Quite a few manufacturing leaders that I talk to – whether through interviews on this show or in marketing consultations that I conduct – are leading second or third-generation family-owned businesses.

They've built successful companies, but have struggled to let go of responsibilities, to delegate and to empower their people to play a role in shaping the company's future success.

As lean manufacturing consultant Matthew Rassi will remind us, what got you here won't necessarily get you there. In this conversation, Matthew talks about the intersection of servant leadership and lean manufacturing practices, and how together, they can help you build a loyal, engaged and self-directed workforce.

Where do new product ideas come from?

Do they stem from the needs of your customers and prospects? Or do they come from what you THINK your prospects and customers might need?

In today's conversation, Founder of AIM Institute, Dan Adams, will talk about how to drive new product blueprinting through real customer insights.

When I think about sustainability, MY mind goes straight to the environment. But when Managing Partner of Community Solar Authority, Dakota Malone, thinks about sustainability, the environment is one of four pillars that all work together.

In this conversation, Dakota breaks them down for you and explains why today's manufacturing leaders should care.

All the interactions that happen from first touch with a prospect through the signed purchase order, and in the future as your customer buys from you again and again, are part of the buyer experience.

And making every one of those touch points as painless and rewarding as possible should be all of our goals.

CEO and Co-Founder of GenAlpha Technologies, Kris Harrington, is digital commerce expert. And in this conversation, she'll share 10 ways to eliminate buyer friction (while simultaneously unburdening your customer service team) through a digital commerce environment.

When you make the investment in a sturdy digital backbone for running your manufacturing operation – your ERP, your QMS, your MES....

– You protect yourself from loss of tribal knowledge

– You create efficiencies through process documentation

– You set yourself up for smoother compliance audits

– And ultimately, you create an environment that can foster scalable growth

In this conversation, Co-Founder of ProShop ERP, Paul Van Metre, breaks it down.

For 200 consecutive weeks without missing a single Tuesday morning, I've published interviews with manufacturing leaders (and professionals influencing manufacturing leaders) about the things that matter most to them.

In this milestone episode, I've compiled sound bites from 21 of those 200 episodes (and referenced many others as well), and I've organized what I've heard and summarized what I've learned around seven central themes. They are:

1. Supply chain

2. Labor

3. The next generation

4. Automation

5. Digitization and industry 4.0

6. Sustainability

7. Leadership

When I hear the word "service" in a business setting, my mind goes straight to CUSTOMER service. But the concept of serving becomes so much more powerful when it finds its way into all the other aspects of running a business.

In this episode, business coach Fred Reggie talks about about building what he calls a service culture.

Specifically, he touches on the importance of two-way communication, clearly articulating your organization's mission and achieving universal buy-in throughout your organization around that mission.

If you sell big-ticket, heavily-engineered, CapEx equipment through a long, consultative sales processes, e-commerce couldn't possibly be for you. Right?

If you're a contract manufacturer custom designing products for your customers, e-commerce couldn't possibly be for you. Right?

If you're a manufacturer selling anything other than a low-price point, commodity product, e-commerce couldn't possibly be for you. Right?

Well, if you stick around for this conversation, my guess is that 40 minutes from now, you might feel differently about any of these three scenarios.

Curt Anderson, founder of B2BTail, is an e-commerce expert – specifically in the B2B manufacturing sector.

He's got a new definition of e-commerce for you, and a bunch of applications you might not have considered.

Managing fixed labor costs is hard enough in a complex manufacturing environment.

Then you throw a pandemic on top of it that only deepens an already problematic labor market, you sprinkle in some supply chain disruption and you add some economic uncertainty to the mix. What do you have left?

Lots of confusion and stress about how to plan for labor in your business.

In today's conversation, Adam Rubatt, Director, Operations Intelligence at Veryable, explains why we need to start thinking differently about staffing. More specifically, he'll introduce a concept that his company refers to as "on-demand labor planning".

There's nothing easy about being a leader, whether you're leading a marketing agency like me or a manufacturing organization like many of you.

Founder and CEO of Rafti Advisors, Jim Vaselopulos, is an advisor to business leaders and host of a leadership podcast that's been running since 2016.

In this episode, he'll draw on his experiences guiding B2B manufacturing leaders as we talk about:

– Letting curiosity drive smart business decisions

– Applying principles of root cause analysis across different parts of your business

– Changing your relationship with time