Manufacturers are often faced with growth-related challenges, such as how to respond to industry consolidation, how to increase valuation and adapt to explosive growth. With this as a framework, a subset of NIST MEP Centers discussed and analyzed the results and opportunities reflected across the country in our work with small manufacturers.
This post will share some of those best practices and outcomes of how smaller, closely held and often family owned, manufacturers grew, adapted and changed to increase business valuation, support smooth growth, generational transition and owners retiring. The industries ranged from utility vehicles to electronics and varied from 20 employees to 200. Below are some of these examples from Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Idaho, Philadelphia and Southern California.
Starting the Conversation
Typically, these were company/center relationships that initially began with cost-management projects. Subsequently the company owners/presidents and center staff had deeper, open ended discussions about the company’s future such as “I’m worried about our slowly declining business lines and industry consolidation”; “my business valuation isn’t enough to support my exit strategy”; or “I need help in changing my management style and culture to support my company’s growth.”
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