Q: 41 years is a long time. What is the greatest change you have seen? And how are the workers different today than in the past?
A: That is really hard to quantify. When I stop and think back, there have been tremendous changes in technology. Also, I think there has been a change in management philosophy and supervisory techniques, all for the good. Management style requires a lot more first hand communication with people. I think this industry is a tough industry and it is harder to find the people that have the dedication to put into the industry today than it was years ago. We do have a very dedicated group of people.

Q: How have you been so successful when numerous paper mills in NYS (like Champion in Deferiet) have shut down?
A: I have asked myself that question many times. I think there are probably several contributing factors. Number 1 - when we started the mill back up we had one goal in mind and that was to succeed. It started out with a nucleus of people that were really 100 percent dedicated to the program. I think from thereon we had to prove ourselves and reestablish ourselves in the industry having been out of circulation for 3 years. Because of that we developed special relationships with our customers that has given us the loyalty to stick with us through this latest downturn in the industry. One other factor is we call ourselves a specialty mill and we take pride in doing that in constantly working to develop new products and new techniques for customers. Relationships are important, past performance is important. Particularly when contracts are being established and/or sole sourced. It just helps as you go along.

Q: How can I boost the moral of employees? Should I offer an incentive program, profit sharing. Any ideas? What do you use at your company?
A: I think that certainly incentive programs and profit sharing are helpful, but I don't happen to believe that dangling the carrot out in front of people is the answer to good morale. It goes beyond that. I think trying to have a friendly or family type atmosphere, to be open, to have good communication and regular meetings with employees to keep them posted on current events. Good news and bad news both. They need to be confident when you tell them something that they can bank on what you tell them to be the truth, as you know it at that particular time.

Q: What made you purchase the Boise Cascade Mill and locate your business in Brownville? Are there certain natural resources there that made this an economical choice?
A: I guess that this is probably the easiest one to answer. I got transferred up to Brownville in 1980 from another mill down in Massachusetts. It was a troubled mill at the time and was not profitable. As I was able to look the mill over and get to know people, I realized that the mill had some very definite strengths. One was the capability of the equipment, but more important than that I realized that I had the opportunity to work with a group of people that were better than I have ever met or worked with before. We turned the mill around and made it profitable. And I guess for that reason when the mill was closed down, Boise Cascade still wanted to continue that dream. That is what drove us to try to get the mill restarted because we had such a good group of people, if anybody could make a success of it, we could.

Q: In the last century, Upstate NY was an industrial center in the Northeast. Why isn't it any more?
A: I remember when there were many, many more mills up in the North Country. I remember that it was far more industrialized years ago. Really, I was a bit surprised when I got transferred up here in 1980 that manufacturing had been downsized. I think there are explanations for a lot of that. I think that as far as the paper industry goes, the source of raw materials was used up - wasn't as easy to come by. Technology changed. I think the in the northern climates for the source of raw materials it takes a lot longer to grow a tree or make pulp wood as it is down south. The growing season, the long winters, the cold weather, extra energy requirements and costs all add to the equation. I think it is difficult or more challenging to survive in these northern climates. Hopefully, because we do survive means we are a little bit tougher than the others! The thing that has happened in the last 10 years is that all industry is becoming more global. All of the new paper machines and technology is being focused offshore in Asian countries and South America. That is going to continue. I think that there are no new paper machines or paper mills being built in this hemisphere. It is unfortunate, but it is a reality. There are still opportunities. I don't mean to preach negative or gloom and doom, but I think you have to look harder for opportunities and look outside of the box so to speak.

Q: In the write-up on BizBOOM it says that your company produces high quality paper products for various industries. Specifically what products do you make and what are they used for? Thank you!
A: We typically break down our product line into four basic categories. One of them we refer to as office products grade. We make the various press board materials and cover materials that are used for spiral bound notebook covers, file folder covers, and file separators you would typically see in an office or office supply store. Second is graphic arts grades which are materials that are used in the picture framing industry for picture frame mat board. Folders for photographs, easel backboards for picture frames, artist illustration boards, etc. The third category is specialty packaging. We like to work with people who are designing or developing special packaging products or product displays. The fourth category is industrial specialties. Those are grades of boards that would be used in industrial manufacturing, auto industry, electrical boards for insulating purposes, things that had to have special characteristics to prevent damage to the product. If you were selling into the silverware business, like Oneida Silver, we can make a board that would not cause the silverware to tarnish. For a small mill, it is a fairly broad product mix. That is why we call ourselves a specialty mill. We do production for Victoria Secret and Ralph Lauren, names that everyone can recognize.

Q: Has all of your experience been in the paper business? And is it all in upstate NY?
A: Not all of my experience has been in Upstate New York. I have been in mills in Massachusetts, as well as New York. Most of my time has been in the paper industry, either in paper mills or paper mill machinery. I did have a few years where I worked for a company that made metal processing machinery.

Q: Dear expert, Many companies are promoting safety assurance to their staff. What is safety assurance and why is it so important?
A: I am not sure what that particular phrase means. I think that safety and safety programs are just as important as production, profits and bottom line. I think that safety is like communication. No matter how much you do, you should continue to try to do more. I think safety and success of safety programs is an attitude. There is no one formula that works for everybody. I have seen different approaches and different things work at different localities over the years. You need to keep searching until you find a program or philosophy that is successful. We have an excellent safety record here. We have done some different things over the past. We reached a year without a lost time accident and it happened to come in the middle of the summer, so we had a steak roast right here on the premises for all of our employees. Currently we have the Sacagawea gold coins that came out a year ago. Everybody was quite impressed with them and we all wanted to have a few, so we started a program that for every 100 days we go without lost time, we give 10 Sacagawea dollars

Q: Hi, what leadership styles do you admire most? If you had the chance to meet an influential leader (past or current), who would it be and why?
A: I am not a world traveler, so I really can't answer that with some famous name of somebody that I admire. The things that I admire are dealing with people that will be up front and honest with me and tell me the truth and not have a secret agenda on the side.

Q: What do you feel makes a team most productive? What methods does your company use to promote teamwork within your workforce?
A: I guess its like safety, it is just something that you keep trying to work at and keep trying to promote and instill in people. One of the things I don't believe in, because of the nature of our business and our process - there is no one person that can run the operation by himself. It starts with the people that bring in the raw material, to the people that process that raw material and get it ready for the paper machine, to the people who run the paper machine to produce the finished product, to the people that have to package the material. They are all part of that team or process and everybody is a key part of that. If one person doesn't pull his or her weight, something suffers. So you need to have a team effort in the group that is actually producing the product at that time, but you need that same concept transferred to the incoming crew after one shift leaves to go home. I have watched things over the years and noticed contests on who can produce the most paper, pitting one shift or one crew against another and sometimes that will work, that can be productive, but I think it only takes one person or one thing to happen for that to get out of hand and pretty soon you have people doing things for their own self serving purposes. That just defeats the purpose. I think the issue is that you need to keep promoting the concept of teamwork. We are all in this together and we all sink or swim or succeed or fail together.

Q: How do you define Total Quality Management (TQM)? Have you implemented it at Brownville, if so, how?
A: It goes back to the previous question of everybody in the line being responsible for doing their best. I've read quite a bit about TQM. As far as formally implementing the program, no we have not done that. It seems that we have testing procedures, good quality control, and we have people that are dedicated and trying to do their best in producing the products and recording the test results so if there is a unforeseen problem, we have the means to go back and retest samples and test some of the data. I believe we are actually doing the right things. As long as people are accountable for their performance, all of those things contribute to a good operation.

Q: Do you foresee the plastic industry having an impact on BSPP products or any other types of materials?
A: Yes. I think that every manufacturing process has that potential or has that threat. There are new products and materials being introduced that make the existing product obsolete. I don't see plastics coming in and swallowing all of our business, but I see places where plastics are doing their best to make inroads against our products. But at the same time we are trying to do the same thing - looking for places where paper products are better than plastics. We have some positive things to offer. The plastics industry has done an excellent job in promoting itself. The paper industry has to put up with being criticized because it cuts down trees, but on the other hand if you want to go to any landfill, see how much of the plastic that is in the landfill is biodegradable. Paper is a natural product. It is recyclable, biodegradable; it's all the things that materials such as plastic are not. There are many cases where we should be using that as a selling or marketing tool.

Q: What is the biggest challenge you have faced in your career?
A: I guess really the biggest challenge was getting the opportunity to restart Brownville. It was part of a dream, part of a goal. I felt pretty confident we had the right people and the right ingredients to do it. I knew we had obstacles to overcome and had a lot of people thinking that we couldn't do it. I guess that made us more determined than ever to prove that we could. I experienced challenges every place I have been - different types of challenges. A common challenge is to try to figure out a combination of what will work and bring the most success.

This wraps up our Executive Chat session for today. BizBOOM.com and National Grid, would like to thank Gene Rood for his time today in providing expert advice to the upstate NY small business community.

This Executive Chat with Gene Rood is brought to you by http://www.bizboom.com BizBOOM.com and National Grid.