Colorado avoids flunking Conexus’ national manufacturing scorecard, but not by much. Where to now?

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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 top scores, all As.

Colorado actually slid from a D+ in 2014 to a D in 2018. Here’s how the report scored the state in the sub-categories that make up the aggregate score:

So what’s it mean?

I still think the Conexus methodology favors labor and industry statistics that underreport the reach of manufacturing’s value chain in industries like aerospace, food and beverage, and cannabis. The disconnect is obvious in the C grade Colorado gets for productivity and innovation. The state bleeds innovation. Its food sector alone has helped reimagine the national industry.

But my full-throated defense from past years seems, well, out of date. Colorado manufacturing is healthy, but it could be so much better.

If the Conexus methodology is a bit stale, others are providing more modern and relevant benchmarks that demonstrate why.

Sridhar Kota and Thomas Mahoney’s brilliant but worrisome new report, Manufacturing Prosperity, A Bold Strategy for National Wealth and Security, is one.

The report’s a must-read and pointed to three grand challenges of American manufacturing:

  1. Rebuild the “Industrial Commons,” the set of knowledge and practical skills, supply chains and production capacity, materials and equipment, and overall industrial ecosystems that enable manufacturing across multiple industries.
  2. Convert national R&D to national wealth and security. The study concluded that technologies invented here are being licensed, sold, or given away to manufacture overseas, which, in effect, is subsidizing R&D for other countries.
  3. Lead emerging industries. The United States must have a leadership position in emerging industries such as autonomous vehicles, robotics, multi-material additive manufacturing, bio-manufacturing, energy storage, advanced materials, and quantum computing, to name a few.

It’s an assessment that will resonate with manufacturers here, as do the ‘critical next steps’ cited by the report to address the challenges:

  1. Invest in transitional research and manufacturing innovation, including funding needed to develop operational prototypes, demonstrate manufacturability, and identify viable markets
  2. Encourage pilot production and scale-up. To restore domestic production and overall leadership in emerging industries, America needs to invest in advancing manufacturing technologies, increasing pilot production, and scaling up to viable commercial volume.
  3. Empower small and medium-sized manufacturers.
  4. Grow domestic engineering and technical talent.

Are Kota and Mahoney’s prescriptions a better roadmap, a new benchmark, for success?

Weighed against the report’s grand challenges, certainly Colorado’s sector is still a work in progress. Colorado’s Industrial Commons — its companies, supply chains, regions, universities and colleges, production facilities, and talent — are unconnected and want for a unifying voice and vision. Financing and funding for early-stage companies, to fund pilot production and scaled operations, is difficult to secure. SMMs operate without the resources of tech and service counterparts.

But I wrote last year “the centers of modern U.S. manufacturing will tilt toward R&D-inspired, entrepreneurial economies also benefiting from an influx of talent and money.” It seems an apt description of Colorado’s economy. It’s a harder case to make for Kentucky and other perennial Conexus favorites that struggle to attract a highly educated workforce and lag in rankings of state economies, like here and here.

So what’s a fair grade?

Innovation, and an economy and lifestyle that’s a magnet for talent, should weigh more heavily in the state’s favor. Colorado is a destination for leading brands in dynamic manufacturing industries. Manufacturing is simply better here today than in 2009.

Let’s call it a C+. And next year, with progress on the steps outlined above, an end to Colorado’s Conexus conundrum.

Bart Taylor is publisher of CompanyWeek. Reach him at btaylor@companyweek.com.

Two ways robotics and automation are transforming manufacturing in our backyard

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Manufacturing automation is in the news and in our profiles. Here are two or three takeaways.

Two weeks ago, I attended the California Network of Manufacturing Innovation’s excellent conference, “Automation: The Next Generation of Lean,” at UC 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 companies and the small to midsized majority of manufacturers is Grand Canyon-like — but cobots and other entry-level robots provide a short-path to automation; and robots are less displacing workers than enabling companies to reallocate labor to more value-added roles.

It’s a key point, one echoed by owner Dave Kush in the Axis Robotics profile in this week’s Colorado newsletter. Contrary to the popular narrative, many robotics deployments are enabling companies to free up employees to focus on more value-add work. As one panelists said, “We don’t see a lot of jobs being lost to automation. We see a repurposing of labor into areas that are value-added to the company.”

For one, the trend is changing what a Quality Control room looks like. Today in job shops throughout manufacturing, people are inspecting hundreds and thousands of the same part, nobly searching for minor imperfections. In five years, QC will be a fully automated function for many of these same companies.

(As a cautionary tale, a slower embrace of robotics and automation challenges the notion that collectively, U.S. companies are leading a global tech surge in manufacturing. For a more sobering assessment of productivity gains in the US compared to other advanced manufacturing countries, read this eye-opening feature in Quartz.)

I wrote last week that Swiss Productions‘ Timo Lunceford is chasing opportunity by investing in equipment at the Ventura-based company — in this case new machines to more precisely fabricate the parts and pieces of bioscience and medical device manufacturing. Lunceford is driving growth by being more precise in what he currently does, innovation that’s enabling him to expand what he makes and assembles for key OEMs.

It’s a trend we see more in California manufacturing: technology, processes, and OEM interest in reimaging a domestic supply-chain — all leading to a heightened competitive capability in the sector, in contract manufacturing in particular.

I couldn’t have written a better description for what’s happening at Colorado Manufacturing Award-winning Manes Machine in Fort Collins. I stopped in to visit CEO Bruce Page last week.

Page is also investing — on a larger scale. Manes is a best-in-class aerospace manufacturer whose calling card has been large, fabricated components in aircraft like Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner.

Page is increasing Manes’ competitiveness with robotics that connect multiple machining platforms, as state-of-the-art data management tools provide constant information to operators and managers. It’s a technology and automation play that is truly transformative. Page’s advanced machines are fabricating the same parts for Boeing’s fleet of airplanes, but with increased efficiency and access to data that’s improving company profitability and competitiveness.

But there’s more: The technology is fundamentally changing Manes’ workforce equation by attracting talent that a decade ago would have bypassed heavy contract manufacturing altogether. It’s also lessening the burden of training and retaining a workforce that’s become nearly impossible to replace. It’s the new face of manufacturing. We’ll profile Manes Machine later this summer.

As I also said last week, it’s an incredible time to be involved with manufacturing.

Bart Taylor is publisher of CompanyWeek. Email him at btaylor@companyweek.com.

California gets a C in Conexus’ annual manufacturing scorecard. Here’s a better measuring stick.

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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 economy stuck in average, looking up at Conexus’ annual favorites like Indiana, Kentucky, Iowa, and Michigan, who again led a Midwest sweep of the top scores, all As.

Here’s the grid:

I’ve taken issue with Conexus before. I think the methodology favors labor and industry statistics that underreport the reach of manufacturing’s value chain in industries like aerospace, food and beverage, and, in a modern twist, cannabis. How a state like California scores a D in Sector Diversification is also confounding.

Other studies have also emerged that seem a better benchmark to evaluate the health of manufacturing economies. Much has changed since Conexus began ranking states. Sridhar Kota and Thomas Mahoney’s brilliant but worrisome new report, Manufacturing Prosperity, A Bold Strategy for National Wealth and Security, is one.

The report’s a must-read, but it pointed to three grand challenges of American manufacturing:

  1. Rebuild the “Industrial Commons,” the set of knowledge and practical skills, supply chains and production capacity, materials and equipment, and overall industrial ecosystems that enable manufacturing across multiple industries.
  2. Convert national R&D to national wealth and security. The study concluded that technologies invented here are being licensed, sold, or given away to manufacture overseas, which, in effect, is subsidizing R&D for other countries.
  3. Lead emerging industries. The United States must have a leadership position in emerging industries such as autonomous vehicles, robotics, multi-material additive manufacturing, bio-manufacturing, energy storage, advanced materials, and quantum computing, to name a few.

The report cites these critical next steps to address the challenges.

  1. Invest in translational research and manufacturing innovation. Including, funding for the translational research needed to develop operational prototypes, demonstrate manufacturability, and identify viable markets is frequently unavailable.
  2. Encourage pilot production and scale-up, to restore domestic production and overall leadership in emerging industries, America needs to invest in advancing manufacturing technologies, increasing pilot production, and scaling up to viable commercial volume.
  3. Empower small and medium-sized manufacturers.
  4. Grow domestic engineering and technical talent.

Are Kota and Mahoney’s challenges and prescriptions a better benchmark for success? I’ll say yes. California manufacturers are focused on these issues.

At minimum, a new scale provides room to move up the ranking system if progress can be made, something the Conexus model seems unable to provide.

We’ll track that progress throughout the year.

Bart Taylor is publisher of CompanyWeek. Reach him at btaylor@companyweek.com.

3 companies, 3 trends: This week’s mix of profiles tells a larger story of trends shaping California manufacturing

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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 Canyon-like, but cobots and other entry-level robots provide a short-path to automation; and robots are not displacing workers, but enabling companies to reallocate labor to value-added roles.

It’s a key point, one echoed by owner Dave Kush in this week’s Axis Robotics profile. “I’ve seen people in manufacturing making the same part for 30 years,” he says. “When that repetitive task is automated, that same employee ends up learning how to program, run the robot, and oversee the process. In the end, they become more valuable to the company because they know what to do if there’s a breakdown. If they leave, they also take with them experience that makes them more valuable in the job market.”

As one conference panelist said, “We don’t see a lot of jobs being lost to automation. We see a repurposing of labor into areas that are value-added to the company.”

Even so, Axis’ Kush also sees a challenge for him and for other technology “integrators.” As ease of use improves and as the “interface” between robots and their human programmers becomes easier, integration firms will suffer. It was another theme at the CNMI event: When robots can program themselves, well, where does it end?

In Ventura, Swiss Productions GM Timo Lunceford is chasing opportunity by also investing in equipment — in this case new machines to more precisely fabricate the parts and pieces for bioscience and medical device manufacturers. Lunceford is driving growth by being more precise in what he currently does, innovation that’s enabling him to expand what he makes and assembles for key OEMs. “They’re realizing that getting five components from us, then having to assemble it themselves, is costing more than having us just ship them the completed part,” he explains.

It’s a trend we see in California manufacturing: Technology, processes, and OEM interest in retooling a domestic supply-chain are leading to a heightened competitive capability in the sector.

Finally, the seismic California cannabis manufacturing sector is transforming at a rate that will be viewed as no less than astonishing when we look back. Those who are not paying attention to the entrepreneurship and science now informing the sector may wish they had.

Dr. Jeffrey Raber’s The Werc Shop has already pivoted from testing lab into contract manufacturing, and the move has transformed the company. The staff has grown 30-fold in four years as revenue has been “doubling and doubling,” says Raber. “It’s hard to predict how big we can grow.”

It’s just another reminder that cannabis industry shares in the upside of manufacturing’s incredible resurgence, and at the same time benefits from its first-moving counterparts in the natural food and craft beverage industries. The pieces are all there: refined science and product testing, advanced production and quality control, and fast-changing product distribution and customer strategies. (Also read Eric Peterson’s important summary of challenges in California’s cannabis supply chain.)

What a time to be involved in California manufacturing.

Bart Taylor is publisher of CompanyWeek. Email him at btaylor@companyweek.com.

Food revolution the tip of the iceberg as manufacturing industries innovate

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The Wall Street Journal‘s reporting last week on how big food is struggling to keep pace with innovation underscores the influence of the 100-plus food companies we’ve featured the past four-plus years. It also echoes the message we’ve been trumpeting at the same time: We’re witnessing a full-on food and beverage revolution.

But as much as CompanyWeek‘s food and beverage archive, or a WSJ headline like “Small Brands Are Taking a Thousand Little Bites Out of Campbell’s Business” reflect manufacturing’s new influence and character, production is often downplayed. Brands innovate, the thinking goes. Where, or how, companies choose to manufacture products is a minor detail.

I recently argued how flawed this thinking is with respect to the outdoor industry. The logic falls flat in the food business as well, if for other reasons. Without a new and innovative manufacturing ecosystem, the “thousand bites” taking a toll on Big Food would be a half-dozen, and Campbell’s would still today be the arbiter of innovation in the sector.

But it’s not, because Richard Lappen, Robbie Rech, and Manoj Venugopal and other first-moving production innovators were busy developing a world-class, scalable manufacturing ecosystem. Food brands don’t have the option to offshore production; without enhanced domestic production focused on small companies, we wouldn’t have a revolution in the food sector.

Food innovators are also looking outside the conventional supply chain for new ideas and inspiration. Josh and Christi Skow’s Canyon Bakehouse looked to aerospace innovator NFT Automation for automation solutions in their gluten-free bakery. Jennifer and Jeff Vierling at Durango’s Tailwind Nutrition leaned on Ska Fabricating, progeny of the prolific Ska Brewing, to develop production lines for Tailwind’s line of powdered drink mixes.

It’s the tip of the iceberg. Manufacturing innovations will drive product and brand development in countless other ways, much of it current technology and processes bleeding across vertical markets. Call it Supply Chain 4.0, a new ecosystem where production innovations developed by brewers and distillers, wine and beverage brands, food, edibles, and the variety of consumer brands and OEMs in the region are shared across industries, refined, and delivered back by a more capable supply chain.

Today manufacturers need to know how other companies are utilizing new workforce options like apprenticeships; how equipment innovation is facilitating new, low-tolerance fabricating onshore, across multiple industries; the promise of direct-to-consumer models in apparel and consumer goods that enable brands to cut costs, dollars that can be poured back into design, domestic sourcing, or production; and myriad other innovations transportable across vertical markets and industries silos.

The lessons of Small Food, where creativity and the will to challenge conventional wisdom have combined with production innovations to vault the regional sector to national renown, aren’t isolated. As we bring companies together from across industries to explore the possibilities, we’ll report on the seismic outcomes.

Stay tuned.

Bart Taylor is publisher of CompanyWeek. Email him at btaylor@companyweek.com.

Takeaways from a year of publishing in California

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June marks the one-year anniversary for CompanyWeek in California. It’s been a year of exploration, of growth, of learning and listening, and, more than anything, of coming to grips with America’s largest and most diverse statewide manufacturing economy.

Here’s a short list of takeaways after year one:

  • I lost track of the number of conversations I had with manufacturers who first cited how hard it is to do business in California, and, in their next breath, told me they’d never leave or consider moving. California companies have a torrid love/hate relationship with their home state.
  • Open rates of CompanyWeek‘s California e-publication have been comparable to those in Colorado and Utah. Click-through rates on stories are slightly lower. I think it’s an outcome of California’s size — sprawling urban environments and geographic and industrial diversity. Plus, “local” matters more than ever. It’s a dynamic playing out across the business community, notably for us in growth in industries like food and beverage manufacturing. Our goal is to write about companies doing things that should matter to manufacturers across the region. It doesn’t always work that way.
  • For us this means reporting on companies across manufacturing industries. The list of most-popular features in California after a year reflects manufacturer’s interest in other maker companies regardless of industry — a dynamic at work across our publishing footprint. It’s a cross-industry mix of standout companies.

1. Virginia Park Foods, Riverside.

2. Abel Reels, Camarillo, California/Montrose, Colorado

3. Bishop Wisecarver Corporation, Pittsburg

4. Circa of America, San Francisco

5. Häns Swipe, Santa Fe Springs

6. Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, Corona

7. Scale 1:1, Los Angeles

8. Scandic, San Leandro

9. Odor No More, Tustin

10. Rosenblum Cellars, Oakland

  • The list also reflects our main interest today in middle-market companies operating within OEM supply chains, and OEMs committed to domestic production. That’s not to say we won’t be featuring more multinational OEMs like Apple, or automotive OEMs that source globally. But to understand the state of American manufacturing today, look to the companies reinventing what it means to be a true domestic manufacturer. California hosts them in the thousands. Companies within Apple’s $55 billion domestic annual supply-chain spend capture our imagination.

As we get underway in Year Two, we’ll pick up the pace of coverage with more profiles and industry reports. And we’ll bring manufacturers together around funding and financing and to collaborate across industries.

Thanks for supporting our mission along the way.

Bart Taylor is publisher of CompanyWeek. Reach him at btaylor@companyweek.com.

Skip tax cuts and invest in industry-specific supply chains to grow manufacturing

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In a Washington Post column last week, economists Jared Bernstein and Somin Park cited the work of Tim Bartik, who outlined what he called the “three habits of highly successful manufacturing-intensive communities,” including:

  • Customized services for small- and medium-sized manufacturers help them to overcome financing and information barriers, improve their technology and product design, and link them up to global supply chains;
  • Infrastructure and land-use investment includes improving the transportation infrastructure and other services associated with a neighborhood’s land to make it more attractive for business development;
  • Life-cycle skill development, including high-quality child care, high-quality preschool, K-12 education, college scholarships, and adult job training. Bartik finds that “better skills for local workers help attract and grow higher-wage jobs.”

The upshot of Bartik’s analysis is that the standard playbook economic developers use to recruit and retain manufacturing companies — usually a mix of tax cuts and business incentives — today lacks in comparison to the benefit of investments in targeted services and strategies. Build a supply chain, and manufacturers will come.

A lesson from the regional markets we report on is that better yet, build an industry-tailored ecosystem.

Here’s why. If today your community lacks a capable base of precision contract manufacturers and engineering and design services, but boasts a rich farm and ag supply chain and concentration of outdoor and lifestyle assets, a deliberate effort to recruit and nurture natural food and craft beverage companies makes more sense than developing an aerospace cluster. Both are manufacturing. Both are increasingly attractive as communities seek more light industry. But one provides a more direct line to a thriving maker economy.

An investment strategy for communities might begin with an assessment of current business assets and capabilities, including:

  • Current number of related industry OEMs and brands
  • Workforce: state of the current employment pool including demographics
  • Sourcing: availability or access to raw materials, technology, design and engineering assets and related industry expertise
  • Manufacturing: availability of related fabrication, forging, assembly, contract manufacturing services, packaging
  • Logistics: shipping, transportation, and related services
  • Educational opportunities in support of industry development
  • Lifestyle and recreation attributes

It follows that cities and communities can then assess how well-matched target industries are to local and regional business assets, whether steps can be take to address supply-chain gaps, or whether a pivot to better-matched manufacturing industries might be a better plan.

How to fill the gaps? Over the next 12 months, CompanyWeek will be active in working with both companies and communities to develop more robust industry blueprints for the development of manufacturing supply chains. We’re certainly not alone in seeking to foster more manufacturing-intensive communities.

Bart Taylor is publisher of CompanyWeek. Reach him at btaylor@companyweek.com.

The Outdoor Industry faces a manufacturing reckoning. How will its leaders respond?

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Is there an industry more challenged by its success than the Outdoor Industry?

Take Nike, a colossus of OI. Phil Knight’s now famous sojourns to Asia to establish a shoe manufacturing beachhead opened the floodgates for American brands to offshore en masse, and boy, have they. Still today, brands of all sizes follow Knight’s Orient Express to ensconse production in thriving, world-class shoe and apparel factories, primarily in China.

The results have been stunning. Chinese factories are so capable that today “the likes of Balenciaga have started manufacturing in the country,” according to GQ. (Did you know that a $700 cross-trainer was even available? Neither did I.) The investments in infrastructure and people have transformed China into an OI manufacturing superpower.

But as business media reports, Nike, Adidas, and others are leaving China in search of cheaper labor in other markets — like Vietnam. It’s part of a modern shell game brands now manage, one precipitated by their own success in creating centers of manufacturing excellence offshore that are, by definition, increasingly expensive to operate. Qualified labor, benefits, advanced technology, and materials — the price of world-class manufacturing — are becoming as pricey in China as they are in Detroit.

After helping transform China into a economic behemoth, sights are now set on other Asian countries where major investments in infrastructure can be offset by lower labor costs. It’s the offshore playbook, out of print and updated for an iPad.

Here’s the rub: Today OI brands are motivated by more than profit. It’s an industry packed full of change agents who are moved to steward public lands, develop “authentic” brands, preserve finite resources, and generally make the business world a more sustainable, friendly place.

How to rationalize, then, the inherent unsustainability of an Asian supply chain? Or rural unemployment and dogged underemployment in states home to the same brands that are investing in jobs and production infrastructure in overseas communities? Or how to justify a lack of credible environmental oversight in countries home to the apparel factories of U.S. OI brands, as the industry wields its considerable power here to punish states for public lands policy?

As uncomfortable OI brands are with this paradox, they’re not showing it. Domestic manufacturing is making a comeback, but in OI circles, the question of where its products are made is largely a back-burner issue. The Industry still operates under a halo of tacit approval that brands must offshore production to stay in business, or, that it’s okay to relegate manufacturing to remote destinations. We’ve embraced the methodology of U.S. brands pouring profits into the development of world-class manufacturing facilities offshore, not here.

Until now.

For one, there’s a vanguard of companies challenging conventional wisdom, companies that have simply said that offshore production will not be part of corporate or product DNA. CompanyWeek Editor Eric Peterson reminds us of several Colorado-based companies that fit the bill, this week.

Alchemy Bicycle Co. is first on the list and in the alphabet, but Ryan Cannizzaro’s mission and accomplishment is not trivial. Alchemy, like Utah-based ENVE, maker of the wheels mounted on most all of its frames, decided composite frame manufacturing could be established in the U.S. despite Taiwan’s hammer lock on the sector. Today Alchemy is battling for market share against U.S. brands made in Taiwan at the same time it challenges the notion that OI products have to be made offshore.

But it’s consumers who may force OI brands to follow the lead of Alchemy and others. Buyers unerringly force companies to keep their brand promise, and if OI is to live up to the lofty ideas and rhetoric of its spokespeople, the contradictions of its manufacturing strategy may move from back burner to center stage.

We’ll be there to celebrate the shift.

Bart Taylor is publisher of CompanyWeek. Email him at btaylor@companyweek.com.

Why natural products and outdoor industry companies are collaborating to advance their interests.

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Barriers to a sustained and broad-based U.S. manufacturing comeback are well documented, but what opportunities should local and regional businesses and planners be focusing on? What industries or market openings best fit the attributes of local economies?

There are also opportunities leading manufacturers across industry boundaries to partner with companies that have similar customers and values. Business leaders should take note.

One area of considerable promise is the intersection between outdoor industry and natural products — calling cards of the economies of the American West. Think about it: Consumers of healthy food and beverages are often the same people leading active outdoor lifestyles.

Alissa Sears is co-founder of AdVenturesAcademy and VP growth & strategy at Christie & Co, a communications firm focused on companies across the natural products, outdoor, and sustainable agriculture industries. At Outdoor Retailer’s Summer Market in Denver this July, she’s organizing an event to showcase businesses operating at the intersection of these dynamic industries to like-minded investors.

“We have focused on the intersection of outdoor and natural products because of the inherent consumer alignments and shared values,” says Sears, “but it’s also about unrealized efficiencies. As retail continues to evolve, oscillating between e-commerce and brick and mortar, we’ve seen increased interest in natural products companies seeking to differentiate through being where their consumers live and play — camping, on hikes, in climbing gyms, or wherever their lifestyle choices take them.”

Sears sees retailers getting in the game as well, as does anyone who’s walked past the wall of energy bars and natural good products at an REI checkout. “Outdoor retailers are also looking for ways to increase frequency of customer visits, provide education around ‘clean fuel’ for their customers, and find other ways to add to their shopping experience,” says Sears. “Food, beverage, nutrition, and personal care have increasingly been seen as opportunities to achieve those goals.”

In the vernacular of these newly connecting industries, retailers are new “experiential channels,” according to Zach DeAngelo, partner at the brand management firm Rodeo CPG. For retailers, according to DeAngelo, Sears’ “clean fuel” is “a natural extension and opportunity to deepen customer engagement and experiential education.”

Heady stuff, and it’s not only product manufacturers and their distribution channels that are evolving. Investors are taking note, according to Sears. “We’ve also seen investors who have traditionally focused on one sector or the other realize the alignments and crossover opportunities,” she says. “They’re already a critical part of the growth ecosystem, and here, they also have the ability to help shape these emerging opportunities, with funds to expedite growth, guidance around prioritizing growth strategies, and the experience and wisdom of knowing when to say no. They are key growth partners and it’s essential to ensure alignment to best overcome the inherent challenges of growth together.”

Sears accomplishes this by bringing together companies and investors in out-of-the-box environments. When I mention the investor conferences we’ve hosted in Denver the past few years, she smiles — a “been there, done that” nod that was just less than disapproving. But why meet in a conventional venue when the mountains of Ecuador beckon?

“We harness the power of adventure to deepen engagement,” she explains, “bringing together entrepreneurs, investors and industry leaders at this intersection and get them outdoors together through our experiential programming — Colorado backcountry hut trips, surf trips in California, climbing in Ecuador. We know that the best businesses are the ones that do it differently. Push the limits. Make the impossible possible.”

She adds, “Companies are adapting to rapidly shifting terrain, realizing that ‘business as usual’ is no more. They are getting more creative in how they approach growth, exploring new distribution channels, developing collaborative product lines, engaging advisors and investors with cross-sector experience.”

Denver’s not Ecuador, but Sears has something special in mind for the pitch event at Outdoor Retailer. “The Entrepreneur + Investor [Tent]Pitch will go beyond the traditional pitch event to highlight the importance of aligned relationships between entrepreneurs and investors through connecting at a deeper level. We will showcase eight entrepreneur and investor teams at the intersection of outdoor and natural products, bringing together key decision makers from both industries to explore opportunities to align forces and unlock crossover growth opportunities.”

Sears is accepting applications for both companies and investors to participate in the OR pitch event. Contact her here, or drop me a line.

Bart Taylor is publisher of CompanyWeek. Reach him at btaylor@companyweek.com.

The numbers behind manufacturing’s comeback are stunning. Do they add up to a more resilient sector?

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Manufacturing’s comeback is a hot national topic. It’s also a contrast to the post-recession narrative, when manufacturing had lost hundreds of thousands of jobs and was declared dead and buried.

Today the numbers tell a different story:

  • Four years ago, pundits cited sub-50 PMI levels (Purchasing Managers’ Index, a measure of manufacturing health) as evidence that manufacturing was dead. Today the PMI hovers around 60, and the overall economy grew for the 107th consecutive month. The economy goes as manufacturing goes.
  • New data measures the power of manufacturing’s multiplier effect and the widening impact of the manufacturing supply chain. Brian Lewandowski and Michael Hansen’s CompanyWeek column outlined that Colorado manufacturing activity “supports a total of 441,000 jobs in the state, and contributes approximately $47 billion to state GDP.” It’s powerful stuff. The state’s top employment sector — trade, transportation, and utilities — supports about 470,000 jobs. Almost as many are touched by manufacturing.
  • Harry Moser’s Reshoring Initiative, an early mover in forecasting a return of American manufacturing, just released its 2017 data report, and the numbers are again eye opening. The press release reads, “Including upward revisions of 67,000 jobs in prior years, the total number of manufacturing jobs brought to the U.S. from offshore is over 576,000 since the .. manufacturing employment low of 2010. The 171,000 reshoring and FDI jobs announced equal 90 percent of the 189,000 total manufacturing jobs added in 2017.” The release adds, “Combined reshoring and FDI jobs were up 122 percent compared to unrevised 2016 totals and 52 percent compared to revised 2016 totals.” If Moser’s right, U.S. firms are repatriating jobs. It means the economics of manufacturing in America is compelling brands to make things here for the first time in decades.
  • OEDIT’s Luis Benitez uses the term “connected economies” to describe cross-sector collaboration, and it’s an apt description of what’s happening today, companies discovering shared interests and opportunities across the industry silos that have defined them. For example, brands in natural products and outdoor industries are realizing they have a lot in common — including customers. And they’re collaborating to advance their shared interests. It’s a big opportunity: consumers spend $887 billion annually on outdoor recreation, and another $190 billion or so on natural products. As technology, processes, people, and best practices bleed across industries, the outcomes will be seismic, as in a $1T opportuntity in this example alone. It’s the tip of the iceberg.
  • The renewed influence of the sector was on full display at two regional events this April — the Colorado Manufacturing Awards and the Northern Colorado Manufacturing Partnership trade show and expo — NOCOM. Both were harbingers of things to come, showcasing the state as a manufacturing laboratory and an engine of innovation and growth.

Does all of this translate into a more resilient sector? The answer is less clear.

Manufacturers cite workforce challenges as a barrier to growth. Can it stop sector development cold?

Maybe. It’s a multi-faceted challenge. Re-training a new manufacturing workforce to meet the needs of a modern sector is challenge one.

Affordable housing is a close second. I’ve written how Naturally Bay Area, formed to model Naturally Boulder’s success, might incubate and accelerate companies only to see them move for lack of manufacturing infrastructure and employees.

Even as business finds a way, economic developers still lack a playbook, a blueprint, to guide the development of the manufacturing supply chain. What are the ingredients for success, and for which industries? Build it and they will come, but how to determine what’s lacking? Today the regional manufacturing supply chain is more spotty than complete.

Cohesive, pro-manufacturing public policy is as elusive. Do tariffs serve the collective interests of manufacturers? How will immigrant-reliant industries like food and ag manage growth with fewer employees? Tax cuts are great. Trillion-dollar deficits increase uncertainty.

Benitez’s “connected economies” are still unconnected, largely.

But the next exponential leap in industry development — and resiliency — will occur when brands are clustered with their means of production and with others outside their current sphere of influence, companies that share common opportunities and challenges.

Exhibit A: How powerful would Colorado’s outdoor industry be if it were better aligned with regional manufacturers building its toys and with the state’s tourism juggernaut? We’ll dig deeper into the concept in the coming months.

In the end the American West has the upper hand. Net in-migration and positive outcomes of well-funded workforce initiatives will rebuild the talent pipeline. Industries will get connected.

Until then, the revolution is being televised. Don’t miss it.

Bart Taylor is publisher of CompanyWeek. Reach him at btaylor@companyweek.com.