THE NATURE OF OUR BUSINESS – STABLE GROWTH - Symrise

divisions. At the same time, the names of the divisions are an
expression of their self-understanding. At Symrise, the fragrances
division is called Scent and Care. The flavors division is called
Flavors and Nutrition. The motto is change or be changed.
“AND” has to do with the way we understand our business. We at
Symrise not only seek to meet our customers’ expectations. Success
in our industry will increasingly depend on the ability to anticipate
new expectations. The trick is to meet expectations almost
before they are perceived. It’s that simple – and that difficult.
Is “The Power of AND” merely philosophy? Where can it be
felt concretely in products?
Philosophy or product would be an erroneous either-or-proposition.
Here, too, we should stress the “and.” We should really talk about
a product philosophy. In the Scent & Care division “The Power of
AND” is currently clearest and most concretely recognizable in our
Life Essentials products. To understand what life essentials are is
not a philosophical task for us, but an entrepreneurial duty. How
do people want to shape their lives? How do people today define
what is necessary in life? We try to answer these questions with
products. In the Life Essentials segment of the Scent & Care division
we grew 9%. In the current economic environment the growth
of the “AND” products may slow down, but we are confident that
they will show overproportional growth even in the current crisis
situation.
… and in the Flavor & Nutrition division?
In the Flavor & Nutrition division, I’d like to put special emphasis
on the “taste for life ® ” products. The focus here is to develop
healthier foods. Behind the brand names LIGHTEN UP, BE NAT-
URAL and GET ACTIVE are products that use natural flavorings
to, for example, reduce sugar, salt and fat content. With other products,
the aim is to mask flavors that are unpleasant but promote
better health with new flavors. For instance, cod liver oil doesn’t
taste better when we speak of Omega 3 fatty acids, but you can’t
taste the unpleasant flavor in breakfast yogurt because it’s smuggled
past the taste buds in an encapsulated form. Through the
combination of enjoyment and health there is more of both – for
the benefit of all. The demand for products combining sustainability,
health and functionality will grow in the future. We achieved
double-digit growth with these products and as a market leader
we are well positioned for further growth.
Annual Report 2008 Symrise AG 31
So is “The Power of AND” only the sum
of the product attributes?
It would be wrong to reduce “The Power of AND” to the sum of
product features. Products are only part of our business. Here
we’d have to talk about product philosophy again, and about
corporate philosophy. If you focus too much on products, then we
look like a manufacturer of products. But we are much more than
a product-making company. Instead, we work more like designers
or architects.
Symrise as a designer or architectural office?
Actually, yes. Customers often can only describe what kind of feeling
or effect a product should have or elicit – freshness, for example,
or clarity or courage. That’s very subjective, differing from
culture to culture and from person to person. The functionality of
the product – anti-aging, UV sun protection, or salt and fat reduction
– which can accompany the feeling is comparatively objective.
The “product” we ultimately provide is a composition of many
different components that work together to correspond to a perception
which in a way cannot be measured objectively. Let’s stick
with the image of the architect. The satisfied customer knows
when everything is finished: The house is right, it’s my house, unmistakable,
unique – and the customer feels good about it. But he
doesn’t know how the house was built in detail. And he doesn’t
have to know. We have to know. That’s our knowledge.
What is special about this knowledge?
You can acquire sustained growth with this knowledge. How can you
acquire this knowledge? You need experience and know-how, research
in a double sense, scientific research and market research,
creativity and a feeling for innovations. Know-how in chemistry is
not as important as experience and openness for things that are
new and different. Thinking outside the box is decisive.
What role does innovation play in the F&F industry?
There is no question that innovation will continue to determine our
industry in the future. The question is how to determine innovation.
We see innovation as the exact anticipation of an individual
need. The impetus comes less from basic research and much more
from society and from the market. Innovation is the point at which
creativity in the market context becomes concrete. That’s why we
integrated our research and development, marketing and consumer
research. When you separate research from market research
in a company, you seem to give research autonomy; in
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