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Truck Drivers, Consultants and Leaders
By Jim Thompson (jthompson@taii.com)
Week of 7 Jul 08
Click here, then click "Trans lator" in top navigation bar for other languages.
What happens when a truck (lorry) driver has too many wrecks? They get fired and are banished from the business.
Why doesn't this happen to people who crash pulp and paper companies? Some of these characters keep reappearing and keep getting hired as consultants. Others are allowed to assume leadership positions. The huddled masses of the industry look on them with unquestioning awe.
One of my readers accused me recently of becoming too provincial and US-centric in my columns. Sorry. I wish I could say the problem above is a US problem, but it, unfortunately, is a worldwide one. I am not being US-centric here.
Another reader recently said I was becoming grumpy. Sorry for that, too. My thinking recently has been focused on missed opportunities and dunderheaded decisions. I'll get off of it, soon, I am sure, for I continue to believe this is a great and important industry worldwide.
If you are in a position of hiring consultants or appointing leaders, please, do your due diligence on them. They are not validated just because they wear a cape, for it just could be they sewed it themselves.
I am certainly not going to "out" the good or the bad (in my opinion) here. Not only might I be wrong, I might be sued! However, I want to provide and encourage you to use a process when you select one of these senior people for an assignment or an appointment. Don't automatically assume they have actually done great things.
Some of the self-aggrandizing personalities out there are truly astounding. It is like another senior colleague, in talking to me, described a third person we both know. "---- has the amazing ability to run out the back door as the sheriff is coming in the front, and then, he goes and gets another job more prestigious and higher paying than the last one. And he has done this time and again!" Now, this colorful metaphor was not intended to actually accuse anyone of criminal activity, but it does paint a wonderful picture of what I am talking about here.
From personal experience, I can tell you the following. Over a number of years, I have had the opportunity to visit several idled mills that once belonged to a company considered a prestigious leader in the pulp and paper industry. Taken as a whole, the individual strategies of these mills, as apparent from actual visits, collectively made an incoherent mess. Someone was responsible for this. No wonder this company was bought out, not for its production facilities, but for its markets. Yet, former leaders of this company are wandering around and giving advice (for a fee, of course) to many audiences that look at them with dropped jaw awe.
Now, all of this is not to say there are not very good people, in retirement and very vigorous, which are not full of wisdom and deserve, indeed are needed, to be heard. The frauds and imposters I am talking about are a relatively small, but vocal group.
So, finally, we get to the process of vetting anyone appearing at your doorstep and seeking to bestow wisdom upon you in any form. Please ask them the following:
1. Show me when, where and how you have made money for your employers or clients.
2. Show me where you have taken personal prestige and financial risks. What were the outcomes?
3. Yes, I know you are famous, but humor me and provide me with 3 current references anyway.
4. What specifically are you going to do for us? What risks are you willing to take?
That ought to be enough. Except, of course, ask them if they have ever been injured in an accident, at work or somewhere else. Safety is always important.
Be safe and we will talk next week.
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| Second Page... |
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[Adv.] Edge makes pulpers, too!
Did you know that Edge makes pulpers and pulper components, too? Edge has a complete line of their own design and makes replacement component for other popular brands.
Contact Edge to learn more about their ability to fill your needs for pulpers as well as paper machine components. And when you talk to Edge, tell them you saw them on Nip Impressions.
Jim
Answer to last week's riddle: Fuel cell - 1839, Sir William Grove; fountain pen - 1884, Lewis Edson Waterman; airplane - 1903, the Wright brothers; Band-Aid - 1921, Earle Dickson.
The riddle asked: "Put the following inventions in chronological order as to when they were invented: the Band-Aid; the fountain pen; the fuel cell; the airplane."
This week's riddle: "Keel bait" is an anagram for a path-breaking synthetic material developed in the first decade of the 20th century. Name the material
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| Please visit our premium underwriter... |
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| White Paper & Video Library... |
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White Papers are now live!
We have recently added a white paper from Dr. Jorge A. Vasconcellos e Sá of Portugal on the competitive situation in Europe.
Interested in placing your White Paper or Video here?
Please contact Jim Craven, our sales representative (see below).
Remember, To assure you always receive Nip Impressions, "whitelist" this address:
nipimpressions@emarket.bondware.com
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| Letters from our Readers... |
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What is on our readers minds? Hello Jim!
...I will tell you that it was very interesting to read your fictional issue about "Morning meetings".
I think that you are pretty right. No time to waste in the morning - confirmed agendas and skilled leaders of the meetings are needed.
- Just an idea: why not to have some (more social) evening meetings to discuss about male medication etc...?
One more topic for the morning meetings:
What will happen on the R&D area in near future at the mill? (just asking as a researcher and knowing that information of these issues do not always reach those people who really are responsible for the practical paper&board production). Maybe 5 minutes...?
WBR,
Juha Mentu
Finland
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Juha
I think your proposed social evening meetings could cause more problems than they solve if the topic is as you suggested! Of course, I, too have sat around in hot saunas full of naked, sweaty men...
Jim
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Years back Scott paper in Everett, WA was about the most organized mill for meetings that I had visited. Formal and efficient. Of course sign me up, thanks a lot.
You surely have the best translator in the business and I am very impressed with your current time gadget. I have suggested to our web people in case they haven't seen one like it.
Thanks again and have a safe and great 4th!
Al Palmer
Somewhere in Asia
***
Jim,
I enjoy reading Nip Impressions and you have mentioned several times that there is no free lunch. I have one you may want to consider mentioning. DOE paid me to develop a paper machine energy scorecard system and I am offering it to the paper industry at no charge. The scorecards are excel spreadsheets that ask energy related questions and then provide energy scores based on answers to the questions. I have used the scorecards on over 40 paper machines and they are an effective way to benchmark energy performance and identify opportunities for improvement. There are scorecards with both US and metric units. Anyone interested in getting a copy of the scorecards can contact me.
My goal is to get paper companies and their suppliers to focus on reducing energy consumption so they can reduce operating costs and remain competitive...
Richard Reese
Norcross, Georgia, USA
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Thanks much!
You can contact Richard through Cellulose Community (www.cellulosecommunity.org) (or click "More" at the end of this column)
Special note, and I do not intend to be funny. Richard normally goes by his nickname, but we have found that if we use it, sadly, many browser screening programs will throw out the email. So, for all of you that know Richard, he has not suddenly gone formal, we just have to be sensitive to what certain programs catch.
Jim
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Have a comment? Send your email to jthompson@taii.com. Unless you tell us otherwise, we will assume we can use your name if we publish your letter.
Remember, To assure you always receive Nip Impressions, "whitelist" this address:
nipimpressions@emarket.bondware.com
More...
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| Advertising opportunities are available... |
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Have you noticed the wide-ranging areas of the world represented in the "Letters from our Readers" Department? We reach the world, and what you see here is just a small sampling of the worldwide touch we provide with each issue. When we launch an issue of PaperMoney or Nip Impressions, it is completely delivered, worldwide, in less than two hours. Can any other paper industry publication do that for you?
Shouldn't you be advertising where prospects can read in the language of their choice, each issue, instantaneously?
And don't forget our click through guarantee--do you know anywhere else in the pulp and paper industry where you can find that?
Give me a call today for details on these opportunties!
Regards,
Jim Craven
Associate Publisher,
Nip Impressions, PaperMoney
and Capital Arguments
Pasadena, California, USA
Tel: 626-799-0036
Email: jcraven1@charter.net
Call Jim today!
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| Jim's upcoming travels... |
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As I travel, I am always looking for someone to go to dinner with, share a barbeque sandwich lunch and so forth. If you are in the area of any of these events (or along the way, since I often drive), give me a call on my cell phone (404.822.3412). I would be delighted to visit with you.
Also, I accept a limited number of trips per year to mills for reimbursement of travel expenses only (I am a cheap date). I like to visit mills and talk, and I'll be happy to hang around a day or two and talk to your professionals, shift teams and so forth, in a formal setting or just out in operations. Contact me for arranging such a visit.
One caveat: clients may require my presence at a time or place that conflicts with these. Clients get priority for every date but my wife's birthday or our anniversary.
9 Jul 08: Shreveport, Louisiana
17 - 21 Jul 08: Golden, Colorado
most of August: We plan on being in Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin for a large portion of the month.
Road Notes...
I tend to stay in the same hotel chain when on the road, particularly when traveling by automobile. This means the reception help has no doubt had the same training and always says the same thing, which I have memorized after about a hundred nights a year in this chain for many, many years. This past Tuesday evening, I was checking into one of these hotels in Clinton, Mississippi. I pulled off westbound I-20, having just driven in from Atlanta (about 6 hours). I dragged in all my luggage (three items). The clerk said, "Checking in?" I smiled a big smile and said loudly, "No, I was just rippin' along, headed for Vicksburg, and thought I would pull into your parking lot, drag my luggage around your lobby for a bit, and be on my way!" Everyone in the lobby had a good laugh, fortunately, including the clerk.
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| Closing with Creativity... |
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by Travis Hale
An occasional feature highlighting websites intended to expand our thinking. By the way, they may or may not be aligned with our personal opinions here at Nip Impressions.
Just because science is serious, it can still be entertaining:
http://improbable.com/ig/
You can also reach it by clicking on "More" below.
Remember, To assure you always receive Nip Impressions, "whitelist" this address:
nipimpressions@emarket.bondware.com
More...
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Permission granted for reprinting, as long as this entire column is reprinted without modification or truncation.
"Nip Impressions" is a registered trademark (USPTO Reg. No. 2985097) of Talo Analytic International, Inc.
The characters from the novel "The Osage Mill" are fictional and copyright, 2006, 2007, 2008, Talo Analytic International, Inc., all rights reserved.
Be safe, and we will talk next week,
Jim Thompson
Talo Analytic International, Inc.
   
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