Zenith Blog

On June 16th, I attended a Society of Chemical Manufacturers & Affiliates (SOCMA) Houston-area Roundtable Conference that was hosted at Halliburton’s offices in north Houston. It was great trading notes with the contract manufacturers, logistics firms and other industry professionals.

Here were a couple key take-aways I had from the afternoon:

• Generally speaking, participants were bullish on the contract manufacturing and specialty chemical space for the next several years
  
• Inflation and supply chain all creating headwinds that have us concerned
  
• The labor market is very, very tight and companies large and small are struggling to fill roles with qualified talent
  
• The global pandemic has caused a major shift in how employees view working at offices versus home versus hybrid options and employers are all grappling with how to manage these changes

I saw a number of friends from the Houston Chemical Association, including President Mike De La Cruz, and Board Member David Fortune. Special thanks to Jenny Gains and Jennifer Abril at SOCMA for graciously hosting dinner at Pappas Seafood, who arguably has the best key lime pie in Houston.

If you want to learn more about what I learned during this conference, check out our next Zenith Search Podcast episode that’ll be released next Wednesday!