Special Report -- Breakaway: Focus on Small Business
From Basketball to Boxing
BY TODD W. CARTER
During his 14 seasons playing professional basketball, when Bill
Laimbeer Jr. made an impression on someone, it was usually with
his elbows.
Now, as the president and chief executive officer of Laimbeer Packaging
Co. in Melvindale, Mich., the former Detroit Pistons center is finding
that patience -- not aggressiveness -- is a more effective virtue
in business. It took him two years after his December 1993 retirement
from the National Basketball Association to discover that.
"I operated at a high, world-championship level of intensity
and urgency" during 12 years with the Pistons, says the 43-year-old
Mr. Laimbeer. "In business, that tends to wear people down.
It goes [at] a little slower pace." (He spent the first two
years playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers.)
'Steady' Growth
After deciding in the fall of 1993 to retire from basketball, Mr.
Laimbeer almost immediately looked ahead to his next career move.
In early 1994, his father and two sisters joined him in purchasing
two corrugated-shipping-container facilities from Stone Container
Corp., which has since changed its name to Smurfit-Stone Container
Corp. (They were partners with Smurfit-Stone until last spring,
when they bought out the Chicago-based company's interest.)
Mr. Laimbeer's father, William Laimbeer Sr., had been an executive
in the forest-products division of Toledo, Ohio-based Owens-Illinois
Inc. He taught his son everything he knew about the industry before
retiring last December. "I would not have gotten into boxes
without him being in boxes," Bill Laimbeer Jr. admits.
The company now has about 300 employees, two manufacturing plants
and two distribution centers, all in southeastern Michigan. It generates
annual revenue of about $62 million -- about $10 million more than
when Mr. Laimbeer's family started the company. Mr. Laimbeer is
projecting yearly growth of 5%, which he calls a "nice, slow,
steady pace." The industry average is 2.5%, he says.
Laimbeer Packaging is highly dependent on Michigan's automotive
industry, with 70% of revenue coming from automobile makers or their
suppliers. Most of its 200 customers are located within 150 miles
of Detroit.
"You can have all the best-laid plans in the whole world, saying
how you may want to try to diversify out of, and not rely on, automotive,"
Mr. Laimbeer says. "This is an automotive town. Always will
be. You just can't get away from it."
Baddest Bad Boy
Mr. Laimbeer seems to have mellowed since his NBA days. But he's
quick to admonish an interviewer who refers to his company's product
as "cardboard," rather than "corrugated" packaging.
"Like I said before, your shirt comes in a cardboard box,"
he explains. "Corrugated is with the little squiggly stuff
in the middle."
Blessed with one of basketball's most prized assets -- size -- Mr.
Laimbeer was burdened by slowness and poor jumping ability during
his NBA stint. Nevertheless, he was a fearless competitor who, unlike
many big men, possessed a deadly accurate shot. At one time, he
shared the league record for three-pointers in an NBA finals game.
NBA All-Star
Although he was not in demand after graduating from Notre Dame
and had to begin his basketball career in Italy, he returned to
the U.S. and helped lead the Pistons to two championships, made
the NBA all-star team four times and, at the time of his 1993 retirement,
was one of only 19 players with 10,000 points and 10,000 rebounds.
But it is his physical -- many said dirty -- play that opponents
and teammates will remember. A ferocious competitor who was often
fined for being a roughneck, reveling in his role as the baddest
of the Bad Boys (as the Pistons were then known), Mr. Laimbeer greeted
boos throughout the league by putting his hand to his ear, as if
to say, "I can't hear you!"
Instant Gratification
He retired 13 games into his final season, saying his desire was
gone and that he was becoming the kind of player he always hated
-- lacking desire and the ability to contribute. He also suffered
from an aching back and knees.
Mr. Laimbeer has made it known that he wants to be an NBA coach
someday. If a team, especially the Pistons, offers him the role,
he'll gladly remain an investor in Laimbeer Packaging while handing
over the ball to one of his executives.
Mr. Laimbeer explains that coaching offers something business rarely
does. "It is a very highly competitive, instantly gratifying
business." In pro basketball, "you know every night whether
you won or you lost."
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