#35 – Clariant: Chemistry, Reimagined

“Greater chemistry between people and planet.”

This is the purpose statement of Clariant, the Swiss specialty chemicals company headquartered in Muttenz, near Basel, with operations in over 100 countries and roots going back to 1886.

Clariant’s purpose is the backbone of a transformation journey that has reshaped the company’s culture, strategic choices, and engagement levels.

By putting greater chemistry at the intersection of people and planet, Clariant signals its ambition to create long-term value through sustainable innovation in pigments, additives, and care chemicals.

In 2022, Clariant reported CHF 5.2 billion in sales, with a focused portfolio built around performance, care, and circularity.

The company divested its oil and mining services to concentrate fully on its sustainable chemistry mission.

The impact of this purpose-driven strategy is now academically recognized.

A paper documenting Clariant’s internal transformation was recently awarded Best Impact Paper at the Strategic Management Society Annual Conference in San Francisco.

As CEO Conrad Keijzer puts it:

“Purpose has become a unifying force behind our growth strategy.”

His words come from the real case of impact that received the Best Impact Award at the The Strategic Management Society Conference in San Francisco.

The research conducted by Henk W. Volberda, Dr. oec. HSG Albena Björck, and Nicole Steller how companies achieve purpose-driven strategic renewal (SR) through three interconnected practice bundles:

1️⃣ Embedding Purpose Strategically

2️⃣ Cultivating a Purposeful Context

3️⃣ Sustaining Purpose in Practice

This isn’t about marketing. It’s about how shared purpose aligns business transformation with personal motivation, and enables organizations to act consistently even through major restructuring or portfolio refocusing.

Clariant operates in a sector long associated with depletion and environmental cost.

But its journey shows that chemistry, when guided by clear purpose, can shift from being part of the problem to becoming part of the solution — innovating materials and processes that don’t just sustain, but actively regenerate.

It’s not a change of slogan, it’s a shift of intent — and it’s redefining what responsible growth looks like in the chemical industry.