I was talking to John Greene a few days ago and he gave me the insider’s view of the foundry business in America. John runs FL Sales, Inc., a used machinery firm specializing in the world of molten metal. To my surprise, it’s smoking. John said that the dirty old foundries we associate with the shuttered rust belt remnants are long gone. The foundries that survived have modernized and meet environmental standards. A lot of work did flow to cheap labor countries but many companies have learned that cheap labor does not necessarily mean viable product. Greene says that virtually…
Author: Lloyd Graff
I watch the financial squawkers on TV while I’m sweating on the treadmill in the morning, but the relentless chirping about recession and doom is getting me down, which is not useful in my real life. I get no relief from NPR on the radio when I drive to work. The commentators are continually alluding to the “terrible” economy. Then, when I reach the factory I turn on my iPad to check Yahoo! Finance and peruse the Wall Street Journal online. Another dose of pessimism. Then I say hello to certain coworkers, who repeat some of the bad news I’ve already heard. What a ridiculous way to start a…
I received a call from an old business associate recently who wanted to talk about a piece in Today’s Machining World. It was a pleasant enough conversation, but all I could think about was his voice. He sounded so old. I realized that I make so many judgments on what people sound like and how they choose their words. Last night my wife wasn’t feeling well and she was expressing her sinus misery not in what she said, but in her intonation. When kids walk into the classroom, a teacher sets the mood and tone with the first utterance. We…
Recently Tiger Woods fired his longtime caddy Steve Williams. It became a big story in the sports media because Williams had high visibility at Tiger’s many triumphs, and I would assume he knew a lot about Tiger’s personal travails. The question that arises for me is, how important is a caddy to a professional golfer? Is a caddy more analogous to a personal assistant in business, or Tenzing Norgay who climbed Mount Everest in 1953 with Edmund Hillary? Stevie Williams immediately hooked on to Adam Scott, a 31-year-old journeyman on tour from Australia who was “the next big thing” ten…
I was talking with a client recently who was happy to relate how his company was doing. The firm makes brass and steel fluid handling hardware sold at big box retailers and through industrial distributors worldwide. The company had six plants, three in the U.S. and three in China, but has closed one in China and is in the process of closing a second. The cost advantages of making product in China have eroded. The strength of the Yuan currency, quality challenges, supply chain interruptions, and the human cost of running people back and forth has caused them to pull…
We were visiting my daughter and son-in-law in Palo Alto and wanted to celebrate life by going to their favorite restaurant, the Flea St. Café, in Menlo Park. We had a wonderful meal and wanted to top it off with dessert. Everything at this establishment is made with in-season local ingredients. We ordered blackberry pie, blueberry panna cotta, and angel food cake with fresh strawberries to share. The menu said that the angel food cake had the herb thyme in it, which seemed absurd, but my wife wanted angel food cake so we ordered it. The waiter had actually tried…
The U.S. women’s soccer team lost to Japan in the finals of the World Cup but the game to remember was the absolutely thrilling quarterfinal against Brazil, which I would call one of the greatest games (of any kind) I have ever watched. I have taken great joy from being a fan and cheering for my children and wife in countless games and tournaments. My parents were avid fans of my sports career. I will never forget my Dad setting up a movie camera at one of my basketball games and my mother shouting above everybody else in the crowd…
I’m going to try to make a little sense out of the unemployment statistics from my vantage point in the American economy. The stats show 9.2% unemployment, yet in my economic world most people are in hiring mode. Some people I talk to are looking for specific skills, like knowledge about CNC operation or screw machine set up, but even more are looking for people with a good work ethic and a willingness to learn and work hard. A few years ago it was all about recruiting skills, finding a disaffected person or enticing somebody with a fat package. Today…
I read an interesting piece about the Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) approach to recruiting. There is a new tech bubble puffing up in Silicon Valley these days, and the competition for talent is fierce. When Facebook identifies a candidate they are hot for, Zuckerberg takes over the close. His approach is “the walk in the forest.” Near the Facebook campus is a forested area abutting Stanford University. Rather than holding an office interview, the 27-year-old CEO asks the person he is interested in to take a hike with him through the nearby woods. You don’t turn down the boy billionaire’s request…
I went to my longtime family physical therapist, Doug Conroy, Monday, and after spending an hour talking, feeling and observing my body I could see he was measuring his words—not a good sign. His conclusion, pending doctor verification, was that if I want the ability to get the exercise I need to have a good quality of life, I’m probably going to need knee replacement surgery. It was not necessarily the news I wanted, but it was no huge surprise with the chronic knee pain I feel. I’ve written about orthopedic implants, visited Zimmer and DePuy in Warsaw, Indiana, and…