Emotionalizing Quality: Meet Loan Ngô the Mastermind Behind the Strategy

Our purpose is what unites us at Henkel North America: Pioneers at heart for the good of generations. Our pioneering spirit is reflective of the diverse backgrounds, experiences and talents of our employees and partners. They dare to make an impact on the world by collaborating to tackle challenges, find solutions and open new perspectives.  

Their contributions allow us to deliver products, services and innovations that enrich and improve everyday life.  We invite you to “meet” our pioneers in our series, “Pioneers for Good.”

Introducing Loan

Loan Ngô, Vice President of Quality for Henkel Adhesive Technologies in North America, is a passionate driver of quality and safety. “I’m a business leader first, and I happen to love the area of quality and safety because it’s a role that helps us think about our process from front to back,” says Loan. 

She is responsible for developing and implementing strategies that improve product quality and advance safety culture across Henkel facilities and teams. To Loan, quality and safety are about thinking beyond a person at machine and embracing the people doing the work. 

Loan brings curiosity to learn her team's strengths, as well as their experience, passion, and ambition. She likes connecting all those dimensions with opportunities to help propel them forward so they can make their mark on the world in a way that is meaningful to them.

Building a culture that drives productivity and innovation

As a young girl, Loan moved to the U.S. from Vietnam where she not only had to learn a new culture but find new ways of engaging with people who were different. The experience taught her resilience, but also gave her a deep appreciation for people’s differences and an understanding that by embracing them, you can open doors to opportunity. She brings this philosophy to Henkel and into the culture of her team.

Culture is part of what Loan loves about Henkel. “The diversity of experiences, of heritages, of languages… I love being part of that.” She believes in creating an environment where everyone feels a sense of belonging, which for Loan, is the center of a high performing team.

Loan’s journey to “Emotionalize” quality

While creating a culture of belonging is a significant part of Loan’s strategy for success, her passion project came out of an encounter last year with a test pilot for an F35 fighter aircraft. 

“I told the pilot that when I worked in aerospace producing aircraft engines, I was always thinking about keeping them safe so they can return home to their families, but I had never met any of the pilots. Meeting her created a much stronger emotion, tying the work to a human that I can think about protecting.” 

It was an experience that morphed into a strategy Loan calls “emotionalizing quality.” She wants her team to think about their quality and safety work as more than a series of processes and actions. She believes putting yourself in the mind of the consumers can help spark curiosity and problem-solving.

“That's how we make innovation happen. Asking ourselves how we can do things better every day is going to accelerate the way in which we continue to drive high quality performance.”  

Whether it is improving products or finding more sustainable processes that are safer for the planet, Loan is committed to helping bring new ideas to life that are better for people and the world around us. To help share what she has learned she started sending a series of “Postcards” from her trips to Henkel sites on the company’s internal Viva Engage social platform. She shares outcomes from conversations along with pictures of the team from each location, helping to create connections and inspire conversations among peers. 

A Pioneer with quality and safety at heart…

For Loan, being a pioneer at heart for the good of generations means emotionalizing quality into the daily practice across teams to provide cutting edge solutions based on the needs of the customer and foster a community of collaboration across teams.

“Being a pioneer at heart is searching for that different solution, stepping back, figuring out the problem, and asking how we might provide products and services to the customer in the safest, most efficient, and sustainable way possible.”