Dow CEO Andrew Liveris Discusses How Companies Can Adapt to the Speed of “Live”

On Thursday, Dec. 4, Andrew Liveris, CEO of Dow Chemical, flew in from Washington, after meeting with President Obama and other members of the U.S. Business Council, to open Chief Executive Group’s 2014 CEO2CEO Summit at the New York Stock Exchange.

As the keynote speaker, he had some very insightful things to say to our mid-market CEO audience. Here is a round-up of his comments:

“We are traveling at the speed of ‘live’.” Companies must be flexible enough and open-minded enough to keep up.

Since the changing of the Senate guard, “the tone in Washington has changed. If we could get some of the initiatives in Washington going in the right direction we could really grow the U.S.”

“If you don’t protect your future earnings, there will be no future. We’re ‘short-term’ to a fault in this country. My advice: Go private.”

“The common denominator [to success] is always the people quality.”

“We’re setting the highest standard now because, in the future, there will be even higher standards.”

“High school diplomas for assembly lines are so yesterday.”

“If you can’t innovate faster than [your competitors] are commoditizing your products, you’ll get run over….  Manufacturing is an innovation-centric activity.”

“Productivity is great, but it kills innovation.”