Kickstart: A cautious anniversary week

This week marks the one-year anniversary of when the bulk of Plastics News' staff began working from home. (A few had been 100 percent remote for years prior to this.) It's also the week I'm personally scheduled for my first vaccine shot. (Yay!)

So on one hand, it's easy for me to begin to look at how things may be returning to some level of normal soon.

On the other, vaccine rollout has been mixed, with a lot of people unable to schedule a shot yet. And now much of Italy is reentering a lockdown because of surging cases and a slow vaccine distribution there.

And on top of that, before things could start to feel normal in the U.S., the cold snap in Texas and other regions forced petrochemical plants to halt or slow production. That has added to shortages in resin and higher prices for what was available, which is making the recovery more difficult.

It would be nice to think that a year later, we can finally begin to put this very long year of our personal and business lives behind us soon. But realistically, we're probably still in transition. Those of us lucky enough to have a vaccine scheduled know we have to remain vigilant because there are days and weeks ahead when things could still go wrong.

Diversity isn't just a buzzword. It isn't just about ticking a box.

It's about opening the door to more voices, making those voices welcome and giving them a chance to thrive. In exchange, the companies they work for can thrive.

Diversity, says Dow Inc. CEO Jim Fitterling, "is a business multiplier."

"If we're going to be the most innovative, we have to be inclusive," he said during the World Petrochemicals Conference. "We have to step forward now."

Being diverse goes beyond hiring. It's about creating an environment where everyone feels comfortable bringing fresh ideas to the table.

Frank Esposito has a couple of stories from WPC on the value of inclusive hiring. In one, Fitterling tells his story of coming out as gay in 2014 while working at Dow. Meanwhile, Celanese CEO Lori Ryerkerk talks about her experience coming up as one of a few female CEOs in the industry.

Female leaders from FG USA, Chevron Phillips, Oxy Vinyls and BASF joined in a panel discussion on women in the industry.

Their faces — and voices — also encourage others in the industry.

"Employees want to look up and say, 'If she can do it, I can do it, too,'" Ryerkerk said. "You have to be able to see it. If they don't see people who look like them, they say, 'Why am I trying so hard?'"

Who wants a new job title? Not a new job, just the title.

I suppose if you're Tesla CEO Elon Musk, you can go ahead and pick your own. According to a financial filing by Tesla, Musk's title is now Technoking of Tesla. Chief Financial Officer Zach Kirkhorn, meanwhile, is now Master of Coin. (In terms of Associated Press style, those titles should be lowercase, but somehow it seems more appropriate to capitalize it as Tesla did in its 8K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.)

Yes, really.

For what it's worth, they still do retain the CEO and CFO titles. As always for Tesla, it's unclear exactly how seriously we should take this declaration from the company.