Conventional economic wisdom holds that policymakers must not “pick winners,” something we task instead to a free and open marketplace. President Obama and his lieutenants were famously vilified for “picking” California-based Solyndra and Colorado-based Abound Solar for important loan guarantees, only to see them default and shutter. It mattered little then that the DOE’s loan […]
The story of California’s economic success nearly always comes with a asterisk. Push past the United Kingdom as the fifth largest economy in the world? Suffer the editorial writers at the Orange County Register, who opined, “High-flying California economy faces a hard fall“: “Despite ushering in revolutionary global change, California’s leading tech companies have concentrated […]
CompanyWeek turns five this week. The question on my mind after five years and 1,014 company stories: What’s the one takeaway above all others? What have we learned? In the context of challenges, we’ve learned that workforce is the defining issue in manufacturing today. Convene manufacturers from across different industries, as we do often, and […]
As promising the future is for manufacturing, company executives today bemoan the uncertainty that grips the sector. Today, it’s tariffs. Yesterday, a lack of skilled workers. Tomorrow, a slow and uneven integration of technology that leaves manufacturers vulnerable to global competition. Jeff St. Clair touched on the latter theme this week in a smart story, […]
Under normal circumstances, an 11 percent year-to-year increase in Colorado’s exports would be cause for great celebration. However, these are not normal circumstances. The Trump administration’s tough stance on trade policy has incentivized manufacturers to stockpile import inputs and expedite export sales to beat the tariffs now imposed by the U.S. and reciprocated by our […]
On one hand, it seems reasonable for President Trump to use America’s vast consumer and commercial markets as leverage in trade negotiations. China, especially, has used open and relatively unfettered access to American consumers and intellectual property to great effect, even as it protects its own. Access to American markets should come with a price. […]
Last week in introducing CompanyWeek‘s paywall (see below), I mentioned a new data service, a value-add to content access for subscribers. It’s important to note what the data set is, and isn’t. We think the value of the company profiles is the story executives tell of challenges, needs, and opportunities, based on their industry and […]
For the 10th consecutive year, Colorado was given a D for manufacturing sector health in the Conexus Indiana 2018 Manufacturing and Logistics National Report. It lands Colorado much closer to neighbor New Mexico and Alaska — both Fs — than annual favorites Indiana, Kentucky, Iowa, and Michigan, who again led a Midwest sweep of the […]
Last week I was fortunate to attend the California Network of Manufacturing Innovation’s conference, “Automation: The Next Generation of Lean,” at The University of California, Irvine. Among the messages from industry professionals speaking at the event: Automation is coming, get ready or get left behind; the implementation “gap” between large and small-to-midsize companies is Grand […]
For the 10th consecutive year the Conexus Indiana 2018 Manufacturing and Logistics National Report graded California’s manufacturing economy a C. It’s cause for less concern than states like Colorado, where a 10th straight D leaves that state closer to Conexus flunkies in New Mexico and Alaska. At the same time, it leaves America’s largest manufacturing […]