Champion International Paper was a large paper and wood products producer. In 2000, the company was bought by International Paper. Champion had operated since the late 19th century in the USA and other countries.
In the 1980s, Champion's Chief Executive Officer, Andrew C. Sigler, pushed the company to find new ways to redesign work and improve the operations and quality of products. This led to a more than decade long change effort strongly guided by principles of sociotechnical design. Eventually, the success of initial projects led the whole company to adopt the same process. By various measures of revenue, output, and quality, the changes were successful.
In the 1990s, projected environmental concerns were expected to affect the company's prospects for future growth. For example, in the US, the growing awareness that the country was running out of space in its garbage dumps; and this signaled unanticipated changes in the markets served by the paper industry. Also, minimum standards for the use of recycled paper were adopted in the US and elsewhere. Concerns about water pollution and toxic waste as a byproduct of the milling process were increasing as well.
The company's stock price was stagnant by the late 1990s as a new CEO, Richard Olson, came to the helm.
Famous quotes containing the words champion and/or paper:
“What a terrible thing has happened to us all! To you there, to us here, to all everywhere. Peace who was becoming bright-eyed, now sits in the shadow of death; her handsome champion has been killed as he walked by her very side. Her gallant boy is dead. What a cruel, foul, and most unnatural murder! We mourn here with you, poor, sad American people.”
—Sean O’Casey (1884–1964)
“It is to be noted that when any part of this paper appears dull there is a design in it.”
—Richard Steele (1672–1729)