When he took the Scott job in 1994, Al Dunlap was not widely known in U.S. business circles. But this quickly changed. Dunlap's turnaround efforts at Scott Paper were widely publicized in the business press. Many reporters featured his "Rambo in Pinstripes" and "Chainsaw Al" nicknames in their stones, portraying him as a heartless hatchet man who tore companies apart with his style of shock therapy—selling off assets, dismantling the old guard and the old culture, revamping strategies, laying off workers—all in the name of higher profits and capital gains for shareholders. Many reports of his actions at Scott Paper were unfavorable, largely because of the drastic job cuts and plant closings, and the writers' skepticism about the legitimacy of the rapid-fire changes he was making.