Know How


Last week we asked:

How would you rate your curiosity about what others in the industry are doing?

71.4% Very Much

28.6% Much

00.0% Some

00.0% A little

00.0% Not at all

How would you rate the culture of your company as pertains to curiosity about your competitors?

42.9% Very Important

50.0% Important

14.3% Neutral

0.00% Unimportant

0.00% Very Unimportant

Comments

>Curiosity can also bridge industries and one may discover equipment and/or processes used in other industries that can be transferred to the pulp & Paper industry and vice versa. For example, over the past decade millions in grants have been spent on developing harvesting, collection, transport, storage, and preparation systems for nonwood fibers to make cellulosic biofuels when a lot if this work had already been done for nonwood pulp & paper mills back in the 1970's to 1990's but everyone wanted to reinvent these systems.

>We have corporate accounts to various industry news letters that all managers have access to. On all home pages there are industry articles that all employees can read. Competitors are discussed in meetings and we try to keep up with what is going on.

>Realization that our company doesn't have all the the answers has changed significantly in the last 20 years - for the better.

>I have saved my companies millions of dollars over my career by thinking outside the mill that I was working in. Need to always be striving to be better.

>Networking is a key part of keeping up with what is going on in the industry. While an employee may not be able to attend meetings and conferences, alumni and professors from your alma mater, industry suppliers and consultants that you meet, LinkedIn contacts and people in your community are sources of information and answers to your curiosity questions.

>Innovation culture is being improved in the company, but you are right, there still to much resistance towards avoiding "losing time" out of you area.

>Sometimes the problem is the lack of info for the employees.

>It has been hard to keep employees engaged in the health of the company. Some have lost interest in the future citing our non functioning Congress. Few seemed unable to understand ObamaCare or even try to understand because it does not seem to be something to worry about for the near future or be concerned that it will even come about.

Thank you for your responses.

This week's quiz is here.

Want to get a jump on the surveys? Follow me on twitter, where they are posted early. You can do this here. (note: all respondents are confidential; the software is programmed in such a way that neither we nor anyone else can determine who responded)

 

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Want to be heard on other subjects? Be sure to watch for "Paperitalo Second Tuesday Surveys."