Carsten Knobel

It’s not easy to find the right words in these times. We are all shocked by the recent developments in the Ukraine, the fighting, the victims, and the destruction. Over the last weekend, millions of people around the world were out on the streets to stand up for peace, freedom, and democracy and in support of a free Ukraine. I was deeply impressed by the united global response. Now, we are all following closely the latest news and hope that a diplomatic solution can still be found and the fighting can be brought to an end! 
 
In these difficult days, our primary concern has been and will be the safety of our colleagues and their families who are affected by this war. Our thoughts go out to the people and our 600 Henkel colleagues in this country. What they need now is our concrete support and help: Last week, we had already shut down our plants in Ukraine, sent our teams home or asked them to seek a safe place. In the first 48 hours, we initiated an ad hoc aid package of more than 1 million euros. This contains for example financial emergency aid for each affected colleague, a financial donation to the International Red Cross and paid time-off for all volunteers who support refugees or aid organizations at the borders. 
 
From day one, we were overwhelmed by the requests from our Henkel colleagues offering their help. Colleagues from neighboring countries are supporting refugees from Ukraine, providing shelter for affected colleagues and their families. It’s impressive to see the solidarity and willingness to help.
 
To our colleagues in the affected region: You are not alone. We will support you.
And to our colleagues who are supporting: Thank you! 
We are Henkel! We respect and we support each other.

Today, we invited many ten thousands of Henkelaner to our first Virtual Global Townhall at Henkel.

It was really great to connect to so many colleagues around the world and give them an update on where we stand as 2020 is about to come to an end. A year that has turned out to be so different from what we had in mind in January.

My board colleagues and I shared updates on how we have managed the corona pandemic so far. Then, we focused on progress made with the implementation of our strategic agenda for purposeful growth including our business performance of the first nine months of the year.

We really enjoyed hearing from the teams themselves how much progress we have made together across all dimensions of our Purposeful Growth Agenda.

Fascinating live interactions, highly engaged colleagues, lots of questions and a great team spirit. It was motivating and fun! Thanks to my colleagues Sylvie, Bruno, Jens-Martin, Marco, and Jan-Dirk as well as the super team who made this digital townhall happen. Together, we keep the spirits high as one global team!

A couple of days ago, I had the pleasure of visiting my colleagues at the Henkel Dubai office. A particular highlight for me was visiting the local Henkel Consumer Brands R&D Center with Wolfgang König. During various experiments and demonstrations, we witnessed the innovative power of our business unit Henkel Consumer Brands.

Did you know, for example, that with Persil Abaya Shampoo, we have a leading detergent for the Abaya, a traditional garment for women in the Arab region, India, Pakistan, and Indonesia, in our portfolio? The very delicate and often elaborately decorated fabrics pose special challenges for a detergent. With the so-called “Black Lock Technology”, the team in Dubai has created a solution for this.
Another highlight was meeting so many colleagues for example during another Connect session. We talked about how to further strengthen the growth mindset among ourselves and the role #Sustainability and #DEI play in enhancing our competitive edge for the future. Thank you for this great experience, Ashraf El-Afifi, Csaba Szendrei, and all colleagues in Dubai. It was inspiring to see how you fill our Purposeful Growth Agenda with life through innovation and customer centricity in the IMEA region! I look forward to my next visit. To everyone celebrating Ramadan and breaking the fasting today - Eid Mubarak. #WeAreHenkel