Here was my forecast a year ago of five Colorado manufacturing storylines for 2020: Food’s undersized brand gets a lift Technology’s oversized reputation gets an overhaul Will Colorado’s global manufacturing brands engage more locally? Industrial cannabis is here. Like, right here. It won’t always be this easy I was partly right: 2020 certainly wasn’t easy! […]
We end 2020 where we began, knee-deep in manufacturing companies and business leaders that comprise this remarkable sector. We published 225 in-depth profiles of manufacturing and supply-chain companies, across a dozen or so distinct industries. We recognized 42 company finalists in the 2020 Colorado Manufacturing Awards, and four outstanding Colorado Women in Manufacturing finalists. We […]
Lost in the remnants of a 2020 pandemic and divisive election is the uplifting story of manufacturing’s ongoing U.S. comeback. We look back at 2020 this week in CompanyWeek, and one of the lessons is that American manufacturing has a chance to come all the way back from the devastation of globalization, and the lost […]
We’ve argued that rebuilding America’s domestic manufacturing supply chain is today’s “moon shot” challenge — and opportunity. If we’re successful, we’ll put in place a foundation for local and regional economies to thrive. Without new sourcing and supply options, a new and “essential” era of domestic manufacturing, along with jobs, new companies, and industry growth, […]
Is President Trump “undermining democracy” by failing to cooperate with the Biden transition team? I have my doubts. The drama is unseemly, but our institutions are strong, weathered by much worse. What’s more troubling is the years-long paralysis in effective governance. Anger and self-pity may appeal to certain voters, but business requires action, results. We […]
Years ago, I learned the perils of endorsing a political candidate in a business publication. In October 2008 I was traveling with a group of companies and was met in the DIA concourse by the CEO of my largest advertiser and sponsor of the trip. Our magazine had endorsed Barack Obama the same week. Needless […]
We first interviewed Hale Foote in 2017, and Dan Sanchez’s profile of Foote’s spring and stamping company, Scandic, has stuck with me ever since. Scandic is a Tesla supplier, and Foote’s description of how the upstart automaker was bringing a Silicon Valley ethos to the manufacturing ecosystem in the Bay Area was fascinating. I caught […]
After launching CompanyWeek in 2013, I fought a running editorial battle with a cadre of business writers about the state of U.S. manufacturing. The narrative from the national writers was that manufacturing was no longer essential, a quaint vestige of an earlier economic era. Columnists from Forbes, Fortune, the Wall Street Journal — most all […]
In a March 2014 column, I encouraged Cory Gardner to run on manufacturing to win a Colorado Senate seat. Six years ago, a Republican hadn’t won a statewide election for governor or U.S. Senate since 2002, and from my vantage point, the GOP was fishing about for a compelling electoral strategy: “Gardner’s yet to articulate […]
CompanyWeek turns seven this September. Twice in the past seven years, we’ve ranked Colorado’s top manufacturing communities, most recently in early 2017. Our criteria then: a growing, compelling industry or cluster of maker industries, supported by purposeful public/private efforts to build a robust manufacturing economy. Here’s the 2017 list, followed by the 2015 ranking: Fort […]