PaperChain Chats: Gerry Klug, International Paper
PaperChain Chats | NPTA | March 08, 2021
When it came to the turmoil and uncertainty of business last year, Gerry Klug kept everything in perspective. “Our job is what we do, it’s not who we are,” says Gerry Klug, the sales director for converting and printing papers at International Paper, in the latest PaperChain Chat. He kept that in mind when dealing with all of the sudden changes that arose due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While some aspects of life in 2020 were essentially universal, at the end of the day everyone was going through a unique experience based on their individual circumstances. Accordingly, Klug’s philosophy throughout the year was to recognize that fact and treat everyone on his team differently according to their particular situation. At the same time, he strove to make small improvements every day so that over time, the situation would improve. “All we were trying to do each and every day was be a little better that day than we had been the day before,” Klug tells NPTA’s Lauren Liacouras.
Now that we’re several months into 2021, Klug believes there are things to look forward to, even if this year will bring its own set of challenges. He’s especially excited for the prospect of gathering in person with industry peers again. Though Zoom and other videoconferencing tools proved to be very effective last year and will certainly feature prominently in business moving forward, there’s nothing quite like meeting face-to-face. Klug also foresees an opportunity to strengthen industry ties this year. “How do we work together to form a better, stronger business alliance for the industry as we move forward?” he says.
During the PaperChain Chat, Klug and Liacouras discuss a number of topics, including the importance of safety and sustainability for paper merchants. For Klug, nothing is more important than making sure employees leave work at the end of the day in the same state that they arrived in. That’s why International Paper starts and ends each call by touching base on workplace safety. Meanwhile, Klug emphasizes the importance of enacting sustainable forestry policies. “If we don’t have a process that is renewable on an ongoing basis, we run out of the ability to make our products,” he says, describing sustainability as “core to what we do on a daily basis.”