Companies Who are Weathering the Recession

Jerome Peribere is president and chief executive officer at Dow AgroSciences.

I enjoyed this roundtable as it was a prime opportunity to talk about culture, state of mind and values which shape a community and a company.  These topics are especially relevant as it has been fascinating to observe the quality of our employees at Dow AgroSciences in the recent months.  Not only have they had to cope with the potential consequences of the global recession like everyone else has, but in our case it hit close to home when The Dow Chemical Company, our parent company, mentioned that it was evaluating the possible divestiture of several assets including Dow AgroSciences.  Of course employees went through the process of being shocked and feeling uncertain, yet the Midwestern values of hard work and self determination quickly took over.  The realization that we are a solid, highly performing technology-based entity valued for the quality of our output quickly reboosted confidence and determination to succeed.  The strength of every company depends on the state of mind of its employees and their thinking, which in turn shapes the company culture and brings results.  If we engage employees, the values of our communities will come out strong and respond.