Bernard Paulson

"In the early 1980s, after he was unfettered from his dissident brothers, Charles Koch began to reveal just what his management dreams would look like. There was an auditorium at Koch Industries headquarters, and Charles Koch began to hold events there, filling the seats with between four hundred and five hundred of his most senior managers. Lynn Markel, Brad Hall, Bernard Paulson, and others would file into the room and take their seats. The events were not the typical corporate presentation; Charles didn’t use the forum to talk about business operations or to hold some kind of pep rally. Instead, Charles Koch often sat in the audience himself, taking notes. The executives sitting near Charles Koch saw that this wasn’t a business meeting—class was in session. In fact, they were attending the first seminars in a decades-long curriculum that would become the central work of Charles Koch’s life."

"Koch Industries sold a lot of crude oil to a refinery owned by Sun Oil in Corpus Christi. But Koch didn’t just collect money when it sold crude to Sun Oil. It also collected intelligence. Bernard Paulson’s team knew how much oil Sun was purchasing, and what kind of oil. Then he learned who Sun’s customers were, and what those customers paid for Sun’s product. Paulson began using his computer models to study the market that surrounded Sun Oil’s refinery. He studied what equipment was inside the refinery and at what volume that equipment could process oil. He learned what products Sun was making and at what volumes. He learned where Sun was selling its products and at what price. The Sun Oil refinery in Corpus Christi processed the same kind of “light crude” that most other refineries used.I Sun Oil did not have the type of coker towers that processed the heavy, sulfur-rich crudes refined at Pine Bend."

"In the early 1980s, after he was unfettered from his dissident brothers, Charles Koch began to reveal just what his management dreams would look like. There was an auditorium at Koch Industries headquarters, and Charles Koch began to hold events there, filling the seats with between four hundred and five hundred of his most senior managers. Lynn Markel, Brad Hall, Bernard Paulson, and others would file into the room and take their seats. The events were not the typical corporate presentation; Charles didn’t use the forum to talk about business operations or to hold some kind of pep rally. Instead, Charles Koch often sat in the audience himself, taking notes. The executives sitting near Charles Koch saw that this wasn’t a business meeting—class was in session. In fact, they were attending the first seminars in a decades-long curriculum that would become the central work of Charles Koch’s life."

"Every year, Charles Koch held an award ceremony in Wichita to recognize employees who had done an outstanding job. One year, he singled out Bernard Paulson. Standing before the gathering of his brain trust, Charles Koch recited a long list of Paulson’s accomplishments: the expansions, the market analysis, the new investments that steadily won Koch more market share. Paulson later said that it was embarrassing to be lauded before his peers, but there was clearly some part of him that enjoyed it. Charles Koch seemed to be praising Paulson to convey one lesson: Paulson had treated the Pine Bend refinery like it was his own company. Paulson didn’t act like an employee; he acted like a small-business owner. Paulson thought for himself, and he treated Koch Industries’ money as if it were his own. And Paulson shared in the glory once it was realized. “He pointed out, ‘This is entrepreneurial,’ ” Paulson recalled. “He said that’s what he wanted the entire company to do. To be entrepreneurs.”"

"Koch Industries sold a lot of crude oil to a refinery owned by Sun Oil in Corpus Christi. But Koch didn’t just collect money when it sold crude to Sun Oil. It also collected intelligence. Bernard Paulson’s team knew how much oil Sun was purchasing, and what kind of oil. Then he learned who Sun’s customers were, and what those customers paid for Sun’s product. Paulson began using his computer models to study the market that surrounded Sun Oil’s refinery. He studied what equipment was inside the refinery and at what volume that equipment could process oil. He learned what products Sun was making and at what volumes. He learned where Sun was selling its products and at what price. The Sun Oil refinery in Corpus Christi processed the same kind of “light crude” that most other refineries used.I Sun Oil did not have the type of coker towers that processed the heavy, sulfur-rich crudes refined at Pine Bend."