YouSaid · the spoken record

Andrew Liveris

lines on the record: 30
first: 2022-08-18
most recent: 2022-08-18
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“It wasn't an era where you were told to read these days, of course, parenting is forcing kids to get off the TV and reading. But no, it was nothing I really noticed. It wasn't seen as odd.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I read them all, and I was 12. And so I think preparing so that when you get the right to talk, that you have the podium, when you have the right to say something, you actually have the knowledge to speak to it. I think people have gotten bored with facts. So you've got to blend it with interest. So personalize the facts, show examples, and then demonstrate it yourself. I think that cycle of teaching needs to be introduced certainly in our education system, but in real life”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“One of the things that I would add to that list, I agree with all of that, that I would do, and I still do to this very day, is I would prepare well before I got the job or was given the nod. I would know as much about what I was about to be offered or to do before I actually did it. I would read, I would talk well before the days of the iPhone, I would go to the library, I remember my father...”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Committees never thought of that, but yes, it's probably useful for that. I think the immigrants backstory I have really drove me to work hard, but also to make a difference. And a very American trade, what attracted me to America this very day, and don't want to embarrass you, you're a great example of it, is the amazing giving back that occurs in this country. And not enough of us know a lot about it. It gets a few headlines. So I mentioned the tax and spend thing as being a detriment to building modern infrastructure, but on the other side, Americans are charitable and give and care about making a difference in their community. That's what Dow showed me, and that's what I and my wife Paula and I live today. That American way to an immigrant means that for the next immigrants, we can make their life better.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Supply chain, and we have the market. This is one of the few countries in the world that can say I'm one country, I have a massive market, and by the way, I'm endowed with a lot of people and natural resources. That's manufacturing.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was fair during what I call the loss of industry such as textiles and footwear and clothing, which were very labor intensive. It's completely not the case with things that make the iPhone and all the circuitry and semiconductors and high-end technology content parts, EVs. This is where the United States is actually the best at. And it's not labor cost driven. So offshoring and outsourcing and moving things for labor costs, fine. They went to countries that have lower labor costs, the Bangladeshis and the Vietnamese, but the high-end manufacturing, the quality manufacturing for two days and tomorrow's technology innovations, we should be the epicenter of that right here in this country because the labor cost is actually not the relevant cost. The relevant cost is actually the raw material.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Foreign RD labs. Why? Because they wanted to know not just how to make an assemble, they wanted to invent all the way back to the material, to the battery, to the products. And to do that, they needed R&D. Manufacturing R&D live together. They lived together through prototyping and scaling. And the topics of invention and innovation are in manufacturing because you actually learn while you make. And then when you digitize, you learn more. Digitizing manufacturing is a massive innovation opportunity. And frankly, one of the things that the United States is phenomenal at is we know how to innovate and be an entrepreneur and how to scale. But if we've lost our ability to actually make, then we start to atrophy the innovation side.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, that's fair. And I addressed it in the book because we think smokestacks and we think of rivers on fire when we use the word branding is everything. And today everything is branded in a heartbeat through Instagram and you name it. And as a result of that, there's a perception that manufacturing is yesterday's sector. And that is so erroneous because pretty much everything in modern life is made. I used to say a DAO, we've only got three functions to invent, to make and to sell. The rest is overhead. And the make part is actually very connected to the invent part. China was brilliant in its strategy through the 30 years of Deng Xiaoping because it attracted assembly and then insisted on R&D. There were only 10 R&D labs foreign-owned in China in 1990. By 2010, there were 40,000.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This notion on environmental responsibility, digitalization and privacy, the issues of our time need to be integrated into your strategy.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The rules are changing. What should be the new rules? Who knows? Who's working on them? Is it just government? No. Is it just business? No. NGOs? No. Citizens? Yes. But many of them don't know how to direct their inputs. So the collective needs to get together. Our problem is top down isn't working. Top down institutions are not winning over the people they're affecting. So bottom up needs to occur and meets top down in some way, which is what? Which is awareness groups, community sessions, town halls, knowing what your employees think, being available to them, ubiquitously communicating to get the sentiment. What's the sentiment? The sentiment is what's going on out there in terms of inequality, lack of inclusion.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“As you know, the old adage, right? Who's at your bedside in that final gasp? You know it's your close family. And obviously I'm very blessed that way. The wider ecosystem, last night I did a one-hour interview of Avan Krishna, the CEO of IBM, to my academy. I've created an academy at my alma mater. It's to teach 21, 22 year olds, and lately we've been introducing postgrads leadership in the modern century.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, you know, I have been around US politics like you for a couple of decades and have served a variety of presidents from the different parties. And the attitude in the United States is obviously to keep taxes low and keep the public spend under control. And the word control is interesting. But that stops forward thinking in terms of planning. And therefore, the short-termism around our fiscal policies has hurt us. I mean, in essence, infrastructure is a long-term return. And to get a long-term return, putting it into private hands is one way of doing it. But really, the public side of life has to be willing to brew the forward spend. The forward spend on airports and roads and EV charging stations has to come from the public domain. Now, raising taxes to spend money on infrastructure means you've got to trust the people doing the spending.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I do. I was an early buyer at full price. I felt it was important that I demonstrate my support for the team. I'll never forget the amazing drive I had. I have it down in Florida where my residence is. I drove it, drove to Palm Beach and drove around there. Every time I stopped, I had people looking at me. I knew it wasn't me. It was clearly the car. And then I parked it. And I will kid you not. It was like a mob scene around me. It was one of the, I think it was the second car in Florida, so clearly it had not been seen. I valet parked it at this hotel where I was having dinner and the gentleman wanted to compete with the other gentleman to valet park. Can I drive or can I drive? And I said, you know what? Maybe I should park it myself. So it's an attractive car and it really drives supremely well.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“At this point in time, that's our strategy. We've got the dream, the grand touring, we've got the air, and then the SUV, the gravity. These price points are north of $100,000 with the dream at about $160,000, $170,000. But clearly that's the luxury end. The mass market end, where General Motors and Ford and others are pointing themselves, is obviously the big opportunity. We'll eventually get there, but we've made no announcements”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You are in the right place to buy one. We can maybe hopefully sell you one as you leave. We have a retail strategy. We go directly retail and service centers around the country. We're opening up retail centers as we speak in Europe, but we have them in the United States, and this is an example of one. And the price point is not $5,000. We have a price point at the high-end luxury end. Our competition is Porsche, BMW, Audi. You're trying to be.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, what we've been doing at Lucid is homing in on the technology side of differentiation. Is there room for a Tesla, a Lucid and a bunch of others? Of course. I mean, we are going to see EVs as the primary mode of transportation in our lifetime.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This is a technology business. So, in your earlier question about how I did involved, I said manufacturing. Well, manufacturing is an interesting word being used for a couple of hundred years in humanity as we obviously went up the technology ladder. Humans are inventive and innovative because of technology advantages. Lucid offers a technology advantage and beats everyone right now and is being recognized for it. Firstly is the distance we can travel without needing to charge and that's over 500 miles EPA certified. Second is our charging time. We can actually get a recharge of up to 300 miles in 22 minutes. That's technology. Those two topics are all about technology. The car and its surrounds is aesthetically beautiful. It drives fantastically. It's absolutely totally a luxury car and clearly an experience and the software that supports it is also technology.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, diversification, the Vision 2030 that was put in place and you're quite familiar with by His Highness the Crown Prince has a big piece of it to diversify away from oil and to go into other businesses and other activities that might be related, so chemicals and plastics and downstream, creating a circular carbon economy, hydrogen, and going to the green economy, solar, renewables as general, wind, nuclear power. This diversification on the energy mix is a big part of the Vision 2030 plan. And that's what Aramco and others in the kingdom are driving.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Look, commodity markets, as you must know, well know in your storied career, David, impossible to give you an answer other than, you know, the most important dynamic of them all is climate change and CO2 emissions. And how can we make oil and gas for that matter coal before? But I think coal is destined to be phased out. But oil and gas and our addiction to it and the transition that is needed to get CO2 out of the air will eventually damage demand, EVs, which I'm sure we'll talk about soon EVs alone, electrification of the transportation market, will see a dampening of demand, but it's impossible to predict in a short term, how do you predict a war in Russia, Ukraine, and the effect that it had on commodity prices? So we will go through periods, a zigzagged line, if you like, of pricing for some years to come. And I can't tell you whether it's going to be high or low. No one can.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I said, You know how busy I am, right? And she said, I know how busy you are, but you've got to take it because you're the right person to get it done. And if it means you've got to drop some things, drop some things, but take it. That's the type of partner I have.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Did she expect me to retire? No, she knew me better. The story on the Olympics is a classic. That call came, I don't know, two months ago on a Saturday. We're in Sydney in our living room. I got a call from the Premier of the State of Queensland saying we'd like to offer you the presidency of the Olympics. I said, excuse me. And I was aware Brisbane had won, so I didn't embarrass myself. I said, can I get back to you? Can you tell me a little more? And I'll get back to you. But we want to announce it on Monday. So, anyway, my wife said, Who's that? And I told her, and she said, look to me in the face. She said, you've got to take it.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so two amazing American iconic companies, 300 years of corporate history between them. DuPont founded on explosives, Dow founded on chlorine. You think about the corporate history in both of those, the portfolios they both had assembled by the time we hit this century were across a range of different applications and there were many things to many markets. So what the premise of the case was working with Ed Breen on the DuPont side was we put the two together and separate them into more purer pleas. So DAO materials, the ag company, agricultural products, and of course the DuPont Company, the new DuPont Company on Specialty Chemicals and Plastics.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So just shy of 15. Of course, the last couple were in the merged entity, which my successor then we set up the demerger, and we can talk about that if you like, but certainly the 15 years included the last two as executive chairman of the Dow Dupont entity. But I led us into the merger and the rationale behind that was a 10-year remake. We put a strategy in place in 2005 and we executed over 10 years to move us back to an innovation-centric company. We had lost our way. We had commoditized. We had rested on the laurels of all of our previous inventions. And by the time the 90s and the OOs came around, we were really our innovation chest was bare, our cupboard was bare. So we reconstituted an innovation in the company by changing the portfolio.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Chemical engineering, which when I look at today's world and I think about chemical engineering, the word chemical sort of puts you into a different place with a thought. It's really problem solving engineering. And I learned how to be a problem solver by learning chemical engineering.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The visionaries that ran down in the 60s that led to my recruitment in the 70s had this view that to go international, you had to hire local well before it was vogue. And they went around the world looking for people who were willing to go to these far-flung locations, Hong Kong at that time wasn't a sophisticated city that it is today. And basically, you know, what they did was they localized and grew talent locally, but kept a playbook so I was spotted early by the then DAO leaders and they started to move me around to test me in different places, mostly in Asia, and then eventually to the US.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They sent me down to a very cold part of Australia called Melbourne, which happened to have a lot of Greek people. I got cold redefined when I went to Michigan, but I thought it was cold at the time. I went there for six months and there was an accident in a factory in Hong Kong and they sent four Australian engineers. I was one of them to go work to actually help the locals adjust to operating a complex chemical environment.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, blue collars we would call them, immigrants, my father. We lost our grandparents, he lost his parents, and so he raised his two younger brothers when he was 12. He became an apprentice and a carpenter, and he and his two brothers build a small fledging building business in Darwin. I was the first to go to university in my family.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Were the ones that I was intrigued by, and Dow had the best recruiting line ever more for a 21 year old. Join us and we'll show you the world. So that combination of where I grew up, what I was exposed to, and the DAO recruiting line.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, the gene that got me to have Wonderlust was because I grew up in a little multicultural town in northern Australia called Darwin, lots of Asians, lots of indigenous people, First Nations people, lots of immigrants like Greeks that came from these very poor areas. So I had this desire to go see where they were from and understand the places north of us, Indonesia, China, Asia as a whole. The American, if you like, knowledge that I got was listening over the radio to things like the JFK assassination and man on the moon. We didn't have TV where I grew up. So I was just fascinated by America and what it offered the world. So that combination got me recruited out of campus. I didn't join a British company. I didn't join an Australian company. The companies that came by that were American.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The 2032 Brisbane Olympics. They won the bid last year and I'm the president of that to put it in place. And 2032, as you know, is 10 years, so that's an exciting project.”
2022-08-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Andrew Liveris · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source