New AICC Chairman (CONT’D FROM PAGE 1)
them. They organize the work, because every develop- ment plan is different. And they define excellence, then keep moving the bar, because people win from winning. My job this year, AICC's job this year, is to help our in- dustry build a real ladder. Not a title change. Not a differ- ent-colored lanyard. An actual path someone can see, be- lieve in, and climb. That ladder rests on three ideas. Value One: See It Before It's Obvious Here’s a line I want you to sit with: “Leadership isn’t a title. It’s a learned skill you have to teach and practice every day, at every level.” If that's true, then we are the teachers. Every owner and executive in this room is, first, a teacher — whether you signed up for that job or not. The first idea is seeing leadership potential before it announces itself. Your best future leaders won't walk into your office and tell you they're ready. They'll be the one who quietly fixes a problem on second shift and tells you about it after the fact. Most supervisors can't spot that yet — not because they're bad people, but because nobody ever taught them what to look for. So here's my ask: who on your floor is already lead- ing without the title? Some of you just thought of a name. Good — don't let it stay in your head. And teach your su- pervisors to ask that question too. Spot problems first, yes. But spot people.
The Reason For The Theme So let me tell you what keeps me up at night. Not con- solidation. Not AI. It's watching a generation of skilled box- makers retire faster than we're replacing the knowledge they carry. Corrugated is a hands-on business. The best future leaders in this room aren't sitting in a resume stack some-
where — they're on your plant floor right now, solving problems nobody asked them to solve. And here's what we usually do with that person: we make them a super- visor. Then we wonder why they struggle. The best machine operator
Mike Schaefer
does not automatically become a good supervisor. We know that. But our habit, as an industry, is to promote on tenure and technical skill and expect the rest to sort itself out. It doesn't. I have a guy at my plant — talented boxmaker, we promoted him, and he struggled. I started to wonder if it had been a mistake. Then we did something obvious: we started teaching him to lead. Not manage. Lead. It started working. Here's what I learned. Leaders do three things. They know their team — really know them, not hallway-know
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22 October 12, 2026
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