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Monument Receives High Praise from Dow with Success of New Initiatives

March 24th, 2020

As not only the largest customer in Monument Chemical’s impressive portfolio, but also a competing company, receiving an A+ from Dow Chemical is a big deal to say the least. And this grade represents our ability to transform the relationship to create significant joint value—meaning even more success to come. 

“I took over Dow as an account 4 years ago when I started at Monument,” explained Amanda Muilenburg. “At that point, we hadn’t really looked at new projects with them for a long time. Over the last couple of years, we’ve really developed the relationship, significantly increasing the number of projects, joint brainstorming meetings, and level of engagement. They can tell we’re viewing them as an account much differently, and as a result, they’re feeling much more comfortable bringing us more opportunities.

Since our two companies compete on a lot of products that we serve, it’s been crucial for Dow to feel a sense of transparency in the relationship. “The complexity of the relationship as both a competitor and a customer means it’s even more important for us to live up to our core values of ethics, transparency, and customer focus,” explained Sarves Peri, the VP of Global Supply Chain and Business Excellence, overseeing the customer experience of all Dow’s Houston manufacturing locations. “We’re balancing the management of their capacities and demands with both a strong presence, as well as complete confidentiality and protection of all their processes.”

The team’s main contact at Dow has a reputation of being hard to please, constantly challenging decisions and expressing dissatisfaction on past projects. But after a raving report for the Monument team, crediting Amanda as a driving force behind it all, it’s safe to say we’ve figured out how to make the relationship not only work, but thrive.

According to Amanda, the most important aspect of managing accounts—especially with tougher negotiators like the representative from Dow—is holding your ground respectfully and professionally. “If you just roll with it, they may like it, but they won’t respect you,” Amanda explained. “I firmly stand my ground, talk through the situation, and present a logical solution. He’s very detail oriented and likes definitive dates and status updates. Knowing this, we make sure to go the extra mile to keep him informed with an open dialogue and transparency, whether it’s good or bad.”

And the relationship has gotten so much stronger. We’ve taken a lot of the emotion out of it and have really been able to move forward—understanding things from both sides and having an appreciation for bringing new opportunities to the forefront. When there’s an obstacle for them, we don’t just jump on their requests, but present new ways to look at it and try to make it work.”

This especially goes for Project EEP, the latest commercialized project with Dow, which represents huge gains for both parties.  “We developed an exclusivity agreement ensuring we would only toll this specific product for Dow, which was very critical to them,” Amanda said. “And when Dow needed more supply than available capacity, we were able to recover a lot of the capital through Dow that we needed to expand—so it’s been a win for both sides.”

Project RP, another successful initiative with Dow, not only helped them secure special pricing on a product that recently moved to a highly competitive market but also prompted joint brainstorming sessions to explore new opportunities and move the dialogue away from just price.  One of the top opportunities being evaluated in these sessions would add drumming and blending of a similar product at Monument. By offering a more creative cost-saving solution, not only would Dow save on third party shipping costs to lower their overall cost even further, but Monument would also be able to drive additional production and revenue from Dow!

“There’s no better time than a crisis to test and prove your ability to navigate solutions,” Sarves explained. “When the sole supplier of a component of RP suddenly wasn’t available, it was an extremely stressful time for supply and management expectations. But Monument stayed engaged with the customer, had the right conversations, and made tough choices to keep their business moving forward. The goal was to keep a constant supply for them while we sought and optimized alternative solutions, which we were able to do in record time—all while ensuring peace of mind and security. This challenge really showed the strength of our relationship and how both sides were engaged.”

Overall, Sarves says that the spirit of partnership is based on having the confidence and willingness to speak up and communicate the pain points, and how we can resolve them. These types of conversations really demonstrate who we are and how strong our relationship is. “We recently visited their headquarters, and there was such a trajectory and richness of the agenda in terms of how we look at new opportunities and how can we help—having these conversations is an incredible situation to be in.

“With this mutual recognition of our business-mindedness and shared values, we’re able to provide leadership and clarity in their decision-making. It’s been a very gratifying experience, and it’s just the beginning,” said Sarves. “It’s only going to grow and continue to be mutually beneficial. We couldn’t have done it without all the hard work Amanda has put in. And we want to see many more successes like this!”