By Mark Rushton, Editor, PPI magazine, RISI
LONDON, July 3, 2008 - The July issue of PPI magazine has just landed on my desk, and I just have to say what a groundbreaking issue it is! For the first time in the history of the global industry we have put together a list of the top 50 players who influence the world of pulp and paper. The final list is a diverse mix of those that wield power and have influence, but more importantly it is those that can cause industrial sized, worldwide ripples with a casual throwaway line or a couple of strokes of a pen.
We have worked hard on putting this list together. For the last three months we have been badgering and annoying industry professionals from all over the world with questions on just who they think should be on the list. The people we asked were consultants, economists, journalists - and it will not have escaped your notice - you, our readers.
The response has been phenomenal, not just the amount of nominations, but also the variety. From forest to pulp, to paper, and then into the world of the consumer - there is even a very high level politician nominated! But I am giving nothing away in this blog, I am not even going to list the top five, you are going to have to wait until PPI July lands on your own desk, and if you don’t get it, beg, borrow or steal a copy as it is vital reading if you work in this industry.
What I will give away however, is the names of two of the people on our separate list, the one of those influencers who are no longer with us, the masters of invention who have passed on. These two in particular passed away a long time ago, in fact one centuries ago, and the other millenniums ago, but they have - and still do in their own way - wield a massive influence, not only on the paper industry, but on the world as a whole with their inventions of pure genius.
At number two on the list of deceased greats is Johannes Gensfleisch zum Gutenberg, inventor of movable type and therefore the father of the mass produced printed word. This invention was one of the foundation stones of modern civilization as we know it, movable type allowed education, learning and methods of advancement to be communicated at a totally new level never before experienced. This is why the great man was voted as “Man of the Millennium” by American journalists in the book “1000 Years 1000 People” published at the turn of the millennium. The invention, of course, also transformed paper making into the mighty colossus it is today.
But the number one spot must be reserved for Cai Lun, or Ts’ai Lun, the Chinese court eunuch who in 105AD invented the stuff that every day we write on, write about, talk about and who some of us even make. In a very recent title, The Observer Book of Invention, Lun was given the first and foremost page in the book, under the title of “Fathers of Invention: great figures who shaped our world.” One quote from the page said: “This invention set China on a path that would make it the world’s scientific and technological superpower for more than a millennium. Whereas before the only writing medium had been costly silk or heavy bamboo, the cheap, lightweight paper invented by Lun, allowed the civilization to flourish……..”.
And this all goes to prove that history really does repeat itself.
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