In the article, Chad was asked if he believes there is an inherent conflict between shareholder and customer interests.
"No, I don't those think that those interests are naturally in conflict, Chad replied. "I think you can make them so if you start operating for some financial number or some quarterly result. But, we are a company that is 200 years old and which has tried to build for the future based on turning out solid products."
He added: "We are willing to invest in research, and we have got to continue doing that. So to me there is not a conflict between investing USD 20 million in a research project and achieving good quarterly performance. If I invest USD 20 million dollars in research and I solve a customer's problem or create new products to sell, I'll get the results the shareholder wants.
"Now if you get sloppy about cost or you lose market share to competitors or the working capital gets out of control, then shame on us," Chad said. "But poor operating performance has nothing to do with a long-term investment in R&D and other goals aimed at delivering superior products and solutions to customers. In fact, I think shareholders want to see you invest in long-range research, but they want to see some payback from it too."
Chad discusses how to balance shareholder, customers interests
DuPont Chairman and CEO Chad Holliday discussed various topics in a recent issue of Chemical Market Reporter (CMR). Highlights of Chad's comments are being featured in Network News.