By Graeme Rodden, Editor, Pulp & Paper magazine, RISI
ATLANTA, May 13, 2008 - Over the course of the years in which I have written about this industry, I have visited close to 200 mills, attended innumerable conferences as well as countless other press events and the like. Inevitably, the notes (and photos) that I take end up in some file cabinet once that particular issue of the magazine is put to bed. Then, after a year or whatever prescribed time period, the files are put in the recycling bin.
However, the only notes I ever kept were from an interview with distinguished papermaking consultant Jasper Mardon. This was in the late 1990s and Jasper knew he did not have much time left. He had invited me to his house to talk about his career, but mostly to express his views on our industry and where it had lost its way. I was somewhat nervous about the interview. Jasper was nothing if not opinionated and he did not suffer fools gladly. We spent the morning together and I came away with a raft of knowledge thanks to him. Unfortunately, Jasper passed away soon after.
Throughout my moves since then, to Europe and back, I kept these notes. I really don’t know why.
Then, recently, in some of the newspapers I was reading, I noticed articles about senior management’s lack of leadership in various industries including forest products, coupled with exorbitant executive salaries despite poor performance. It made me revisit my notes from more than 10 years ago.
Lessons learned in the army
Jasper was a former military man who started his pulp and paper career with Wiggins Teape in the UK. However, the lessons he learned in the military were never lost. He actually enlisted when horses were still being used by the service. As he said, an officer’s first duty was to see that the horses were cared for, then the men and, finally, the officer himself. He then added, "My opinion of bad management was formed in the army. If you can’t get everyone working with you in the army, the result is a disaster.”
If you substitute machinery for horses, the lessons are the same. This, he felt, was where the North American industry had been let down. “Poor management is at the root. Many other problems stem from this,” he added. “There has been a complete loss of understanding by management of what management is.”
Jasper said one of the main responsibilities is to secure the perpetual succession of the enterprise. That is, leave things better than they were when you were given charge. He felt that too many senior management figures were “managing for personal aggrandizement”, that salaries had become “obscene” and that they had allowed themselves to become too influenced by large shareholders whose only interest was pushing up the price of the stock.
Balance all interests
A leader must balance the interest of all stakeholders: shareholders, employees, the public at large and suppliers. “Only if there is a balance will you have a long-term successful enterprise,” he said.
Unfortunately the soft capital – training, technical expertise – of too many companies had been allowed to deteriorate. “Management is a multi-level business; you cannot only work on one dimension.”
It was about this time that a large round of workforce downsizing had taken place. Jasper railed against the loss of technical expertise that the industry suffered and realized it would have a detrimental effect on those who were left. “They have no more time to read (or travel) because they are so short staffed, they cannot keep up.”
However, he saw the downsizing trend being an irreversible situation. “In a few years time, when they realize how serious a mistake it was, they will be looking for engineers.”
With the downsizing of technical staffs and the closing of many R&D centers, particularly in Canada, Jasper said the forest products industry in the country had become an “international parasite”, feeding off the developments of others. “We have pretty well abandoned R&D efforts.” Back then, he added that the country should “flood” R&D with money, but to ensure that it was put in the right places. But, and I’m sure he knew what the outcome would be, nothing was done.
Speaking of Canadian mills, he had harsh words. “We’ve emasculated the technical forces of our mills through downsizing so that no one in the industry knows what to do with technology if it’s given to them on a plate.”
Jasper had a lot more to say and we’ll come back to it.
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