From: Industry Week
A combination of strong growth in jobs plus replacement demand for equipment from businesses will provide a stable base for overall economic growth, according to a new report released by The MAPI Foundation, the research affiliate of the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation.
The group released its quarterly economic forecast, predicting that inflation-adjusted gross domestic product will expand 2.8% in 2015 and 3.0% in 2016. Both are declines from the August report-of 3.0% and 3.3%, respectively.
Manufacturing production is expected to outpace GDP, with anticipated growth of 3.5% in 2015 (a decrease from 4.0% in the previous forecast) and 3.9% in 2016 (an increase from 3.6% in the August report).
The November 2014 report forecasts a five-year horizon in which GDP is expected to average 2.8% and manufacturing production to average 3.26% growth.
"We will have full employment in 18 months and manufacturing is already there," said MAPI Foundation Chief Economist Daniel J. Meckstroth.
With the unemployment rate continuing to fall, the pain and suffering from the recession is dissipating. Why are businesses spending? Because consumers are spending. Also, the drop in energy prices is essentially a tax cut for us. Lower prices are a positive development.
Production in non-high-tech manufacturing is expected to increase 3.8% in 2015 and 3.7% in 2016. High-tech manufacturing production, which accounts for approximately 5% of all manufacturing, is anticipated to grow 8.2% in 2015 and 10.0% in 2016.
The forecast for inflation-adjusted investment in equipment is for growth of 6.9% in 2015 and 7.3% in 2016. Capital equipment spending in high-tech sectors will also rise. Inflation-adjusted expenditures for information processing equipment are anticipated to increase by double digits in each of the next two years-12.1% in 2015 and 12.3% in 2016.
The MAPI Foundation expects industrial equipment expenditures to advance 7.6% in 2015 and 3.6% in 2016. Conversely, the outlook for spending on transportation equipment is for decreases of 0.8% in 2015 and 0.4% in 2016.
Inflation-adjusted exports are anticipated to increase 3.3% in 2015 and 3.9% in 2016. Imports are expected to grow 3.6% in 2015 and 6.6% in 2016. The MAPI Foundation forecasts overall unemployment to average 5.6% in 2015 and 5.3% in 2016.
The outlook is for an increase of 202,000 manufacturing jobs in 2015, a decrease from 315,000 in the August report. Meckstroth envisions 16,000 manufacturing jobs to be added in 2016, down from 86,000 in the previous forecast.
Over the five-year period from 2015 to 2019, the MAPI Foundation forecasts an average annual increase of 66,800 manufacturing jobs.
The refiners’ acquisition cost per barrel of imported crude oil is expected to average $80.00 in 2015 and $80.60 in 2016.
See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/7014/1762/0635/2014-12.pdf
Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org
Showing posts with label 2014. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2014. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
The Importance of Goals & Direction for Growth & Profitability
"Would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to" said the cat.
"I don’t much care where" said Alice.
"Then it doesn’t matter which way you go" said the cat.
Lewis Carroll
Are you like Alice or do you care about the future and the direction you want to take?
2014 is winding down already and it’s time to prepare for 2015.
If you don’t take the time to define your future,
someone else will.
AM&T has helped hundreds of Southern Tier manufacturers develop and implement meaningful Strategic Plans.
Give us a call and let’s discuss how we can help you:
• Examine your current state
• Define your desired future
• Develop a road map and actions for growth & profitability
• Develop the right metrics to monitor progress
Contact Jim Cunningham at 607-725-1225 or jcunningham@amt-mep.org
See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/7014/1762/0635/2014-12.pdf
Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to" said the cat.
"I don’t much care where" said Alice.
"Then it doesn’t matter which way you go" said the cat.
Lewis Carroll
Are you like Alice or do you care about the future and the direction you want to take?
2014 is winding down already and it’s time to prepare for 2015.
If you don’t take the time to define your future,
someone else will.
AM&T has helped hundreds of Southern Tier manufacturers develop and implement meaningful Strategic Plans.
Give us a call and let’s discuss how we can help you:
• Examine your current state
• Define your desired future
• Develop a road map and actions for growth & profitability
• Develop the right metrics to monitor progress
Contact Jim Cunningham at 607-725-1225 or jcunningham@amt-mep.org
See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/7014/1762/0635/2014-12.pdf
Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org
The Entrepreneur’s Simple Guide to Business Concepts
By: Jim Joseph
Positioning is one of the hardest marketing concepts to not only understand, but to do right. It’s very conceptual, highly theoretical, and mostly emotional. Not everyone does well with that combination.
It’s also very confusing, especially when it’s not well crafted and when coordinated with other parts of defining your business and managing and marketing it.
Many people continue to get positioning mixed up with other business concepts, so here is the entrepreneur’s guide to business concepts, with simple definitions of common elements of a business plan -- quick phrases to help clarify and solidify terms that many get confused.
Positioning
The space you want to occupy in your customer’s mind when they think of your brand. While your positioning should remain consistent over time, it should also evolve with your business and the marketplace.
Mission
Your core purpose -- why you started the business.
Vision
A lofty ideal of what your organization does. It’s not the "why" of a mission but more a "what" you do to accomplish that mission.
Values
The principles by which you run your business. If you have business values, and you should, you also need to communicate them to your customers.
Voice
How you represent your business and how you talk to your customers. It’s one thing to have a voice, but it’s even more important to consistently apply it in all that you do.
Objectives
What you are seeking to accomplish in a given year. You are likely to have multiple objectives that change frequently over time.
Strategies
How you plan to accomplish your objectives. You are likely to have multiple strategies for multiple objectives.
Tactics
Specific programs you put in place to fulfill your strategies to accomplish your objectives. Tactics should be constantly changing to keep up with what you have to get done for your business.
Oh, and one last one.
Entrepreneur
The backbone of American business and economic growth. ‘Nuff said.
See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/7014/1762/0635/2014-12.pdf
Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org
Positioning is one of the hardest marketing concepts to not only understand, but to do right. It’s very conceptual, highly theoretical, and mostly emotional. Not everyone does well with that combination.
It’s also very confusing, especially when it’s not well crafted and when coordinated with other parts of defining your business and managing and marketing it.
Many people continue to get positioning mixed up with other business concepts, so here is the entrepreneur’s guide to business concepts, with simple definitions of common elements of a business plan -- quick phrases to help clarify and solidify terms that many get confused.
Positioning
The space you want to occupy in your customer’s mind when they think of your brand. While your positioning should remain consistent over time, it should also evolve with your business and the marketplace.
Mission
Your core purpose -- why you started the business.
Vision
A lofty ideal of what your organization does. It’s not the "why" of a mission but more a "what" you do to accomplish that mission.
Values
The principles by which you run your business. If you have business values, and you should, you also need to communicate them to your customers.
Voice
How you represent your business and how you talk to your customers. It’s one thing to have a voice, but it’s even more important to consistently apply it in all that you do.
Objectives
What you are seeking to accomplish in a given year. You are likely to have multiple objectives that change frequently over time.
Strategies
How you plan to accomplish your objectives. You are likely to have multiple strategies for multiple objectives.
Tactics
Specific programs you put in place to fulfill your strategies to accomplish your objectives. Tactics should be constantly changing to keep up with what you have to get done for your business.
Oh, and one last one.
Entrepreneur
The backbone of American business and economic growth. ‘Nuff said.
See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/7014/1762/0635/2014-12.pdf
Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org
Four Ideas to Improve Next Year’s Results
By: Mike Brown
Creating Strategic Impact
Even if an organization is well into strategic planning for next year, what steps will help ensure it’s having greater success in creating strategic impact?
Here are four ideas:
- Broaden the range of employees invited to offer insights and ideas into the strategic plan. At a minimum, expand participation by at least one level in the organization.
- Exploit how smart structure can create flexibility. While it sounds contradictory, selecting the right strategic planning structure can help employees more successfully contribute to creating strategic impact. And that’s true for both veteran and new planning participants.
- Don’t ask the same old strategic planning questions. When knowledgeable people are invited to address strategic opportunities from questions that provide "strategic detours," an organization will uncover exciting new paths to growth. Additionally, through expanding participation within the organization, answering these questions becomes part of the daily strategic conversations taking place in the organization.
- Simplify your strategic language. If nothing else, use simple, understandable, and actionable language to describe your strategies and plans. Don’t use corporate jargon and confusing words so that what you’re trying to accomplish becomes clear to everyone in the organization.
See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/7014/1762/0635/2014-12.pdf
Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org
Upcoming Workshop
Lean Thinking & Value Stream Mapping
A powerful combination to improve your company’s performance
OVERVIEWA powerful combination to improve your company’s performance
Introduction to Lean provides participants with the basic Lean concepts and principles. These concepts and principles will be described and put in context to explain how they can be applied within the Manufacturing environment.
Common Lean improvement tools and techniques will be identified and the class will discuss how best to apply these techniques from a Lean system perspective. The common mistake organizations make by focusing on "Point" improvements versus "System" improvement will be studied. Point improvements create ‘exciting chaos’ while "System" improvement creates dramatic sustainable bottom line benefits.
This second half of the day is designed to provide participants with an introduction to Value Stream Mapping.
Enterprise Value Stream Mapping is a critical Lean technique that provides an end-to-end "Systems" perspective for analysis and coordinated improvement. Value Stream Mapping creates an overall road map and shared vision, plus an actionable plan.
A value stream is the set of all activities, from order to delivery, used to provide a product or service to clients. Understanding and improving processes as integrated end-to-end systems is fundamental to real and sustainable improvement.
TARGET AUDIENCE
These interactive sessions are specifically designed for personnel at all levels of a manufacturing organization who would like to enhance their working knowledge of Lean and Value Stream Mapping. This training is especially valuable to those who are involved in process management, continuous improvement, or process redesign. The workshop will also act as a springboard and prerequisite for an upcoming series of Lean workshops that will continually take the participants’ knowledge and ability to the next level of capability and confidence.
WORKSHOP OBJECTIVE:
Enable you to discover how Lean Thinking and Value Stream Mapping can get you started on your Lean Journey that will, in turn, enable your company to:
• Streamline processes
• Reduce costs
• Improve quality
• Improve profitability
• Prepare for growth
Date: February 19, 2015
Time: 8:00 am to 4:30 pm
7:30 am sign-in, continental breakfast, lunch provided
Location: Owego Treadway, Owego, NY
Cost: $250 ($200 for AM&T Associates)
Registration: amt-mep.org/index.php?cID=159
or contact Kathy Peacock at 607-774-0022 x308
Don’t Miss this Workshop - Register Early
Meet your Instructor: Carol Miller has over 25 years of experience in the manufacturing and service sectors. She has a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the State University of New York, College at Buffalo, and an M.S. in Management of Technology from Polytechnic University. She is a member of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) and the Project Management Institute (PMI), is a NIST-certified trainer and implementer of Lean Manufacturing techniques, and has received certification as a Lean/Six Sigma Black Belt from Villanova University. Carol leads AM&T’s Lean effort.
See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/7014/1762/0635/2014-12.pdf
Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org
Leadership: How to Get From Good to Great
By: Peter Economy
Focus on a few core components of leadership and you can take your company to new heights.
Company leaders always want to motivate, inspire, and support their people to the absolute fullest. But most go to bed at night suspecting that they’re coming up a little short. Maybe more than a little. Take heart: You can become a truly great leader. All it takes is:
• Perspiration
Great leadership requires effort--lots of effort. And much of that effort revolves around learning: about your people, your operations, your industry, and yourself. Be relentless in your pursuit of knowledge about everything -- and everyone--in your business ecosystem.
• Vision
Develop a clear vision for what your business is all about, and don’t lose faith in it. Know in your heart that you and your team can accomplish anything you set out to accomplish if you work together and believe in one another. You will undoubtedly encounter setbacks, but don’t be deterred. Learn from failure and remain confident.
• Communication
Great leaders communicate sincerely, often, and in many different ways to everyone in their organizations. They inform, provide feedback, and motivate -- intelligently and honestly. Connect with all your people and cultivate multiple channels for two-way. When you hear your own words and messages repeated back to you from your employees, or when your employees talk among themselves using your words to describe your vision and goals, then you know you’re making an impact.
• Collaboration
Form teams and groups that are constituted for maximum effectiveness. Recognize that in order to do their very best work most employees need consistent support and input from co-workers, peers, and managers. When you create this kind of environment, you’ll see an immediate impact on productivity and effectiveness--as well as morale.
• Decisiveness
Highly effective leaders are decisive when called upon to make tough calls quickly and confidently. Take a moment to assess a difficult situation and then calmly and rationally consider your options. As soon as you have the information you need to make an informed decision, make it. Don’t let fear of being wrong prevent you from making what you know is the right call.
• Integrity
Study after study finds that the No. 1 quality that employees want leaders to possess is integrity. Always be candid, forthright, honest, and fair. Treat your people as you want to be treated. Your employees will respect you and respond in kind.
• Inspiration
When times are tough, be the person that people look to for inspiration. Don’t just talk, act. Reassure your employees and help them overcome their own doubts and anxieties. Model the kind of positive behavior you want to see in them.
See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/7014/1762/0635/2014-12.pdf
Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org
Focus on a few core components of leadership and you can take your company to new heights.
Company leaders always want to motivate, inspire, and support their people to the absolute fullest. But most go to bed at night suspecting that they’re coming up a little short. Maybe more than a little. Take heart: You can become a truly great leader. All it takes is:
• Perspiration
Great leadership requires effort--lots of effort. And much of that effort revolves around learning: about your people, your operations, your industry, and yourself. Be relentless in your pursuit of knowledge about everything -- and everyone--in your business ecosystem.
• Vision
Develop a clear vision for what your business is all about, and don’t lose faith in it. Know in your heart that you and your team can accomplish anything you set out to accomplish if you work together and believe in one another. You will undoubtedly encounter setbacks, but don’t be deterred. Learn from failure and remain confident.
• Communication
Great leaders communicate sincerely, often, and in many different ways to everyone in their organizations. They inform, provide feedback, and motivate -- intelligently and honestly. Connect with all your people and cultivate multiple channels for two-way. When you hear your own words and messages repeated back to you from your employees, or when your employees talk among themselves using your words to describe your vision and goals, then you know you’re making an impact.
• Collaboration
Form teams and groups that are constituted for maximum effectiveness. Recognize that in order to do their very best work most employees need consistent support and input from co-workers, peers, and managers. When you create this kind of environment, you’ll see an immediate impact on productivity and effectiveness--as well as morale.
• Decisiveness
Highly effective leaders are decisive when called upon to make tough calls quickly and confidently. Take a moment to assess a difficult situation and then calmly and rationally consider your options. As soon as you have the information you need to make an informed decision, make it. Don’t let fear of being wrong prevent you from making what you know is the right call.
• Integrity
Study after study finds that the No. 1 quality that employees want leaders to possess is integrity. Always be candid, forthright, honest, and fair. Treat your people as you want to be treated. Your employees will respect you and respond in kind.
• Inspiration
When times are tough, be the person that people look to for inspiration. Don’t just talk, act. Reassure your employees and help them overcome their own doubts and anxieties. Model the kind of positive behavior you want to see in them.
See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/7014/1762/0635/2014-12.pdf
Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org
Wishing you Happy Holidays and a New Year filled with prosperity and success!
- Jim Cunningham
- Bob Edwards
- Ed Gaetano
- Lloyd Johnson
- Bob Mann
- Michael Meador
- Carol Miller
- Kathy Peacock
See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/7014/1762/0635/2014-12.pdf
Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
AM&T Activities that Promoted Innovation, Collaboration, Growth & Profitability of Manufacturers in the Southern Tier
- Conducted an ISO 9001:2008 Briefing at a company in Ithaca ,NY. Twelve (12) project leaders, supervisors, and managers received training in the requirements of the ISO Standard.
- Performed a Lean Assessment at a company in Endicott, NY. Inefficiencies were observed and a Lean Support proposal was prepared and delivered.
- Completed an ISO 9001:2008 Internal Audit at a company located in Rochester, NY. A summary report was prepared and delivered. This effort is a partnering effort with High Tech Rochester.
- Completed an ISO 9001:2008 Internal Audit at a company located in Elmira, NY. Their QMS was deemed compliant and effective.
- Conducted a Lean Thinking workshop at a company in Stamford, NY as part of a Lean Support contract. A mix of manufacturing, engineering, and office employees participated. Twenty (20) participants received training in the basic lean tools and methods.
- Conducted a 5S / Workplace Organization workshop at a company in Hornell, NY as part of the CFA contract. A mix of manufacturing, engineering, and office employees participated. Ten (10) employees received training in the 5S tools and methods and participated in a 5S Kaizen event.
- Completed an OHSAS 18001 Gap Assessment at a company located in Elmira, NY. Gaps and deficiencies were noted and a summary report was prepared and delivered.
- Completed ISO 14001:2004 & 9001:2008 Internal Audits at a company located in Rochester, NY.
- Conducted two TWI Job Relations workshops at a company in Elmira, NY. A total of 16 supervisors and team leaders were trained on using a 4-Step Method for dealing with employee conflict and creating better job relations.
- Conducted a Pull / Kanban workshop at a company in Hornell, NY. A mix of manufacturing, engineering, and office employees participated. Ten (10) employees received training in setting up Kanbans and implementing pull systems.
- Conducted a multi-day “Change Request” value stream mapping event at a company in Greene, NY with a team of eleven people. It is anticipated that when implemented, the plan will result in reduced wastes and a significant reduction in lead time.
- Conducted (1) four-hour Lean Thinking training session at a company in Elmira, NY focused on identifying and improving production and administrative wastes. The training was attended by 10 people.
- Completed Lean Six Sigma Green Belt training and a lean pilot project for a logistics operation company in Endicott, NY.
- Completed Management Representative training and a Pre-Assessment Audit in ISO 9001, 13485, 14971, and AS9100 for a sheet metal fabricator in Hammondsport, NY.
- Completed ISO 9001 Internal Audits for a company in Van Etten, NY.
- Conducted (1) four-hour Lean Thinking training session focused on identifying and improving production and administrative wastes. The training was attended by 10 people.
- Conducted two four-hour Problem Solving training sessions for a company in Spencer, NY. The training was attended by 20 people.
- Completed a Pre-Assessment Audit at a company in Ithaca, NY
- Conducted a QMS Management Review and participated in a surveillance audit at a company in Syracuse, NY. This is a partnering effort with CNYTDO.
- Participated in a Registrar’s Surveillance Audit at a company in Binghamton, NY.
- Conducted an Internal Audit and Management Review at a company in Endwell, NY.
- Worked with management of the Southern Tier Hotspot and the new REV Ithaca Downtown Incubator staff to coordinate support for entrepreneurs in the Tompkins County region.
- Planned, coordinated, and delivered a Pre-Seed Workshop to over 50 participants at the McGovern Family Center for Venture Development at Cornell University. The workshop centered around the creation of five teams that explored all the aspects of analyzing the commercial potential of five start-up companies, most of which emerged from the work of Cornell researchers. Their work culminated in presentations to a feedback panel of venture capitalists.
Value Stream Mapping - Good, Bad or Ugly? Find out Dec 1st
Are you looking to learn and share new continuous improvement ideas with other Lean Thinkers outside your organization? AME Roundtable events can help!
AME is conducting a “Roundtable Discussion” event, which will predominately include manufacturing participants. The focus will be on continuous improvement topics of importance to you and your organization.
This session’s topic will be Value Stream Mapping - the good, the bad and the ugly!
If you have a specific topic for the group to address at a future session, you are encouraged to inform the AME event host.
Attendees are encouraged to “bring a friend” that has background / experience in Value Stream Mapping.
PARTICIPANT BENEFITS
Learn from your peers some of their challenges.
Learn how these challenges are being addressed.
Learn how companies are staying competitive.
Network with your peers.
AGENDA
12:45 - 1:00 Arrive
1:00 - 1:15 Introductions / Welcome
1:15 - 2:15 ASI Energy: Lean manufacturing; energy efficiency in processes
2:15 - 3:30 Roundtable Discussion - Issues / Challenges Facing Regional Manufacturers
3:30 - 4:00 Networking Time
4:00 Depart
Date: December 1, 2014
Time: 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Location: ASI Energy
950 Danby Road
Ithaca, New York
Cost: Non-Member Fee: $50
Registration: http://www.ame.org/event/ame-mid-atlantic-round-table-cny
AME is conducting a “Roundtable Discussion” event, which will predominately include manufacturing participants. The focus will be on continuous improvement topics of importance to you and your organization.
This session’s topic will be Value Stream Mapping - the good, the bad and the ugly!
If you have a specific topic for the group to address at a future session, you are encouraged to inform the AME event host.
Attendees are encouraged to “bring a friend” that has background / experience in Value Stream Mapping.
PARTICIPANT BENEFITS
Learn from your peers some of their challenges.
Learn how these challenges are being addressed.
Learn how companies are staying competitive.
Network with your peers.
AGENDA
12:45 - 1:00 Arrive
1:00 - 1:15 Introductions / Welcome
1:15 - 2:15 ASI Energy: Lean manufacturing; energy efficiency in processes
2:15 - 3:30 Roundtable Discussion - Issues / Challenges Facing Regional Manufacturers
3:30 - 4:00 Networking Time
4:00 Depart
Date: December 1, 2014
Time: 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Location: ASI Energy
950 Danby Road
Ithaca, New York
Cost: Non-Member Fee: $50
Registration: http://www.ame.org/event/ame-mid-atlantic-round-table-cny
4 Things That Financially Healthy Businesses Have in Common
by Susan Payton
If you’ve ever wondered if there are certain qualities that make for a successful small business, you’re not alone. While there’s no magical formula for being financially healthy, the “Small Business Financial Health Analysis” (http://www.thefundwell.com/wp-content/uploads/SMBFinHealthReport.pdf), put together by The Federal Reserve Banks of Chicago and San Francisco, Pepperdine University, and online lending resource FundWell, shows there are four practices that successful businesses share.
For the survey, more than 900 businesses were asked about their knowledge of financial products, the credit experience of business owners, and financial planning and management practices. Here are the four practices that were common among successful small businesses:
1) Strong Knowledge of Credit Products — And Experience Using Credit
If terms like inventory financing, accounts receivable financing, or trade credit make you scratch your head, you might want to bone up on those topics.
The survey showed that the majority of businesses in excellent financial health were very knowledgeable about financial terms and credit products.
And while taking out a business loan isn’t necessarily an indicator that a business will succeed, 75 percent of those surveyed with excellent financial health have, indeed, secured financing from a bank.
2) High Level of Unused Credit Balances
Financially healthy businesses have credit to spare. Meaning, they do not max out their credit cards and loan borrowing capabilities.
Conversely, the less successful businesses tended to max out — 65 percent of those in poor financial health had no credit available, at all.
3) A Budget for Business Expenses
You might think that budgeting is a no-brainer. Nope.
What’s surprising is that apparently not every business budgets for expenses — not by a long shot. Could it be due to lack of organization, or lack of a good accounting software to use, or something else? Whatever the reason, those that did not budget fell into the camp of the less financially healthy.
Not only did 60 percent of the most financially healthy businesses budget for business expenses, but they also had a separate bank account for their business transactions.
4) Cash Set Aside for Payroll – Not Used It For Anything Else
There’s nothing that drives a company into closing up shop faster than not paying employees on time. Even worse is the situation of a company that doesn’t pay payroll tax withholding to the government in a timely manner. The IRS will put you out of business fast if that situation lingers.
Take a note from successful companies, 90 percent of which always have enough money in the coffers to pay employees. They also have enough to cover payroll taxes, health insurance and benefits expenses.
Who Runs These Financially Healthy Businesses?
If you’re curious to see who’s behind these thriving small businesses, the survey contains that information too. The majority of these financially healthy companies, more than 72 percent, are male or non-minority owned. That’s possibly because this group has traditionally received more business loans in the first place. Thus, they have had more experience with credit and financial management.
By contrast, just 28 percent of the companies surveyed were run by women, and 21 percent by minorities. Across the survey, women and minorities scored well on knowledge of credit products. But when it came to credit experience and financial planning and management, they performed lower.
Minority entrepreneurs still have a more difficult time than other entrepreneurs when it comes to securing a loan, claims a report by The Washington Post. But programs are currently under way to see that women and other minority small business owners have more access to funding for their ventures as well. So this may lead to higher financial health among women and minority owned businesses in the near future.
If you’ve ever wondered if there are certain qualities that make for a successful small business, you’re not alone. While there’s no magical formula for being financially healthy, the “Small Business Financial Health Analysis” (http://www.thefundwell.com/wp-content/uploads/SMBFinHealthReport.pdf), put together by The Federal Reserve Banks of Chicago and San Francisco, Pepperdine University, and online lending resource FundWell, shows there are four practices that successful businesses share.
For the survey, more than 900 businesses were asked about their knowledge of financial products, the credit experience of business owners, and financial planning and management practices. Here are the four practices that were common among successful small businesses:
1) Strong Knowledge of Credit Products — And Experience Using Credit
If terms like inventory financing, accounts receivable financing, or trade credit make you scratch your head, you might want to bone up on those topics.
The survey showed that the majority of businesses in excellent financial health were very knowledgeable about financial terms and credit products.
And while taking out a business loan isn’t necessarily an indicator that a business will succeed, 75 percent of those surveyed with excellent financial health have, indeed, secured financing from a bank.
2) High Level of Unused Credit Balances
Financially healthy businesses have credit to spare. Meaning, they do not max out their credit cards and loan borrowing capabilities.
Conversely, the less successful businesses tended to max out — 65 percent of those in poor financial health had no credit available, at all.
3) A Budget for Business Expenses
You might think that budgeting is a no-brainer. Nope.
What’s surprising is that apparently not every business budgets for expenses — not by a long shot. Could it be due to lack of organization, or lack of a good accounting software to use, or something else? Whatever the reason, those that did not budget fell into the camp of the less financially healthy.
Not only did 60 percent of the most financially healthy businesses budget for business expenses, but they also had a separate bank account for their business transactions.
4) Cash Set Aside for Payroll – Not Used It For Anything Else
There’s nothing that drives a company into closing up shop faster than not paying employees on time. Even worse is the situation of a company that doesn’t pay payroll tax withholding to the government in a timely manner. The IRS will put you out of business fast if that situation lingers.
Take a note from successful companies, 90 percent of which always have enough money in the coffers to pay employees. They also have enough to cover payroll taxes, health insurance and benefits expenses.
Who Runs These Financially Healthy Businesses?
If you’re curious to see who’s behind these thriving small businesses, the survey contains that information too. The majority of these financially healthy companies, more than 72 percent, are male or non-minority owned. That’s possibly because this group has traditionally received more business loans in the first place. Thus, they have had more experience with credit and financial management.
By contrast, just 28 percent of the companies surveyed were run by women, and 21 percent by minorities. Across the survey, women and minorities scored well on knowledge of credit products. But when it came to credit experience and financial planning and management, they performed lower.
Minority entrepreneurs still have a more difficult time than other entrepreneurs when it comes to securing a loan, claims a report by The Washington Post. But programs are currently under way to see that women and other minority small business owners have more access to funding for their ventures as well. So this may lead to higher financial health among women and minority owned businesses in the near future.
Why Manufacturing Makes America Great
While U.S. manufacturing makes up a smaller share of total employment than in decades past, the sector remains a vital source of our standard of living and economic growth.
Here’s why.
Still made in America: It’s a myth that we no longer make anything in this country. If the U.S. manufacturing sector were its own nation, its $2 trillion worth of annual value- added would make it the world’s seventh largest economy.
Supporting millions of other jobs: One in six U.S. private sector jobs depends on manufacturing, with the factory sector supporting 26 million domestic jobs, including roughly 14 million in professional services, wholesale and retailing, transportation, agriculture, and other sectors.
Driving innovation: Manufacturers account for 68 percent of all business R&D performed in America; spillover effects from these investments spread new ideas across sectors.
Generating more economic activity than any sector: Manufacturing has a higher multiplier effect than any other sector: every dollar of final sales in the sector generates $1.92 in economic activity throughout the economy.
Driving productivity growth: Superior productivity growth leads to low inflation for goods, thus stretching family budgets and lifting living standards. U.S. manufacturers are leaders in this metric because they embrace—and develop—advanced technology.
The lion’s share of exports: U.S. manufacturers exported $99 billion in goods per month last year to almost every country on earth. Manufactured products represent more than half of all American exports, helping bridge the country’s huge trade gap.
The United States boasts the world’s most productive, innovative manufacturing powerhouse. The sector is key to future economic growth and America needs to take appropriate measures to encourage and expand innovation and production.
Here’s why.
Still made in America: It’s a myth that we no longer make anything in this country. If the U.S. manufacturing sector were its own nation, its $2 trillion worth of annual value- added would make it the world’s seventh largest economy.
Supporting millions of other jobs: One in six U.S. private sector jobs depends on manufacturing, with the factory sector supporting 26 million domestic jobs, including roughly 14 million in professional services, wholesale and retailing, transportation, agriculture, and other sectors.
Driving innovation: Manufacturers account for 68 percent of all business R&D performed in America; spillover effects from these investments spread new ideas across sectors.
Generating more economic activity than any sector: Manufacturing has a higher multiplier effect than any other sector: every dollar of final sales in the sector generates $1.92 in economic activity throughout the economy.
Driving productivity growth: Superior productivity growth leads to low inflation for goods, thus stretching family budgets and lifting living standards. U.S. manufacturers are leaders in this metric because they embrace—and develop—advanced technology.
The lion’s share of exports: U.S. manufacturers exported $99 billion in goods per month last year to almost every country on earth. Manufactured products represent more than half of all American exports, helping bridge the country’s huge trade gap.
The United States boasts the world’s most productive, innovative manufacturing powerhouse. The sector is key to future economic growth and America needs to take appropriate measures to encourage and expand innovation and production.
Presentation Tips – 4 Ideas for Successful, Last-Minute Speeches
By Mike Brown
If you have just a few moments to set the stage, get your point across, and get off stage, all with high impact, here are four ideas on how to make that happen:
1) If the speech topic feels off, redirect it to something that works better for you.
You want to be up on stage talking about something that you can relate to well, even if it isn’t exactly what the organizers planned. Look for how you can twist the topic more toward your strengths. If you deliver a great message, no one is going to remember you twisted the topic around a bit.
2) Start your speech with a personal story, and weave the story into a reinforcing pattern.
It’s clear we all love stories. But use a personal story at the start of your talk to its best advantage. Tie the opening story to your bigger message, but consider creating some suspense by not finishing the story. That creates the opportunity to finish or call back to the story at the end of your talk. That’s always a nice touch.
3) In between stories, make a couple of related, memorable points.
When you have only a few minutes to present or set the context for a panel, confine yourself to only a couple of points. Succinctly convey those points, ideally in a way that relates to the story you told to start the presentation.
4) Have a couple of go-to questions at the ready.
If there might be an opportunity for questions after your brief remarks, have a couple of questions that you either plant with audience members or ask and answer yourself. And a few conversation-rich questions are always helpful for a panel moderator.
If you have just a few moments to set the stage, get your point across, and get off stage, all with high impact, here are four ideas on how to make that happen:
1) If the speech topic feels off, redirect it to something that works better for you.
You want to be up on stage talking about something that you can relate to well, even if it isn’t exactly what the organizers planned. Look for how you can twist the topic more toward your strengths. If you deliver a great message, no one is going to remember you twisted the topic around a bit.
It’s clear we all love stories. But use a personal story at the start of your talk to its best advantage. Tie the opening story to your bigger message, but consider creating some suspense by not finishing the story. That creates the opportunity to finish or call back to the story at the end of your talk. That’s always a nice touch.
3) In between stories, make a couple of related, memorable points.
When you have only a few minutes to present or set the context for a panel, confine yourself to only a couple of points. Succinctly convey those points, ideally in a way that relates to the story you told to start the presentation.
4) Have a couple of go-to questions at the ready.
If there might be an opportunity for questions after your brief remarks, have a couple of questions that you either plant with audience members or ask and answer yourself. And a few conversation-rich questions are always helpful for a panel moderator.
Is Your Business Ready For Curves In The Road Ahead?
By Marty Zwilling
Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Unfortunately, the market is changing so fast these days that any upward climb can level off quickly, as the core business growth begins to stall. This S-Curve, with no correction, can quickly lead to disaster.
I’m not talking here about a small pivot. I’m talking about the kind of change that moved Apple from personal computers to music distribution to consumer electronics, and Amazon from books to e-Commerce to cloud computing services. On the other end of the spectrum are companies that fell behind the curve and may never recover, including MySpace for social networking, Yahoo with online ads, and maybe even Groupon with discounts for group purchasing.
To sustain long-term growth, every company needs to build a repeatable process for innovation and finding new opportunities before their core business growth disappears. The reasons for this requirement, and some practical guidelines for how to prepare, are outlined in a recent book “The Curve Ahead: Discovering the Path to Unlimited Growth,” by Dave Power.
Power has been guiding growth companies for 25 years, and now teaches innovation at the Harvard Extension School. He has helped many companies with this problem, and as an advisor to startups, I see the same common themes leading to growth slow-downs. These are appearing earlier and earlier in emerging companies, as well as in mid-sized and mature companies:
Your original market becomes saturated. Initially, all companies sell to customers who are the easiest to reach and most excited about the new product. As a company begins to penetrate its market, it begins to work hard and harder, often in new geographies, to find more prospects. Marketing costs and time go up, and the growth curve flattens.
Competitors see the same opportunity. New players jump in, and existing players broaden their offerings to cover the same territory. They steal a share of your market, slow down customer buying decisions, making it harder to close new business, and put the brakes quickly on your exponential growth.
Prices begin to decline quickly. The first customers are early adopters who are the least price-sensitive. Unfortunately, the mainstream customers who can really drive revenue care more about price. Thus even if unit sales keep increasing, revenues can lag due to the need for lower prices as the mainstream market takes over.
Customer acquisition gets harder and more expensive. Scrappy guerilla marketing based on personal contacts and word-of-mouth campaigns gives way to more expensive customer acquisition using advertising, trade shows, and a marketing agency. You suddenly need to enhance your in-house social media efforts with a public relations firm.
An expanding customer base demands better support. Serving a growing customer base – with a great customer experience – requires more time and dedicated resources. In the early days, your product engineers could handle customer support. Over time, however, a continuous growth company needs a trained and dedicated support team.
Management overhead and skills required go up. In the beginning, your entire team could meet in your office. As the company grows, functional leaders need to build and manage larger teams, recruit and develop talent, and manage remote offices. Managing the scale and complexity requires more formal processes, which slow the momentum.
Your first objective should be to stretch the S-Curve, which can buy you a few months or a few years. Among the most common ways to stretch the curve include deeper penetration of current markets, expanding into new geographies, new market segments, optimizing pricing and packaging, and driving consolidation through acquisition of competitors.
Ultimately you need to find the next S-Curve, and then the next, and build the process into your strategy, for unlimited growth. This means you need to find new sources of revenue growth to offset a slowdown in the core business. It means finding a large underserved market and addressing this market with a product or service innovation, often with a different business model.
Successful entrepreneurs and successful companies never stop re-inventing themselves. The alternative of not anticipating the curves, and not building the navigation systems into your core engine, is likely to be a long and painful fall off a high cliff. Do you have a plan in place yet?
Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Unfortunately, the market is changing so fast these days that any upward climb can level off quickly, as the core business growth begins to stall. This S-Curve, with no correction, can quickly lead to disaster.
I’m not talking here about a small pivot. I’m talking about the kind of change that moved Apple from personal computers to music distribution to consumer electronics, and Amazon from books to e-Commerce to cloud computing services. On the other end of the spectrum are companies that fell behind the curve and may never recover, including MySpace for social networking, Yahoo with online ads, and maybe even Groupon with discounts for group purchasing.
To sustain long-term growth, every company needs to build a repeatable process for innovation and finding new opportunities before their core business growth disappears. The reasons for this requirement, and some practical guidelines for how to prepare, are outlined in a recent book “The Curve Ahead: Discovering the Path to Unlimited Growth,” by Dave Power.
Power has been guiding growth companies for 25 years, and now teaches innovation at the Harvard Extension School. He has helped many companies with this problem, and as an advisor to startups, I see the same common themes leading to growth slow-downs. These are appearing earlier and earlier in emerging companies, as well as in mid-sized and mature companies:
Your original market becomes saturated. Initially, all companies sell to customers who are the easiest to reach and most excited about the new product. As a company begins to penetrate its market, it begins to work hard and harder, often in new geographies, to find more prospects. Marketing costs and time go up, and the growth curve flattens.
Competitors see the same opportunity. New players jump in, and existing players broaden their offerings to cover the same territory. They steal a share of your market, slow down customer buying decisions, making it harder to close new business, and put the brakes quickly on your exponential growth.
Prices begin to decline quickly. The first customers are early adopters who are the least price-sensitive. Unfortunately, the mainstream customers who can really drive revenue care more about price. Thus even if unit sales keep increasing, revenues can lag due to the need for lower prices as the mainstream market takes over.
Customer acquisition gets harder and more expensive. Scrappy guerilla marketing based on personal contacts and word-of-mouth campaigns gives way to more expensive customer acquisition using advertising, trade shows, and a marketing agency. You suddenly need to enhance your in-house social media efforts with a public relations firm.
An expanding customer base demands better support. Serving a growing customer base – with a great customer experience – requires more time and dedicated resources. In the early days, your product engineers could handle customer support. Over time, however, a continuous growth company needs a trained and dedicated support team.
Management overhead and skills required go up. In the beginning, your entire team could meet in your office. As the company grows, functional leaders need to build and manage larger teams, recruit and develop talent, and manage remote offices. Managing the scale and complexity requires more formal processes, which slow the momentum.
Your first objective should be to stretch the S-Curve, which can buy you a few months or a few years. Among the most common ways to stretch the curve include deeper penetration of current markets, expanding into new geographies, new market segments, optimizing pricing and packaging, and driving consolidation through acquisition of competitors.
Ultimately you need to find the next S-Curve, and then the next, and build the process into your strategy, for unlimited growth. This means you need to find new sources of revenue growth to offset a slowdown in the core business. It means finding a large underserved market and addressing this market with a product or service innovation, often with a different business model.
Successful entrepreneurs and successful companies never stop re-inventing themselves. The alternative of not anticipating the curves, and not building the navigation systems into your core engine, is likely to be a long and painful fall off a high cliff. Do you have a plan in place yet?
Associates’ Corner - Endicott Research Group, Inc. (ERG)
Endicott Research Group, Inc. (ERG) provides power solutions for backlight displays, general lighting applications, and LED retrofit opportunities. You might be using an ERG product on a daily basis and not even know it! The display at the gas pump may have an ERG inverter powering the light that illuminates it; ERG’s LED driver may be powering the sign of a local business; or you may have a dimmable ERG Lighting LED driver powering your undercabinet kitchen lighting.
ERG began in 1979 developing DC-DC converters to power neon displays. That all changed when General Motors was in need of a high-quality EL lamp to power the coach lamp in its "top-of-the-line" showroom cars. An exclusive relationship between GM and ERG became the cornerstone for growth into other substantial markets such as medical displays, point-of-sale, and defense. ERG continues to design and manufacture standard and custom solutions for CCFL and LED displays as well as DC-DC and EL applications.
In response to the recent explosion of LED technology in the general lighting markets, ERG created a division called ERG Lighting which is dedicated to applying expertise in LED driver solutions to general lighting applications such as street lights, refrigeration lighting, troffers, showcase, and downlights. This year, ERG developed their own line of Made-in-the-USA LED troffer retrofit kits for both commercial and residential lighting. In addition, they offer contract manufacturing services that provide customers with leading-edge manufacturing processes. ERG is very proud of how they have always responded to changes in technology with innovative and cost-effective solutions for their customers.
ERG ships products around the world, but they are all proudly engineered and built in the Endicott, NY facility that has served as headquarters for over 35 years. For more information about ERG, visit the websites at ERGpower.com and ERGlighting.com, or contact Nate Burd at 607-754-9187 (nburd@ergpower.com).
ERG began in 1979 developing DC-DC converters to power neon displays. That all changed when General Motors was in need of a high-quality EL lamp to power the coach lamp in its "top-of-the-line" showroom cars. An exclusive relationship between GM and ERG became the cornerstone for growth into other substantial markets such as medical displays, point-of-sale, and defense. ERG continues to design and manufacture standard and custom solutions for CCFL and LED displays as well as DC-DC and EL applications.
In response to the recent explosion of LED technology in the general lighting markets, ERG created a division called ERG Lighting which is dedicated to applying expertise in LED driver solutions to general lighting applications such as street lights, refrigeration lighting, troffers, showcase, and downlights. This year, ERG developed their own line of Made-in-the-USA LED troffer retrofit kits for both commercial and residential lighting. In addition, they offer contract manufacturing services that provide customers with leading-edge manufacturing processes. ERG is very proud of how they have always responded to changes in technology with innovative and cost-effective solutions for their customers.
ERG ships products around the world, but they are all proudly engineered and built in the Endicott, NY facility that has served as headquarters for over 35 years. For more information about ERG, visit the websites at ERGpower.com and ERGlighting.com, or contact Nate Burd at 607-754-9187 (nburd@ergpower.com).
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Associates’ Corner - Automated Cells & Equipment, Inc.
Automated Cells & Equipment, Inc. (ACE) provides complete design, build, integration and commissioning of solutions related to factory automation and robotic systems. Incorporated in 1996, Automated Cells resides in a 27,000 square foot state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Painted Post, NY with a staff of over 40 employees including mechanical and electrical engineers, robot programmers, service technicians and support personnel.
With its vision to be a leading automation solutions provider, ACE solutions can be found in many industries including: aerospace, automotive component manufacturing, food, foundry, job shops large and small, medical device manufacturing, and the powder metal industry.
Specializing in the sale and service of FANUC Robotics’ complete line of industrial robots, ACE can offer robots with payloads ranging from 1Kg to over 1000Kg. They are also one of a select group of FANUC Certified Servicing Integrators and are pre-approved to perform warranty repairs on FANUC Robotics’ products with technicians that have met or exceeded the requirements for programming, maintenance and trouble-shooting of FANUC robots. In addition to being a FANUC Certified Servicing integrator, they are also a FANUC Certified Vision specialist with expertise in applying FANUC iRVision to solve many industrial automation challenges.
For more information, contact Jim Morris, President, at 607-936-1341
See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/8514/1166/6653/2014-10.pdf
Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org
With its vision to be a leading automation solutions provider, ACE solutions can be found in many industries including: aerospace, automotive component manufacturing, food, foundry, job shops large and small, medical device manufacturing, and the powder metal industry.
Specializing in the sale and service of FANUC Robotics’ complete line of industrial robots, ACE can offer robots with payloads ranging from 1Kg to over 1000Kg. They are also one of a select group of FANUC Certified Servicing Integrators and are pre-approved to perform warranty repairs on FANUC Robotics’ products with technicians that have met or exceeded the requirements for programming, maintenance and trouble-shooting of FANUC robots. In addition to being a FANUC Certified Servicing integrator, they are also a FANUC Certified Vision specialist with expertise in applying FANUC iRVision to solve many industrial automation challenges.
For more information, contact Jim Morris, President, at 607-936-1341
See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/8514/1166/6653/2014-10.pdf
Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org
Associates’ Corner - ASI Energy
Take Control of Your Energy Costs
ASI Energy turns your energy expenses into assets.
ASI Energy, an Ithaca, New York-based energy leader, offers significant cost-saving solutions for industrial and commercial facilities. Combined Heat and Power (CHP) is a reliable source for electrical and thermal energy at a low cost without reducing your energy supply. Utilizing this innovative technology, ASI Energy takes a single fuel source, like natural gas, biogas/methane to create electricity and heat. Electricity is created with a prime mover engine and the heat is captured for use in a full range of industrial and commercial applications such as steam generation, thermal energy recovery, primary and secondary thermal energy, and preheating.
The process to determine potential savings for your operations is simple. ASI Energy conducts a client-centered Initial Facility Assessment – a complete, singular appraisal of your facility’s energy needs and then generates a guaranteed savings proposal including financing options, possible grants and tax incentives, emission savings as well as project NPV and IRR calculations customized for your organization, and ending with a suggested CHP system for your operations.
ASI Energy’s approach includes:
• Integrated project delivery through Project Management Office
• Guaranteed ROI
• Frequent project reporting and transparency
• Detailed financial analysis
• Financing for your project
While other CHP approaches can be complicated, inefficient and expensive, ASI Energy’s integrated project delivery system is a highly efficient and comprehensive CHP solution. This cost-saving system is backed with extensive knowledge and experience in engineering design, construction management, utility regulatory policies and project financing. ASI Energy’s team spearheads this multifaceted project while you continue your day-to-day business operations without interruption. Their engineers, financial experts and project managers work together to minimize disruptions typically associated with a major energy project.
For more information, and to find out if CHP is right for your operations, please contact ASI Energy at 607-330-1203 or visit them online at asienergy.com/manufacturing.
See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/8514/1166/6653/2014-10.pdf
Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org
ASI Energy turns your energy expenses into assets.
ASI Energy, an Ithaca, New York-based energy leader, offers significant cost-saving solutions for industrial and commercial facilities. Combined Heat and Power (CHP) is a reliable source for electrical and thermal energy at a low cost without reducing your energy supply. Utilizing this innovative technology, ASI Energy takes a single fuel source, like natural gas, biogas/methane to create electricity and heat. Electricity is created with a prime mover engine and the heat is captured for use in a full range of industrial and commercial applications such as steam generation, thermal energy recovery, primary and secondary thermal energy, and preheating.
The process to determine potential savings for your operations is simple. ASI Energy conducts a client-centered Initial Facility Assessment – a complete, singular appraisal of your facility’s energy needs and then generates a guaranteed savings proposal including financing options, possible grants and tax incentives, emission savings as well as project NPV and IRR calculations customized for your organization, and ending with a suggested CHP system for your operations.
ASI Energy’s approach includes:
• Integrated project delivery through Project Management Office
• Guaranteed ROI
• Frequent project reporting and transparency
• Detailed financial analysis
• Financing for your project
While other CHP approaches can be complicated, inefficient and expensive, ASI Energy’s integrated project delivery system is a highly efficient and comprehensive CHP solution. This cost-saving system is backed with extensive knowledge and experience in engineering design, construction management, utility regulatory policies and project financing. ASI Energy’s team spearheads this multifaceted project while you continue your day-to-day business operations without interruption. Their engineers, financial experts and project managers work together to minimize disruptions typically associated with a major energy project.
For more information, and to find out if CHP is right for your operations, please contact ASI Energy at 607-330-1203 or visit them online at asienergy.com/manufacturing.
See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/8514/1166/6653/2014-10.pdf
Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org
4 Marketing lessons to learn from the ALS "Ice Bucket Challenge"
By Avinash Murthy - www.linkedin.com
If you are a social media-holic, chances are that in the last few weeks, you would have chanced upon a video of a celebrity, or an athlete, or a politician dumping buckets of ice and water over their heads. I wouldn’t blame you if you already started wondering if this is a collective attempt towards beating global warming! Well, before you stretch your imagination further, here’s what this ice bucket fuss is all about.
A fundraiser and awareness campaign for the ALS Association, the "Ice Bucket Challenge" has taken social media by storm since it popped off on July 29, with more than 176,000 people tweeting about it in the first seven days alone. The rules of the challenge are simple: once challenged, a participant has 24 hours to either dump a bucket of ice water over their head, or donate $100 to the ALS charity of their choice. To enhance the outreach and spread awareness further, every participant must then nominate three more people to either take the challenge or pay up.
While there are critics pointing out that the viral nature of this fad appears centered around an aversion to giving money, I would say that the campaign has done a fabulous job given that a growing list of celebrities including business stalwarts such as Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos have participated in this social media fundraising initiative. Also, according to the ALS Association, more than 70,000 new donors have given money to one of its 38 chapters since July 29, contributing to a grand total of $4 million in donations during this same period (compared to only $1.12 million during the same period last year) leaving little doubt that this initiative has been a massive success!
What caught my attention however is the reason behind the euphoric and emotional response to this campaign. I believe that the brains behind this campaign have taught us four important lessons on how to run a successful viral social media campaigns:
- Relate to a Cause - The objective behind the campaign was to help raise awareness about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease while raising funds. History says that any marketing campaign that is associated with a cause which strikes an emotional chord with the target audience does well.
- Be Simple - The Ice Bucket Challenge is very simple. All it needs for one to participate is a smart device and a social media account - which is just about everyone these days. Leaving aside the cost of the ice and the amount involved in donation, the entry to be a part of the awareness campaign is essentially free, and the humiliation factor is extremely minimal.
- Have Fun - When you’re interacting with your social community it’s important to have fun, so long as your business type allows it. Therefore, it should be no surprise that people enjoy entertaining and fun-loving engagement. The Ice Bucket Challenge did enough to tickle people’s senses.
- Endorsers - Any successful viral campaign gives the end users a voice and an active role in the campaign and the Ice Bucket Challenge did exactly that.
See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/8514/1166/6653/2014-10.pdf
Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org
Job Development Authority Loan Program
What is the Job Development Authority (JDA)?
• JDA provides direct loans for the growth of manufacturing and other eligible businesses within New York State by assisting in financing a portion of the cost of acquiring and renovating existing buildings or constructing new buildings ("Real Estate" projects) or for purchasing machinery and equipment ("M&E" projects).
• In most cases, JDA loans can lend up to 40% of the total project cost of Real Estate or M&E projects.
• Loans can be made for up to 60% for those projects located in Empire Zones or economically distressed areas.
JDA Financing Structure
• The combination of a bank loan and a JDA loan allows up to 90% financing of a project.
• Loans can be from $250,000 - $3,500,000.
• JDA Real Estate Loan is normally a second mortgage loan, subordinate to a first-mortgage loan provided by a bank.
• M&E Loans are secured by a first lien, co-equal with the bank’s lien, on the M&E being financed.
• 50% Bank Loan.
• 40% JDA Loan.
• 10% Borrower Equity
Requirements
• The Borrower must secure a letter of commitment from the bank detailing the banks portion of the project cost.
• Personal guarantees are required from any person owning 20% or more of the Operating Company for whose benefit the JDA Loan is being made.
• The Borrower must provide at least 10% of the project cost as an equity contribution to the project.
What are the costs involved with utilizing JDA?
• $250 Application fee.
• JDA charges a 1% one-time fee to the borrower on the JDA portion of the loan as opposed to higher fees charged by similar programs.
• In Real Estate Transactions, NYS Mortgage Recording Taxes are waived for the JDA portion of the loan amount.
Contact Jim Cunningham at 607-725-1225 for more information
See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/8514/1166/6653/2014-10.pdf
Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org
• JDA provides direct loans for the growth of manufacturing and other eligible businesses within New York State by assisting in financing a portion of the cost of acquiring and renovating existing buildings or constructing new buildings ("Real Estate" projects) or for purchasing machinery and equipment ("M&E" projects).
• In most cases, JDA loans can lend up to 40% of the total project cost of Real Estate or M&E projects.
• Loans can be made for up to 60% for those projects located in Empire Zones or economically distressed areas.
JDA Financing Structure
• The combination of a bank loan and a JDA loan allows up to 90% financing of a project.
• Loans can be from $250,000 - $3,500,000.
• JDA Real Estate Loan is normally a second mortgage loan, subordinate to a first-mortgage loan provided by a bank.
• M&E Loans are secured by a first lien, co-equal with the bank’s lien, on the M&E being financed.
• 50% Bank Loan.
• 40% JDA Loan.
• 10% Borrower Equity
Requirements
• The Borrower must secure a letter of commitment from the bank detailing the banks portion of the project cost.
• Personal guarantees are required from any person owning 20% or more of the Operating Company for whose benefit the JDA Loan is being made.
• The Borrower must provide at least 10% of the project cost as an equity contribution to the project.
What are the costs involved with utilizing JDA?
• $250 Application fee.
• JDA charges a 1% one-time fee to the borrower on the JDA portion of the loan as opposed to higher fees charged by similar programs.
• In Real Estate Transactions, NYS Mortgage Recording Taxes are waived for the JDA portion of the loan amount.
Contact Jim Cunningham at 607-725-1225 for more information
See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/8514/1166/6653/2014-10.pdf
Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org
How Do You Become a Thriving Company?
By Steve Minter
Since 2006, McGladrey, the tax and consulting firm, has been collecting information on the practices of "thriving" companies for its annual report on mid-market manufacturing and distribution firms.
McGladrey asks business executives to rank their companies as "thriving," "holding steady" or "declining." This year, 32% of executives said their companies were thriving, a drop of 7% from 2012.
McGladrey identified five of the best practices these companies are employing to achieve above average results:
Continuous improvement – Thriving companies "consistently deploy process improvement and quality programs," McGladrey’s research shows. In fact, 87% of the companies that identified themselves as thriving have an advanced culture of continuous improvement.
International expansion and exporting – Companies that pursue sales outside the U.S. tend to have better financial performance than those focused strictly on the domestic market.
Training and productivity – Most thriving businesses provide internal training and skills development programs, McGladrey found, a particularly vital practice as the workforce copes with more sophisticated technology.
Information technology – Thriving companies capitalize on their IT investments by developing innovative products, decreasing cycle time and increasing productivity. Information technology also provides top management with better information and insights into corporate performance so it can take action quicker.
Measuring procurement – Using strategic sourcing and tracking vendor performance, McGladrey notes, helps thriving companies ensure on-time delivery.
See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/8514/1166/6653/2014-10.pdf
Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org
Since 2006, McGladrey, the tax and consulting firm, has been collecting information on the practices of "thriving" companies for its annual report on mid-market manufacturing and distribution firms.
McGladrey asks business executives to rank their companies as "thriving," "holding steady" or "declining." This year, 32% of executives said their companies were thriving, a drop of 7% from 2012.
McGladrey identified five of the best practices these companies are employing to achieve above average results:
Continuous improvement – Thriving companies "consistently deploy process improvement and quality programs," McGladrey’s research shows. In fact, 87% of the companies that identified themselves as thriving have an advanced culture of continuous improvement.
International expansion and exporting – Companies that pursue sales outside the U.S. tend to have better financial performance than those focused strictly on the domestic market.
Training and productivity – Most thriving businesses provide internal training and skills development programs, McGladrey found, a particularly vital practice as the workforce copes with more sophisticated technology.
Information technology – Thriving companies capitalize on their IT investments by developing innovative products, decreasing cycle time and increasing productivity. Information technology also provides top management with better information and insights into corporate performance so it can take action quicker.
Measuring procurement – Using strategic sourcing and tracking vendor performance, McGladrey notes, helps thriving companies ensure on-time delivery.
See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/8514/1166/6653/2014-10.pdf
Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org
Prosper by Making Time Every Day to Just Think
By Art Petty
If your typical day resembles the one that most of us experience in the corporate environment, it’s a series of meetings interspersed with a series of transactional exchanges that might be better described as interruptions.
There’s little of that elusive and precious asset called "quality time" on our calendars or in our days. The steady drumbeat of deadlines is constantly playing in our minds and at times, it feels like there’s a fire to fight around every corner. When we’re given the opportunity to be creative, it’s often in forced marches through meetings with the labels of "planning" or "brainstorming."
Our days are filled with what has been described as "unproductive busyness." We sprint from meeting to meeting letting the Outlook calendar drive our days. And even when we’re supposed to be focusing, too many of us are obsessively checking our devices searching for something to stimulate our brains. After all, there must be something more important than this meeting going on in front of us.
Since when did meetings become excuses to catch up on email?
Chris Lowney, a former Jesuit priest turned Investment Banker (an interesting career path to say the least), writing in his book, "Pope Francis: Why He Leads the Way He Leads," describes what happens when we don’t create the time for daily reflection: "And so we turn ourselves into hamsters on hamster wheels: spinning, but not necessarily moving forward."
I see the long-term impact of no down-time…no thinking time in the form of worn-out mid-career managers and exhausted senior leaders who struggle through their days. They’ll describe in private that they no longer feel the same passion for the work they once loved, and they worry that they’ve lost their edge and will be unable to get it back. They are worried and frightened of what this state portends for the balance of their careers.
What we fail to do in our workdays is find time to think deeply. From unstructured conversations to reflective time on our own roles and our performance in the workplace, the time spent thinking and talking without a deadline is valuable processing time.
This isn’t down time, it’s different time. Instead of unproductive busy-ness, it’s productive un-busy-ness. It’s the root source of ideas and connections between ideas. It’s the time when we see our way forward through complex problems and toward solutions that have been otherwise elusive.
Productive un-busy-ness cannot be mandated, but it can be prioritized. The most successful leaders and managers I know have cultivated a mechanism that helps them recharge by creating thinking time and/or pushing themselves so far from the activities of work that the brain gets a momentary and much appreciated holiday. Lowney offers the Jesuit practice of Examen: a daily technique of prayerful reflection, as one approach for leaders and professionals struggling to jump off the hamster wheel.
From meditation and prayer to the lunchtime walk-about or workout to quiet reading time, it doesn’t matter what you do as long as you make the time to shift gears and let your brain focus somewhere other than e-mail or the noise coming from yet another status meeting.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
No program, no management fad, no short-list of the top ten things to do. Just a reminder that your brain and the brains of your team members will serve you best if you build in and/or encourage people to regularly tune out the drumbeat and turn off the updates. I’ve watched burned-out managers come back from the brink by recognizing the need to create time to think deeply, and then making it a habit. Whether it’s for your professional mental health or for the health of your team members, it’s important to find ways to momentarily reflect and place things in context.
See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/8514/1166/6653/2014-10.pdf
Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org
If your typical day resembles the one that most of us experience in the corporate environment, it’s a series of meetings interspersed with a series of transactional exchanges that might be better described as interruptions.
There’s little of that elusive and precious asset called "quality time" on our calendars or in our days. The steady drumbeat of deadlines is constantly playing in our minds and at times, it feels like there’s a fire to fight around every corner. When we’re given the opportunity to be creative, it’s often in forced marches through meetings with the labels of "planning" or "brainstorming."
Our days are filled with what has been described as "unproductive busyness." We sprint from meeting to meeting letting the Outlook calendar drive our days. And even when we’re supposed to be focusing, too many of us are obsessively checking our devices searching for something to stimulate our brains. After all, there must be something more important than this meeting going on in front of us.
Since when did meetings become excuses to catch up on email?
Chris Lowney, a former Jesuit priest turned Investment Banker (an interesting career path to say the least), writing in his book, "Pope Francis: Why He Leads the Way He Leads," describes what happens when we don’t create the time for daily reflection: "And so we turn ourselves into hamsters on hamster wheels: spinning, but not necessarily moving forward."
I see the long-term impact of no down-time…no thinking time in the form of worn-out mid-career managers and exhausted senior leaders who struggle through their days. They’ll describe in private that they no longer feel the same passion for the work they once loved, and they worry that they’ve lost their edge and will be unable to get it back. They are worried and frightened of what this state portends for the balance of their careers.
What we fail to do in our workdays is find time to think deeply. From unstructured conversations to reflective time on our own roles and our performance in the workplace, the time spent thinking and talking without a deadline is valuable processing time.
This isn’t down time, it’s different time. Instead of unproductive busy-ness, it’s productive un-busy-ness. It’s the root source of ideas and connections between ideas. It’s the time when we see our way forward through complex problems and toward solutions that have been otherwise elusive.
Productive un-busy-ness cannot be mandated, but it can be prioritized. The most successful leaders and managers I know have cultivated a mechanism that helps them recharge by creating thinking time and/or pushing themselves so far from the activities of work that the brain gets a momentary and much appreciated holiday. Lowney offers the Jesuit practice of Examen: a daily technique of prayerful reflection, as one approach for leaders and professionals struggling to jump off the hamster wheel.
From meditation and prayer to the lunchtime walk-about or workout to quiet reading time, it doesn’t matter what you do as long as you make the time to shift gears and let your brain focus somewhere other than e-mail or the noise coming from yet another status meeting.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
No program, no management fad, no short-list of the top ten things to do. Just a reminder that your brain and the brains of your team members will serve you best if you build in and/or encourage people to regularly tune out the drumbeat and turn off the updates. I’ve watched burned-out managers come back from the brink by recognizing the need to create time to think deeply, and then making it a habit. Whether it’s for your professional mental health or for the health of your team members, it’s important to find ways to momentarily reflect and place things in context.
See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/8514/1166/6653/2014-10.pdf
Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org
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