During his early career at the Charmin Paper Products company, John Sipple learns hard lessons on character, management, and mentorship. Here is an excerpt:
We got up, dressed, and after a quick breakfast with my parents, headed out in their Chevy station wagon. We were the first ones on the road that passed my parent’s farm and the big vehicle cut a fresh track in the six-inch accumulation, but once we made it to the main road we found that the snowplow had been there ahead of us. The two-hour trip took three hours that morning, but we arrived safely and made several important discoveries along the way.
The first discovery was about five miles before we got to Mehoopany. We passed through a town called Tunkhannock, nestled between the Susquehanna River and the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania. With all that fresh snow hanging in the trees, it was as picturesque as a New England post card. This turned out to be where most of the Charmin managers lived.
The second discovery came as we drove up to the Charmin Paper site. I expected a smelly old paper mill but what we found instead was a huge and impressive new facility. It was clear I had done zero research on this outfit — more testimony to my sorry attitude.
The final discovery came during the interview when I learned that Charmin Paper Products was a relatively new subsidiary of the renowned Procter and Gamble Company. The more I learned the more I liked the whole deal. It was an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of something new, yet it had the backing of a major U.S. company.
Click here to download Back To The Cottage: Chapter 5
