In 1935, Kurt Salmon, based in Nashville, Tennessee, started an organisation that still reflects his values and personality, more than 25 years after his retirement.
Trained as a textile engineer in Coblenz, Germany, Kurt Salmon immigrated to the United States in 1930 and worked in a hosiery mill. He became a consultant because he enjoyed improving things and measuring results.
He switched to apparel because it was more labour intensive than hosiery and offered greater cost-reduction potential. But first Kurt had to convince skeptical apparel manufacturers that an outsider could help. He did this with analytical persuasiveness and his unique personality, which combined old-world formality with a delightfully dry, pun-filled sense of humour.
About all, Kurt loved people and his family, his wife and four children, along with his KSA family of hundreds. He was a genuinely considerate and caring friend to his employees, as well as a manager who respected the professionals who worked with, not for, him.