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Forward Focus – Montana Manufacturing Center – Fall 2008 Newsletter

Financial Crisis… You Are the Solution [Your Future Is at Stake]

The current economic “crisis” and shift in U. S. leadership leave business leaders uncertain about how to best position their companies.

My advice? Let’s do what we do best: Roll up our sleeves and get to work on improvements. More importantly, let’s do things to position manufacturing for better times.

I find it interesting that little debate took place about investing hundreds
of billions of dollars to “rescue” the financial industry…yet, as this is being written a huge debate continues about $25 billion for the automotive manufacturing industry. More than any other sector, manufacturing is an engine of economic growth: an additional
$1.37 of activity for every dollar in manufacturing goods, according to the National Association of Manufacturers
(NAM).

In general, I don’t agree with the philosophy
of rescue plans, especially when they reward poor management, because they threaten our long-term national interests. And here’s why.

Business takes risks hoping for a return. Well run businesses manage the risks to avoid the failure of the company
when things don’t turn out as they hoped. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that we see business failures from time to time. In fact, our bankruptcy system is designed to give a business protection
and oversight for a period of time so it can restructure and recover when too many things go wrong. Rewarding poor management perpetuates it, to our detriment. Worse, providing an out for poor decisions, – eliminating risk – at the expense of taxpayers, incents poor management practices and destroys free markets.

The economy will change in unpredictable
ways in the short time between my writing and your reading this article. Perhaps things will be more clear, but as of now things seem out of control…chaotic. The causes and results of the economic situation will be discussed
extensively. But the manufacturing
business community needs to step out and lead the way to a more desirable and stable future.

If at all possible, use the downturn to improve your own internal processes, increase efficiency, and eliminate waste. Task key staff with projects that will position you to capture market share and to penetrate new markets when the economy picks up. In short, capture the opportunity that the current chaos offers to grow your future profits.

Full Newsletter: http://www.mtmanufacturingcenter.com/PDFs/fall08.pdf

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