The Linpac Legacy (CONT’D FROM PAGE 24)
called “RichieWare,” which he and Roe put in an IBM sys- tem 34 for use on mini-mainframe computers – an industry also in its infancy – to produce spreadsheets and budget systems for the Linpac sheet feeders. Nigel became an ex- pert in the use of Lotus 123, the original Excel. Color print- ers did not yet exist. “Let’s just say there was a lot of ‘trial and error’ that went into developing that early system,” admitted Gold- berg, who pointed to the fact that the evolution of comput- ers coincided with the evolution of Linpac as a company. “It was 1981 when we opened the Greensboro plant that I first worked with the IBM system 34 and later, the 36. We at Linpac were the first ones, in my recollection, that were able to tie directly into the Marquip knife and automate the system. It was Nigel’s and Bob’s trust in all of us Linpac employees that allowed us to become automated, which was a crucial factor in the company’s success.” Before the automated system was installed, all orders were handled by hand. Remembered Roe, “The girls used to write it down and put it in an order and then we had to shuffle the orders according to the paper grades we were using. Then we fed cards into a little machine to create trial balances because at that time we had no computer systems.” It was when Linpac committed to opening a corporate office in Atlanta in 1984 that Goldberg and his future wife picked up their roots in the New York area and moved CONTINUED ON PAGE 28
a company called Visy, and left Linpac to become a direct competitor. He later started Jet Corr in the Atlanta area at a time when corrugated companies began splintering.” With the departure of Brown, Bob Lang, another En- glishman, was named president of Linpac in 1985. Lang was and had always been a believer in people. “After a few years working at Bob’s side, he shared a frank con- versation on execution and growth in which he said that if he had to make ten decisions, I would surely get nine right and he was willing to bet on number 10. This was classic Bob. As the relationship with Nigel and Bob flourished, so did the trust and confidence in the employees and team to develop the business.” Linpac Automates Since Roe had been performing every role in Linpac from HR to AR and everything in between, he was also responsible for securing and implementing a computer system – including a finance accounting system – to au- tomate the rapidly growing company. This was about the time he met a young, brash and brilliant computer pro- grammer named Richard Goldberg, who was writing soft- ware for an IBM business partner in New York. Since it was the early 1980s and there were no com- puter systems that “lent themselves” to the corrugated industry, it was clearly time to create one. With a platform Goldberg developed a new and unique software product
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December 16, 2024
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