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Petra Laux
Global Head Business Sustainability Crop Protection bei Syngenta
Petra Laux is a senior executive with over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry who now works in agrochemicals.4 She currently serves as the Chief Sustainability Officer at Syngenta Group, a position she has held since January 2021.41 Prior to this role, she was the Global Head of Business Sustainability Crop Protection at Syngenta from August 2021.4
Laux joined Syngenta in 2019 after working at Novartis for over a decade, where she led the Global Public Affairs function.2 She has a strong background in sustainability, government relations, and public policy. Her educational background includes a Master's in Public Health, a PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry, and training as a Pharmacist.2
In her current role, Laux is responsible for:
- Integrating sustainability into all aspects of Syngenta's Crop Protection strategy4
- Accelerating sustainable breakthrough innovation in agriculture4
- Promoting safe and sustainable use of crop protection products4
- Reducing the environmental footprint of production and supply4
- Driving Syngenta Group's sustainability agenda, which includes addressing climate change and increasing biodiversity in agriculture14
Laux is actively involved in promoting sustainable agriculture and innovation in the industry, often sharing insights on platforms like LinkedIn about topics such as greenhouse gas emissions reduction in farming and biological solutions for crop protection.35
Highlights
THE ONLY SOLUTION TO THE PROFIT VS PLANET DILEMMA IS LEADERSHIP
Returning from Dubai COP in December, there was no doubt that our collective response to climate change could be summed up in two words: NOT ENOUGH.
Too few organizations see climate change as an opportunity to innovate, expand market reach and reduce cost. Concerns on investment and profitability, potential disruptions and unclear immediate outcomes get into the way of transformation. As I was reflecting on how I can enable the triple bottom line (people, planet, profit) through my new role as Syngenta Group CSO, a newsletter from Korn Ferry attracted my attention.
These are my insights: We need to acknowledge Syngenta Group's role in climate change and together believe that it is right to act now to: ⚬ Prevent supply chain disruptions and resource shortages of tomorrow ⚬ Anticipate future expectations from regulators, customers and stakeholders
In FAO’s recent roadmap for 1.5°target, 30% of anthropogenic GHG emissions are attributed to food & agriculture. Contrary to energy, where strategies lead to use reduction, food consumption is expected to grow due to demographic and income shifts. This is why I still hear concerns that the job is too big. But as leaders we need to take on the challenge and build the roadmap with our practical solutions supporting the path to net zero.
Let’s focus our efforts on the highest sphere of influence – perform and transform ourselves and our own organization: ⚬ Inspire as broad enterprise leaders and guide the organization to reconcile business performance and sustainability ⚬ Make difficult immediate trade-offs to meet shareholders’ demand for profit, and at the same time, deliver the sustainability vision
Through the Good Growth Plan, we have demonstrated that we can accelerate innovation to address climate change and make good business, ie in our program on restoring degraded soils (Reverte). And in building the roadmap to reduce scope 1,2 emissions, we found efficiencies that help reduce cost and footprint. We need to pursue more of these sweet spots, in areas such as nutrient use efficiency, reduction of methane emissions, carbon storage in soils, and securing high yields with lower impact.
Campaign and build a movement amongst leaders who share the same purpose and create changer: ⚬ Rather than a narrow spotlight on financial metrics, let's define and create value using a broad set of criteria, across multiple time horizons, enabling the triple bottom line. ⚬ Focus on impact enables us to harness the full potential of the organization.
Associates who understand our sustainability ambitions are more engaged. However, our reporting and reward systems still focus on financials. I would love to see sustainability becoming as non-negotiable as health and safety. Hence we are creating a portfolio sustainability index to be launched in April 24. This will help guide our decisions and allow to cherish progress. THE POWER OF PURPOSE IS REAL!
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Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
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Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.