Kickstart: Leading in unprecedented times

We all know how big the demand was for hand sanitizers in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gojo Industries Inc., the Ohio-based maker of the Purell brand, found itself swamped in early 2020 and had to make quick moves to respond, including the move to make $400 million in capital investments, adding 500 employees and starting to mold its own packaging.

Now consider being faced with all those rapid-fire decisions in world-changing times and you've only been on the job for two weeks. Also, you're the first nonfamily member to be the CEO.

"We had to make the decision — before the virus had even come to the U.S.," Gojo CEO Carey Jaros told the Akron Roundtable at an event last week, as reported by the Akron Beacon Journal. "Do we turn all of our plants — and at the time there were two, now there are five — do we turn on that capacity 24/7 and start making stuff not knowing what's going to happen?

"I remember everyone was sort of turning to me and I was like, 'Why are you all looking at me?' I realized, 'OK, I actually have to make the call.'"

Jaros, 44, pointed to the company's "molecular leadership" system for having the people and expertise in place when needed, even as the situation on the ground changed almost by the hour.

Check out the link above to the Beacon Journal for the full story. It has been, as Jaros said, a "wild ride."

And if you want more inspiring stories from leaders in the plastics industry, today's print issue of Plastics News includes profiles of the 2022 Women Breaking the Mold.

Special projects editor Jordan Vitick spoke with women who are CEOs and presidents, women who started their own businesses, women who are leading sustainability efforts at international firms and women who make sure every part is made to demanding quality standards.

A few of the mold breakers are second- and third-generation plastics industry leaders whose own children are now entering the industry as well.

In addition to the stories in the print issue, you can find extended versions of all the profiles online at www.plasticsnews.com/topic/women-breaking-mold.

Members of the Canada Plastics Pact know they want to improve the sustainability of plastic packaging. To get to that goal, though, they need a starting line.

In a new study, the 2020 Baseline Report, CPP notes where Canada's plastics industry was in 2020, the year before the group launched.

"According to the baseline report," PN's Bridget Janis writes, "85 percent of plastics in Canada ended up in landfills and in the environment, and 47 percent of that plastic waste comes from packaging."

CPP says that 43 percent of plastic packaging on the market in 2020 was designed to be recycled, reused or composted. That's a good start, but far from a target of 100 percent, the group says.