This week, NASA marked a milestone: the first object manufactured outside of Earth. We may talk about “space tourism” as a specialized form of space travel; even the most cutting-edge space exploration, though, is disconcertingly similar to the basic experience of Earth-bound voyaging. You pack your bags, trying your best to plan for every circumstance that might arise while you’re away, and then you’re stuck with what you’ve brought. In space’s case, the suitcases in question may be spacecraft and the tools required may be slightly more complex than voltage converters and travel-size shampoos … but the idea’s the same:…
Author: Lloyd Graff
As Thanksgiving is upon us, a few issues will likely preoccupy many Americans. Many of us will be unhappy with the quality of the cooking, and our dinner guests will annoy us. On Thursday, some people will be saddened by the result of a football game. I like to classify these issues as “First World problems.” When I get annoyed because I haven’t eaten lunch by 3pm, or I get some grease on my pants from leaning on a dirty screw machine, or maybe I’m just having trouble dunking a cookie in my glass of milk (see photo), I smile…
Is 3D printing going to radically change manufacturing as we know it? I see General Electric investing mega millions in 3D printing of components for jet engines. The top management at GE sees additive technologies as the future of manufacturing. Hewlett Packard sees the 3D printer as their big consumer product of the next 10 years. They think it will stand next to the traditional computer ink printer business as a profit center by the 2020s. I ask you, the smart folks of old school manufacturing, is 3D the next big thing, or just an interesting adjunct technology like wire…
I got started in dog rescue about four years ago when I adopted my beagle, Penny. She was bought by a dog rescue at an Amish dog auction in Ohio, which is similar to a machinery auction. Animals used for breeding are numbered and auctioned off to the highest bidder with selling points like “four healthy litters last year!” and “breed in demand!” The Amish are well despised in the rescue community for their treatment of dogs, which to them are akin to cattle. Penny’s feet were splayed wide and raw from the chicken wire she had lived her life on, and…
My father had an expression he often used when the phones were quiet and business was snoozing, “It’s time to start ‘dogging.'” He meant it was time to get on the phone and start connecting with people. Time to make something happen. Lately, I’ve started “dogging” again and the cool thing is that it’s working better than the Internet, prospecting, or that old stand-by, “hoping for something good to happen.” Besides making some deals, I’ve learned stuff by talking to clients or “would be” clients. Here are a few nuggets I’ve learned recently. ******* There is some really terrific technology…
The election is over. Thanksgiving is in three weeks. Basketball and hockey are rolling. So it’s time to start thinking how 2015 might be different. What stands out for me is the sense of disgust and futility amidst what in most years would be considered terrific economic figures. This election was all about “pissed off,” not ideas. Pessimism seems to reign. I know I feel it in my own business, even though the numbers for the year show a big improvement over 2013. I think for the people I work with the angst also exists. Why aren’t people happier? I…
With its creaky infrastructure, tight labor laws, and famously large bureaucracy, India has never been the easiest place in the world to do business; The World Bank ranks the country 134th out of 189 countries in its “ease of doing business” rankings. Since becoming India’s prime minister in May, Narendra Modi has vowed to change this reputation.* On Thursday, Modi announced a series of reforms to India’s labor laws, including one allowing employees to tie their Provident account—a government-supported payroll funding scheme—to their personal bank account. This will make it easier for people to hold onto their money when they change jobs,…
We are all in this world economy together, and for most of my life the basic rule of money was that it would lose value year after year because inflation would always take its 2-4% nibble. But it is starting to look like that rule, that seemingly immutable act of the god of the economy, has been turned on its head. The Europeans led by the bone rigid Germans and the limpy wimpy head of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, are dragging themselves into deflation. The Japanese, with their country of old people, have been in deflation for almost…
I hate the word “Steady.” We call our customers and politely interrogate them about their machinery needs. We often ask them a simple question, “How’s business?” The answer we often hear these days is, “It’s steady.” “Good,” we respond. But what I’d really like to say is, “What the heck does ‘steady’ mean?” “Steady” is one of the most meaningless words in the English vernacular. It is a dodge, a way to say “it’s none of your business so I’m going to politely tell you to mind your own business.” I’ve never seen a steady business. Each day is a…
Baseball season is finally almost done, and it’s time for the greatest athletes in the world to take the NBA floor. In honor of the upcoming basketball season, I am reviewing former NBA coach Phil Jackson’s fascinating biography, Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success. Many basketball fans know a little bit about Jackson’s unconventional techniques for getting his teams to win. Jackson’s book fleshes out the methods and philosophy he used while he coached and gives the reader inside baseball, or in this case “inside basketball,” into what actually happened while coaching the Bulls and Lakers dynasties and when he…