David Burger hoisted the first sandbag and carefully placed it beside the grenade—a live grenade that could “cook off” at any moment. The soldiers under his command watched him, then followed suit. They worked in sweltering heat, securing volatile, unexploded munitions that lay in the dunes along the Kuwait-Iraq border after Operation Desert Storm. Burger worked beside his men until the job was done.
“I knew I could have stood back and said ‘Go do it,’ and they would have done it. But I wanted them to know that I would do it, too,” Burger says. He took that attitude with him through eight years of service in the Army, where he rose to the rank of staff sergeant, and to his first job at Liberty Carton Company, on the shop floor, in 1992.
“Dave is one of those quiet leaders who really leads by example,” says Ann Miller, corporate culture specialist at privately held Liberty Carton (a division of Liberty Diversified Industries), where Burger is now metro plant manager. “People respect him and trust that he has their best interest at heart.”
Burger was the first union employee at the New Hope–based company to jump to a supervisory role. Today, at 43, he oversees all manufacturing operations and about 300 employees at Liberty’s two Minnesota plants, in Golden Valley and Brooklyn Park. His boss, Metro General Manager Steve Helmstetter, credits Burger with driving company-wide improvements in operational processes, cost containment, cultural change, and safety.
Burger is especially proud of Liberty’s improved safety records. In 1998, the Golden Valley facility reported 58 injuries; last year, it had only 6, with no lost work hours. At the same time, the plant manufactured a record volume of product for the fiscal year: 1.2 billion square feet.
Burger believes that a culture of safety is built from the top down. But he has “an incredible knack for being able to relate to people at all levels of the organization,” Miller says. “One thing that is always a challenge—and opportunity—for us in manufacturing is to remove the barriers between union and nonunion employees. Dave has always been able to make that bridge so beautifully, and to help others make it, too.”
Burger says, “I try to open their eyes and educate at the same time.” He tells about a 57-year-old supervisor who had decided not to give his workers merit raises, because he felt their performance was unsatisfactory. After Burger sat down with him and reviewed his goals and plan of action, the supervisor realized that he should be doing the same thing for his people. The next day he came to Burger and said he had adjusted his expectations for his team—and given them merit raises.
“I knew I’d broken a little ground that day,” Burger says. “I like planting the seeds.”
In 1997, when the Red River Valley was flooding, Burger volunteered for active duty in the National Guard, and received commendations from the guard and the governor for his flood relief work. At Liberty, he is an unflagging champion of continuous improvement and giving back. A few years ago, Burger pioneered the company’s “Great Place to Work” initiative, forming a committee of employees from all levels of the company and charging them with improving morale and the work environment. He’s a leader in the company’s Toastmasters club and an “LDI Leader in Giving” for the United Way campaign.
“Dave can wear so many hats—we’d love to see him overseeing all aspects of the business, not just the operations side,” Miller says.
Helmstetter claims he has only one problem with managing Burger: “I have to make sure he doesn’t take on too much, because I certainly don’t want him to burn himself out! There’s just no ‘off’ button with Dave.”
