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A couple of weeks ago, a faithful reader suggested I write a column about some senior executives in our industry taking big bonuses while their company prepared to file for bankruptcy. Sound familiar? It should, this is not a phenomenon for which only our industry has a monopoly.
Here at Nip Impressions, I tend to take a populist's view, looking out for the people in the trenches. Sometimes you write thinking I am not doing so, but in reality, in most of those cases, the writer is in denial about what is really happening. I'll feed you the good and the bad, all the while thinking about the effects on you and your family.
In this current scenario in paragraph one above, I don't know that I can offer much constructive action beyond sympathy. Powerful bad players are always going to be powerful bad players, and those below can have little influence on their actions. However, turn the situation around for a minute. At what price would you accept the accountability for operating a USD 1 + billion company? It would take a lot to get me to take on such responsibility.
I am in an organization where my "boss" doesn't know much about being a "boss." Since I volunteered for this, I can get out any time I want. However, I choose to accept the challenge of training my boss from a position of little influence. This, however, is somewhat different than a real job, and particularly a real job where the bad players are several levels above you and probably do not even know who you are. Your only choice in such a situation, if you feel strongly enough about it, is to leave, an often costly decision (in current terms, in a long term scenario, it is probably the thing you should do).
However, the writer went on to express that as a management professional, the hourly workers, especially in a union mill, tend to lump all managers together, the good with the higher up bad bosses, as all being bad apples. This you can work on, carefully.
The careful part is this. Keep up a good dialogue with your direct reports and all who work for you, hourly or salaried. At the same time, keep it professional, don't get so close your direct reports think they can call on you to look the other way while they commit some infraction, real or implied. They need to know you are a regular person that will communicate all you can but maintain high standards. There are many false rumors and legends that are spread around in almost any working environment. In my experience, most of these crazy conversations take place during breaks and lunchtime. These are good times for managers to mingle and make themselves available to their underlings. In the military they frown on fraternization among the ranks, even eating together, but on the front lines in a manufacturing operation, I think closer is better.
A couple of examples. People not involved in the business end of a mill often spread the foolish rumor that it is OK for a mill to operate at a loss, because the big corporation needs tax write-offs anyway. This is about as stupid a statement as can be uttered. No one needs tax write-offs, and if an organization has them for too long, they will go out of business (or close the unit that is causing the write-offs).
Another example, a favorite among maintenance crafts persons, is "they give us junk tools to work with." I have seen this uttered in mills that had the latest and greatest state-of-the art tools and diagnostic equipment.
The most tragic I ever heard, though, was the mill where everyone sat around at lunch and moaned about their wages. After some time of doing this, a single mother, without checking out the real facts, quit her job and showed up at the state unemployment office saying, "I need a job that pays better than the one I had at ------." An acquaintance of mine who worked in the unemployment office and told me this story said he told her, as gently as he could, that she had just quit the best employer in the entire county. And they had a policy of never taking back voluntary quits, no matter what.
So, we can do little, if anything, about bad apples at the top, but we can certainly help clear up communications for everyone who works for us. Suggest you be about this activity as a daily routine.
In our weekly survey, we are going to ask you about your confidence in executive management within your company. You can take it here.
False rumors can abound in safety as well. Solicit them in safety meetings and put them to rest.
Be safe and we will talk next week.
Second Page...
[Adv.] OpTest's OpTiSurf
We have been promoting the OptiSurf for over a year now. Recently, I was able to attend actual in-mill training on this instrument. What an instrument it is! Extremely easy to use, with accurate, repeatable results, it is simplicity personified for lab techs. You can take production of your paper grade, no matter what that grade may be, to a new, higher plane with this easy and accurate surface smoothness tester.
I suggest you look at it today--just click on "More" below. And when you talk to OpTest, please say hello for us here at Nip Impressions.
Regards,
Jim
Riddles by Travis:
This week's riddle: What actress, as much a legend for her off-stage antics as for her performances, has inspired numerous Broadway plays about her life. (Hint: Her first name is shared by a geographical wonder in northeast Georgia – U.S.)
Note: Emails are organized in the order received, with first received at the top.
***
Dear Readers:
The weekly survey associated with the above article produced an avalanche of comments. We are devoting this week's letters column to the comments from that survey.
Jim
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The question was: "Are you optimistic about the future of the pulp and paper industry? Here are the uncut responses:
It will evolve in some form to make more demanding products
I am optimistic that the pulp and paper industry can be transformed into an industry that helps to define and satisfy emerging needs. Pulp and paper companies that remain oriented to the past are likely doomed. We need to think like Wayne Gretzky, who became great not by skating to the puck but to where the puck was going to be.
I am pessimistic for current mills and rank/file employees. The good corporations will survive by making new products, but mostly in different towns with different (new) equipment. The unsuccessful companies will be replaced by emerging companies in these new locations.
The paper industry has potential, I have doubts about the flexibility of management's thinking.
From a N American perspective. If talking globally, then my answer would be more to a "yes".
FBB, KLB, and newsprint are strong in NZ. Wood grows like nowhere else, energy and labour are cheap. Markets can be a bit too far away though. The increase in world population, and increase in standard of living will increase paper consumption even when other technologies are developed. Even for newspapers, which will probably never be totally phased out.
Of course, this really depends on the grade of paper one is involved in and whether or not the Chinese are growing that same grade
Not US production of pulp and paper. It is going off shore.
Not by making things that were important 40 yrs ago. By making things that reduce waste, improve handling & improve hygiene
I see paperboard for packaging and tissue being used in the next 30 years!
At least not in the Western world China and India on the other hand are on the early part of the curve
It is metamorphizing into supporting to packaging industry. It must learn how to displace entrenched plastic products. There will be more specialty high grade (Coated) publications and we will still have the lower grades used in fewer direct mail pieces. Unforunately newsprint will be reduced to a much lower level and its remaining producion subverted to specialty uses and packaging. Egg cartons will endure!
Medium yes. There will be many declines as we print less in the home, the office, magazines etc. But paper is low cost, renewable and recyclable so it should continue finding new uses.
Packaging will be with us for a long, long time
New type of paper and its new functionality or applications will take place.
I'm an academic and am enthused by the youth and enlightened by the aged. Your article this week is on the mark.
Strong and fundamental, pulp and paper (or some type of product made of pulp) are here to stay. The players will change, as will the mill activities and products. The education / skills required to work in the industry will change, too. Get on board, or get out of the way!
But not in the USA. The world demand of paper products has increased, but we as Americans can not compete due to the cost of making the product and transporting it. As the paper industry has increased capacity in other parts of the world, we in America have been forced to decrease capacity due to supply and demand.
If they don't find other applications outside of printing&writing both for cellulose and papers
Parts of it - tissue(hygiene), packaging, speciality papers. Communication papers (news, magazine, office) will slowly decline (over decades). Asia may take up the slack though.
Pulp is in the bottomline, CO2 captured from the atmosphere. Wood industry, using fast growing planted trees is going to be more and more important to reducing atmospheric CO2 level, I supose. I think packaging and tissue market have definitly a growing trend. I don't think the future is as bright for writing and printing paper. The consumption of higher quality increasing and lower quality decreasing: Quality of home printing = professional high quality publishing materials, e.g. digital pictures. I supose unbleached delignifiede or peroxide semibleached pulp is more promissing than fully bleached pulp. Why do we bleach pulp for diapers, toillet paper, kitching towels etc.?
The forest is a massive warehouse of renewable chemicals and "green" materials
In Baltimore, just down the block from one of my early assignments, was an impressive facade with the title "U.S. Steel Research Center" carved in the archway above a barred entry chocked with weeds and trash. We all know the story of the demise of big steel in the U.S. but steel remains with us and today's "tin cans" are not what they were. The shuttering of R&D in the domestic pulp and paper industry may portend a fate similar to the steel industry and just as in the steel industry, others know and will search and find the means to exploit the value of cellulose produced by the plant kingdom.
Cellulose is an incredible polymer.
There are many opportunities that are yet untapped. It is also very easy to compete with the slow and lumbering BIG companies!
Oil prices are going up, this makes wood based sollutions ever more competitive
"Pulp and Paper Industry - no....BUT the conversion of trees to value added products (fuels and chemicals) a Definite YES!
Apparently, the industry companies' leadership lacks the vision to transform the industry. Initially a change from title of "pulp and paper industry" to something more relevant like 'renewable resource utilization industry' might be a good idea. Questions like, "How can we transform trees into products that contribute to the betterment of mankind?" might result in salvation of the intellectual capital the industry currently has.
The biggest issue is we are being regulated to death. It gets harder and harder to conduct "normal" business. Also, I am doing the work of at least three people. Remember when it was said we would be working 4 day weeks because technology was going to speed up our jobs? Little did they imagine what would happen! Who has a secretary any more? We all had to learn to type!
should have a no button as well!!
I work in the dissolving side of the industry and so see cellulose as a chemical not just a fiber. It is in everything from food to clothes to tires and we are really just starting to focus on its uses again.
This is for the Paper industry in generel, but not for all paper grades. Many of them will disappear and new ones for new applications have to be invented. Cost for Fibre will increas, because some industries i.e. Energy will compete with pulp&Paper industry for the resources. This will lead to higher Paper prices and enforce the trend to fully electronic systems in information chains
All the mills that have closed represented the little rake in your story. Outdated. Business will return and the more efficient machines will survive.
Yes I am optimistic. But it´s depend on what category we look at. News less optimistic because of internet and reading plates. Packaging paper still needed and probably tend to increas.
we need to point out the potential of using a renewable resource, Trees and advance research, listen to new ideas of young and old and promte same.
Retired pulp and paper company CFO stopped by the other evening for a Rotary meeting at our foundation building. Owns a Kindle. No more newsprint.
But only for rigid packaging materials like corrugated and other boards and some specialities. Publication grades are out in 20 years.
Most forms of paper will disappear, I fear - leaving just corrugated, tissue papers, and hygienic products. Guess I'm speaking of the demise of communication papers including copy paper, coated paper for magazines, and greeting card, etc.
ONLY IF THEY REINVENT THEMSELVES AS ENERGY PRODUCERS
But not so much in the US. Too much government involvement and too high cost in business and industry.
I could go either way on this question. A lot hinges upon external circumstances and how they affect this industry. If the govts both State and Federal would get out of the way and allow for large industries such as the pulp and paper industry to expand and invest - I believe the future of the industry, particularly in the US has the potential to be bright. If we continue our descent into the dark pit of Socialism the future is pretty bleak.
It has become clear that, although going through some significant adjustments, there will ALWAYS be a place for pulp & paper. An example of "optimism" that was received well by a group of mixed ages was that Southern Pine has unique fiber properties that have maintained & increased demand in the fluff pulp & other specialty fiber markets. It is interesting to hear that cellulose fibers are used in such diverse applications as fabric & TV screens - there is hope, but change & adapt we must!
most mature manufacturing buisiness segments are suffering - China!
Less innovation and creativity being done.
Firstly, the paper industry thinks, like most industries today, that if you have age in your favor you have nothing to contribute. Secondly, To make paper there are fundamental truths you need to understand about fiber preparation, forming pressing, drying, calendering, and web conveyance and how these operations affect paper properties. The paper industry is focused on simplified, increased production techniques. This focuses the industry towards DCS experts and less towards papermakers. DCS systems while revolutionary for process control do little to teach the fundamental understanding that allows innovation. Lack of fundamental paper making understanding at the will limit the success of innovation and invention needed to create the new products for the future.
packaging grades and tissue are the immediate future. Eventually, the industry can be expected to migrate into the production of new products from cellulose and lignin. Trees are too valuable to burn.
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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, if you please, to let your suppliers know you read Nip Impressions!
A convenient shortcut:
Have you cancelled your phones and email accounts?
Many have decided they can not afford to advertise in conditions such as we find ourselves in now. This is like saying one cannot afford phones or email. There is no more cost effective way to communicate with your prospects than adverting on Paperitalo Publications.
And call me today to talk about your marketing and advertising program for 2010. (See our Media Kit at "More" below). We reach the pulp and paper industry worldwide every week--no exceptions.
Regards,
Jim Craven Associate Publisher, Nip Impressions, PaperMoney and Capital Arguments
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.
3 - 12 Mar 10: Boulder & Golden, CO; Hutchinson, KS and Shreveport, LA
13 - 22 Mar 10: Brussels and Paris
Nice visit to Sonoco's Hutchinson, Kansas mill on Wednesday. Jim Kicklighter was a gracious host and we had a great time, including some good barbeque! Click for a picture that shows us well sated after lunch. Jim Kicklighter in the handsome fellow on the left.
From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you, the readers, for you are the source of our success at Paperitalo Publications. You avidly read Nip Impressions, PaperMoney and Capital Arguments. You pass them on to others. You save them in your own electronic files for future reference. We are deeply grateful for your enthusiastic support.
There are a few suggested actions we would like to offer you to assure our continued success in the future.
First, be vocal with your suppliers--tell them what you read! Suggest to them that if they have an advertising budget, they just might want to spend a tiny bit of it in the family of publications that you actually read--Paperitalo Publications. If you are really enthusiastic, email our associate publisher, Jim Craven (jcraven1@charter.net) and he will be happy to provide you with the email for the advertising manager at the supplier(s) of your choice so you can email the decision maker directly to let them know how you feel. You, the reader, have more influence on current and prospective advertisers than anyone else.
Second, some of you have actually asked if you can pay for our publications. Wow! Not to deny you this opportunity, here is a paypal link that you can use if this is your desire:
In appreciation, each month we randomly select a "donor of the month" which receives a year's free subscription to the Thompson Private Letter (a $295 retail value)(void where prohibited).
Third, if you have any suggestions as to how we can make any Paperitalo Publication better, please email me directly at jthompson@taii.com.
Again, we thank you for all your support and encourage you to keep reading, passing and filing.
Click here for Insertion Order Form and Instructions. The fine print...Classifications will be at the discretion of Paperitalo Publications. Paperitalo Publications reserves the right to reject any advertisement for any reason. Respondents to classified ads are urged to carefully check the source; Paperitalo Publications makes no endorsement as to sources and is not responsible for any transactions amongst buyers and sellers through this service. Paperitalo's and/or Talo Analytic International, Inc.'s liability in any event is limited solely to reimbursing the advertiser for insertion cost.
A legendary math teacher (lately of Cornell, formerly of MIT) starts from the beginning with a series of digestible lessons for people of all levels of numeracy. (The series starts with the Jan 31 post).
Your contributions are welcome in this department, regardless of point of view. A few criteria--if you send us a copyrighted piece, also provide a permission to publish statement from the owner. We will not publish overtly political pieces or anonymous pieces. Paperitalo Publications will fact check the source of the paper and it will be solely at the discretion of Paperitalo Publications as to the decision to publish or not publish. Paperitalo Publications is not responsible for the content of any paper published here nor any conclusions or decisions one may reach from reading them.
Submitted by Mickey Nell McMahon, Tell City, Indiana, USA
For your reading pleasure...
What Clients Love by Harry Beckwith
Beckwith has written several sales and marketing books that are superb; not your usual sales blather.
Available at amazon.com
How Capitalism Will Save Us: Why Free People and Free Markets Are the Best Answer in Today's Economy by Steve Forbes and Elizabeth Ames
Available everywhere.
Team of Rivals, the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin
It may seem strange to have a "popular" book here, but this is one of the best books on management (by example) I have ever read. It is also a very well researched book, assembled in a remarkable manner. It is five stars for sure.
Available everywhere.
Chemical Additives for the Pulp and Paper Industry by Professor Stephan Kleeman, Ph.D. et al.
If you have a new work you would like rated and featured, please email jthompson@taii.com for information.
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In order to have your picture added, please follow the instructions on this form. We can not accept any photos without the form being complete and submitted. Please use either jpg or gif formats.
Green, Chuck (view from Chuck's winter office, Fort Walton Beach, Florida, USA, 12 Jan 10)
Thompson, Jim (taken in my office, Duluth, Georgia, USA, 6 Jan 10).
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"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, 2009, 2010 Talo Analytic International, Inc., all rights reserved.
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Jim Thompson
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