Liberty Intercept Blog

Today's post is from guest Albert Greenhut of EMI.

This being an election year, we are hyper-aware of all the ways government impacts and affects our lives. The myriad taxes, foreign policy in the form of free trade agreements and import / export duties, even how private business interacts with the government, ongoing environmental debates, and so on.

Many of these ideas and changes have merit, but always seem to come with strings attached; some are just so convoluted and complex that it becomes difficult to determine who will be impacted and how. The view from the cheap seats allows me to ask, "what if a business could contribute toward solving many of these major issues while saving itself money and becoming more efficient?"

I’ve been a Twitter participant/enthusiast for about three years. For the uninitiated, Twitter is an online social networking service which claims 300 million users as of last April and continues to grow. With four Twitter profiles and upwards of 12,000 Tweets combined I can tell you, truly, I learn something each day from my fellow Tweeters. Let me share a few useful tidbits I’ve gleaned about packaging, converting, manufacturing, safety, sales, marketing, and customer service on Twitter.

Packaging: from @packagingdiva (JoAnn Hines), if you share a packaging challenge with The Diva and her connections, you will solve it quickly, making myriad new friends along the way.

Customer Service: from @thesaleslion (Marcus Sheridan), if you’re bold, decisive and make your blog content useful for your audience, you’ll rapidly gain and maintain customer loyalty. Another premium customer service role model is @Zappos (Zappos Shoes Online)

We talk about corrosion every day in our business. Corrosion costs the United States over $276 billion per year, according to this vivid video depiction by NACE International produced for the PBS series "Spotlight On..."

From guest blogger Albert Greenhut of EMI.

I recently spent a year working in South Africa. The majority of my working hours were spent navigating the winding streets of townships helping organize and manage HIV/AIDS educational programs for kids. In my free time I tried to put myself in fun adventurous situations, like bungee jumping over the Zambezi River (in which I rafted down the class 5 rapids the day before), island hopping in northern Madagascar, safaris, climbing Kilimanjaro, and hunting in the South African bush.

Today I learned that aseptic milk cartons (invented by Tetra-Pak), which are shelf-stable and do not require refrigeration, have long ago overtaken the old-fashioned glass bottle and, as Web Packaging describes it: "As a result, the aseptic carton, which predominates in Europe and Asia, has also made the refrigerated carton an afterthought in most of the world." The importance of this aseptic milk carton cannot be understated, as it allows people in developing countries to have easy, safe, convenient sustenance in the form of milk that keeps for months without refrigeration. We've mentioned here before that packaging can solve the world's hunger problem - this is clearly a step in the right direction.

By now you may have sensed the recurring theme of our recent posts, that of enthusiasm. This guest post by returning guest blogger Albert Greenhut, of EMI, hits the nail right on the head. Credit Albert for the photo of our enthusiastic sales team, at left.

Going from the high energy, high activity, and steady thump, thump, thump of the bag making machines to the muted skepticism and hushed conversations at the start of a sales meeting was a study in contrasts. The bag machines kept that steady beat going, no interruptions, no thoughts of anything but doing the job, making the bags, getting it done. The sales meeting, by contrast, was designed to see if that same dedication to getting the job done could be transferred to people, instead of transfer of film through the dancer rolls, the goal was training and a transfer of enthusiasm to the people. Joe Spitz and John Murphy both verbalized that at the beginning of the Liberty distributor training session: sales is the transfer of enthusiasm.

Today's guest post was contributed by Albert Greenhut of EMI. We happily welcome his input - Albert's photo and bio appear below the article.

I was once invited to be a salesman for a supply company. I have been told that I am personable and relatively well spoken, leading this HR representative to make such an offer. I mulled over this decision and turned down the offer because I thought that under the pressure of a sale I couldn’t perform, or that I would find my silver tongue corroding under pressure.

We love all things packaging here at Liberty Packaging. We also appreciate innovation in other areas. ThomasNet's Industry Marketing News recently presented five breakthrough materials that have the potential to change the way we live. Even if you're already familiar with any or all, you cannot disagree: this is the stuff of which science fiction is molded.

Whether in business, or in our personal lives, part of doing the right thing these days involves increasing attention to sustainability concerns. With that in mind, we wanted to reshare some of our posts dealing with environmental and sustainability issues, in the world of packaging and beyond, beginning with our post defining the term "sustainable packaging" with the help of the SPC.

Most people appreciate a well-tested recipe. For that reason, I'm happy to share the recipe depicted at left, which was submitted to Southern Living Magazine by a Texan named Kathryn Watkins in 1984, and tested to be delectable by me and my dinner guests many times over. It would be a rich and delicious addition to your Thanksgiving (or regular day) table.