2017 Insights: David Weiss

What do you see as the biggest challenges that will face your industry in 2017?

One big challenge in Australia is around water — especially in areas where you have droughts, water conservation is most important. Our water treatment program assists companies in Australia with reducing their consumption of water in their heating and air-conditioning systems, through solutions for their cooling towers.

Another big challenge our industry faces is the recent slowdown in the mining and the manufacturing sector, and the overall impact it’s had on the economy and business in Australia. This is certainly a challenge as it relates to how companies will continue to maintain their equipment and plants. Businesses begin to look for cost-effective solutions to help them improve their profitability while still maintaining their operating efficiency. We have many products that assist companies, especially in the mining sector, to help reduce their parts, labour and downtime so they can be more competitive in a challenging environment.

What new technologies are you seeing gain traction in Australian industry?

There are a couple of things we see gaining traction in our industry.

Firstly, on the biological side in wastewater, we are the world leader in growing bacteria. The BioAmp system we’ve developed is able to grow 30 trillion bacteria each day at the customer’s site. That is then dosed into their water treatment system, and this bacteria, specially blended, is able to basically eat up or dissolve all the fats, oils and greases. This reduces the biological demand in the wastewater and is able to assist in cleaning up the environment and meet or even exceed strict regulations. The water going back into the municipal systems is much cleaner than before and puts a lower demand on the wastewater treatment plants at municipalities.

In the water treatment business, we recently received a patent for a new product that is able to break up the chemical bridge in biofilm. This is cutting-edge technology never seen before that dissolves biofilm in a cooling tower. Biofilm is one of the biggest problems that can occur inside a cooling tower. It causes a tremendous amount of energy draw, making your cooling system work 40% harder and in turn increasing your energy usage. When you rid the cooling tower of the biofilm, you are able to save that energy, cutting down carbon emissions going into the environment. This technology is the only solution currently available worldwide.

How should Australian industry respond to global challenges and competition?

There is always opportunity even amidst some of the toughest challenges. One of them is the benefit of the weakening Australian dollar in that it can help to fuel industries such as travel and tourism, which is a cornerstone for Australia.

Australia is known for exporting high-grade beef and other such products around the world. Focusing on opportunities around our country’s core competencies with agriculture, we have developed some new technology that involves putting probiotics into the water system. In turn, this produces huge economic and environmental benefits for both farmers and the animals they are raising.

Another opportunity is the mining sector and the rich mineral deposits here in Australia. Finding ways of becoming more competitive with mining is essential in sustaining the companies in this sector.

What sustainability processes and technology are you planning to implement in 2017?

Our vision statement as a company is to be the world leader in cleaning water, conserving energy and maintaining equipment. Everything NCH invests in across all programs — Wastewater, Water treatment, Maintenance and Lubrication — is geared towards environmental sustainability for our customers.

When we set up programs for example in our maintenance specialty, it’s around helping maintain our customers’ equipment with the objective of reducing downtime and providing safety to workers.

In our Wastewater specialty, we focus all our solutions around reducing the amount of pollutants and creating a sustainable environment.

In the Lubricants business we have certain products that we add to the diesel to reduce emissions, downtime and parts repair. Sustaining our customers and also sustaining the environment is top of mind at NCH.

What can industry do to support both very young and new workers and those at the end of their careers?

Great question. Within our company we’re all about the people in our company and their success.

We focus heavily on training first and foremost. The most important thing we can do to equip them is to train and develop them. I have a formula for success — attitude plus skills equals success. I expect new people coming into the workforce to have a great work ethic and attitude, and it’s our job to be able to teach them the skills to set them up for success.

For the older, more established workers, they carry an enormous amount of business and industry. Experienced workers can assist with the guidance of our younger workers by teaching them the necessary technical and business skills. The two go hand in hand to help each other out.

David Weiss is President and CEO of NCH Asia, a leading organisation with a greater sense of responsibility for the environment providing superior maintenance products and services that focus on cleaning water, conserving energy and maintaining equipment. With 23 years of establishing and leading high-performance organisations in Asia and the USA, David leads by example and believes this to be a cornerstone to his business philosophy.