During COVID-19 (now in the Spring of 2020) executives of mid-size manufacturers said they are focusing on 3 important things:  (1) maintaining staff productivity (46%), (2) adjusting to a new remote operating model (43%), and (3) managing overall cash flow (42%).

But they didn’t list employees, suppliers or customers!  What does that mean for them, and for you?

The brief trailer below explains what value you can expect to receive, at what frequency and length, when subscribing to this podcast.  It is specifically designed for leaders of mid-size manufacturing companies.

If you like what you learn, subscribe:  http://ed.gr/cpa97

Success manifests itself when your tagline and brand promise exist in reality. When they are in fact what the customer experiences. Here I describe four organizational situations which impact the answer to that question, and what actions to take in each one.

We’ve all met thousands of people over the years. Some stay in our lives, others leave. Does your “inner onion” reflect net value to you, and result from conscious decisions? We all have limited supplies of time and energy. Don’t waste either of those valuable resources.

Organizations that want to be agile must have, among other things, agile employees. Cross training is well known, but few consider it strategically, as it should be. Consider this an aspect of demand and supply management. Consider these insights in increasing the agility of your workforce.

We all agree that speed is important to business success. Yet, when it comes to making decisions we seem to take forever. Why is that? We want everyone who could conceivably be impacted to be in the discussions, and we act like decisions are permanent. The reality is most decisions can be modified as we gain more knowledge, and that people want to be heard but don’t have to be heard all the time on everything.

The Pareto Principle is well known but our changing world now requires us to truly understand what is behind it. In many cases what was 80/20 is now becoming 90/10 and 95/5. It’s never been wise to try to be all things to all people, but the future of your organization now depends on how well you truly understand your niche. Correlation and cause-and-effect are very different, and that difference is now too important to casually ignore.

In August of 1981 a massive assault on the music business model began when MTV went on air for the first time. It’s inaugural video: Video Killed the Radio Star. And indeed, it did.

Now the speed of technology advances, collectively referred to as Industry 4.0, is drowning many in the manufacturing industry. While large manufacturers are studying, testing and implementing numerous new capabilities, many small manufacturers continue to struggle with their ERP system. Will technology kill the small manufacturer?

Being constantly good is not good enough. Expectations rise. The common question is ‘what have you done for me lately?’ What have you done for your customers lately?

The variety of challenges you face today can easily be overwhelming. Tariffs. Low labor rate countries. China. Shortage of skilled people. But none of those is the most important for you, the leader, to address right now. That one is complacency. It can easily become insidious as small fires consume your time and energy.