do more of it from industry and academia. We'll see if we'll be able to do more, depending on funding."

Building links between industry and Scotland's universities is a central to CSS's mission – but Dobbie thinks more can also be done to forge relationships within the industry also.

"The chemical sciences sector tends to do its own thing," says Dobbie. "The customers for most of the industry in Scotland are global; equally most of their supplier are all around the world .

"So there's not a lot of commonality of customers or suppliers between the companies operating in Scotland. They're not really part of an internal supply chain to each other.

"Their common business interests are not because they buy and sell to each other, it's more about exploring if they can they collectively do more for the country and strengthen the economy. People are realising the guy down the street can help and they're doing more together."

Figures from CSS show that the industry employs about 14,000 workers in Scotland and accounts for a further 70,000 posts in allied fields. More than 120 chemicals companies operate in Scotland, with a combined turnover of 9.3bn.

But Dobbie is not taking the financial health of the sector for granted, especially in a recession. CSS's sustainability group is due to publish a report next month benchmarking the performance of Scottish firms.

While he cannot yet discuss details from the report, Dobbie says: "It's a good diagnostic of what we're good at and what we're not so good at.

"I'm pretty pleased with the results: obviously there are things we could do better, but we seem to do things pretty well in Scotland in comparison with others. We can build on that.

"The report takes a broad definition of sustainability – it will include financial health and long-term survival as well as the environmental aspect. The chemical industry only exists if people are prepared to allow it to exist, in terms of licences to operate. Those licences depend on our industry being responsible, looking after the environment and safety."

As well as building the sector's reputation at home, CSS is also charged with attracting more investment from abroad.

Working with Scottish Development International, CSS took Scottish firms to a recent trade fair in San Francisco. Dobbie expects figures from the fair to be available soon, detailing the financial impact the trip had on the Scottish businesses.