The Manufacturing Executive

Only a tiny fraction of your total addressable market is ready to buy right today. Does that mean you ignore everyone else? Of course not. You need to get their attention, gain their trust and when it’s time to buy, they’ll turn to you… But only if you make it easy. There’s no guest today, just me, Joe Sullivan, your dutiful host and Thinker & Founder at Gorilla 76, and in this episode, I’ll be go...

There is no reason manufacturing needs to be dominated by men — even if it, historically, always was. Yet today, as other sectors become more representative, one look around most manufacturing sites and you’ll notice the lack of women immediately.  Why are we lagging behind? And more importantly, what can we do about it? My guest today, Lesley Ledwell Dukelow , Company President at Ledwell, is a 4...

If you’ve ever been curious how well management takes care of its employees at any given organization, there is one really simple way to find out:  Check out the employee bathroom.  That may seem funny, but… think about it — if management can’t take care of the bathrooms, how well can they really be taking care of its employees? That simple test is wisdom today’s guest, Mark Whitten , President &...

You hear people talk a lot about a labor shortage in manufacturing and automation and robotics are a great way to tackle it.  Not just to replace jobs — but to find more workers.  If only we could get over manufacturing’s technology hesitancy problem.  Today’s guest, Erik Nieves, Founder at PlusOne Robotics, can help you do just that. That’s because, in his years of experience in robotics, he’s se...

Without our dealers and distributors, who would sell our products? Without us, what would they sell?  We need each other.  Why then is the relationship so often strained?  Today’s guest, Tom Paul, Founder & CEO at BAM!, says it doesn’t have to be. All it takes is a little work from both parties… and maybe reading at least one 25-year-old article.  In this episode, we discuss: -Why the manufacturer...

If your content strategy starts with whether there’s keyword search volume around your SEO terms, you’re starting at step five. Here’s step one: conduct customer interviews to learn what they value and prioritize. In this episode, I interview Gorilla 76’s own Grace Wright and Aaron Weekes, both Thinker and Strategist, about creating winning content that starts with customers, not keywords. In this...

Data collection, automation, robotics — these are things reserved for the budgets of the biggest companies out there, right? Wrong. Anyone can do it with one simple trick: Just get started. That’s the simple advice shared by our latest guest, Aaron Prather, R&D Evangelist for FedEx Express, who is deeply passionate about both topics — and if you don’t believe me, just check out his LinkedIn. In th...

You’ve probably heard about the infamous skills gap in manufacturing — a problem only made worse by the pandemic. It has the potential to affect our lives in profound ways; even our national security is at stake. And if we expect to solve it, we need to get creative — like, say, starting a nationally-televised Skills Draft? That’s one of the creative solutions today’s guest, Dr. Jason Scales, Busi...

At first, his entry into the manufacturing industry was out of a need for survival. But it quickly grew into a passion to encourage those who want to become a better version of themselves to embrace the hope, pride, and success to be found in manufacturing. In this episode, I interview Tony Gunn, General Manager at MTDCNC Global and Founder and CEO at Your Tea of Life, about his amazing career tra...

The manufacturing sector is desperate for more diversity in gender, generation, race, ability, and other underrepresented populations. Quite frankly, the situation is dire. Your business won’t survive unless you create a more diverse and inclusive culture, both organization- and industry-wide. In this episode, I interview Andrew Crowe, Founder of the Elevate Institute of Advanced Manufacturing and...

Video messaging is not just a new technology to learn, it's a way to connect with human beings that aligns better with how people prefer to communicate these days. It allows you to lead with your very best asset — yourself. In situations where face-to-face sales meetings are not always possible, recording a video allows others to take in your message when it’s convenient for them, builds a feeling...

You know you need clearer insight into your customer to build better products or deliver more valuable services. One way to get that insight is by listening to your sales and customer service teams. What are they hearing firsthand? But there's another source of insight that you might not have thought about — search data. What can you learn from the words your prospects and customers type into Goog...

Manufacturing got left behind as the software industry progressed rapidly over the years. It’s time to catch up, and innovators like Adam Keating make it possible. As the Co-Founder & CEO at CoLab Software, Adam embraces the engineering approach of problem-solving. His team enables 2D and 3D CAD collaboration which has changed the game for manufacturing businesses, especially in the last 18 months...

Would you rather focus on people or profitability in your business? You can’t have it all. But maybe you can… Maybe people and profitability go hand in hand, and each makes the other stronger. In this episode of The Manufacturing Executive, I talk with John Kramer, Chairman & CEO at Cambridge Air Solutions, 
and Marc Braun, President at Cambridge Air Solutions, about what it means to restore glory...

There’s this perception that manufacturing jobs are dirty and dangerous. But in the modern era of manufacturing, that perception is changing as jobs are becoming more and more rooted in technology. In this episode of The Manufacturing Executive, I talk with Dr. John Mitchell, President & CEO at IPC, about the move from “dirty and dangerous” manufacturing to high-tech manufacturing. We also talked...

Remember fax machines? They were going to revolutionize the way we did business. Then came dial-up modems and email. Now, our customer gives us a CAD file. We can create a toolpath in a snap. Like technology, organizational culture has completed several revolutions in a single lifetime. The speed of those revolutions is increasing, and manufacturing transforms every five years. What's coming next?...

If the Wright Brothers lived in the 21st century, they might be the Lonsberry boys. Andy Lonsberry earned his Ph. D. by researching machine learning and artificial intelligence for bipedal walking robots. His brother focused on biologically spiking recurrent neural networks. Together, they dived deep into allowing nonlinear systems to learn how to improve themselves. Then these two Ohio boys and t...

If we want to balance America's $800 billion trade deficit, we need to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. — 5 million manufacturing jobs to be exact. The ancillary benefits would be enormous. We'd reduce CO2 emissions 40-50%, slash the budget deficit, improve unemployment, and bolster national defense. What's stopping us? In this episode of The Manufacturing Executive, Harry Moser, Founder...

Baby Boomers are retiring. Manufacturing is booming in 2021. And emerging generations aren't considering careers in the field. There just aren't enough people to do the jobs that need to be done. How will manufacturers fill the skills gap Boomers are leaving behind them? In today's episode, I talk with Matt Guse, President at MRS Machining Company, about an actual manufacturing operation happening...

How do you define marketing success?  Many manufacturing organizations are sales-centric. They may not even support a marketing department beyond a content team. Consequently, they don't measure marketing success.  But if you've taken things a step further, you've probably discovered how convoluted a measurement system can be. In today's episode, I, Joe Sullivan, share my thoughts about how to str...

A lot of companies are started by people who are experts in their craft, but are not great at building companies. But how do you learn to let go of the day-to-day? How do you, as a founder, learn to focus on developing repeatable and scalable business processes in order to grow and scale your business successfully? On this episode of the Manufacturing Executive, I sit down with Paul Van Metre. Pau...

Are you prepared to exit your company? Many business owners haven't thought about transitioning from their position of leadership. But it's inevitable that you'll hand over the keys to your business one day. When that day comes, will you know what your options are? In today's episode, I talk with Chris Redmond, Senior Vice President at Capital For Business, about transitioning ownership or leaders...

Mass production alone is not enough. We all want customized products. Twenty years ago, it was easy. Educate your workers about your single unique product. In a world driven to customization, however, no worker can learn 400 different products. No *human* worker, that is. But a digital worker might. Could robotic camera vision streams be the solution? In today's episode, I talk about building cust...

If you want to build thought leadership around a product category, you need to create a community. The longer your sales cycle and the more complex your product, the more critical your community. But how do you build a community around your product and not around yourself? In today's episode, I talk about the keys to success on social media with Sam Gupta, Host, Community Builder, and Founder at W...

15 years ago, Mike Weinberg had a bold perspective on sales which was to stick with the fundamentals and don’t fall for the ‘shiny new toys.’ His bold perspective paid off as he now consults some of the largest sales teams across the globe on fundamentals that have stood the test of time. On today's episode, I talk about sales strategy with Mike Weinberg, Consultant, Speaker and Author of three Am...