Can You Compete?

By FH Cooper | Leave a Comment

It wasn’t that long ago that a lot of U.S. manufacturing headed to companies overseas who offered cheaper labor and good quality. In the last few years, that situation has changed. Overseas labor costs have increased and they have not kept up the high quality level that these products once enjoyed. Much of that “lost” manufacturing is returning to the United States. In addition, high salaries, high energy costs and high land costs are driving many of these overseas companies to the United States to establish facilities here. One Chinese company reported by the Wall Street Journal is moving to North Carolina building a $200 million facility and expects to create approximately 500 new jobs. A Mumbai-based company announced it would build a $70 million yarn operation in rural Sylvania, Georgia bringing 250 jobs.

The moral here is that if overseas companies are finding a favorable business climate here, surely U.S. companies also can thrive and grow here. There are many things a company can do to either reverse its “sagging” fortunes or to create a new strategic direction and increase its growth potential. Companies must ask themselves;

• “How can we locate and enter new markets and expand existing product lines?”
• “What kind of new personnel skills should we add to our work force to make future growth a reality?”

 

There are numerous “tools” that can be used to help answer these questions. In the next blog, we will explore one of these tools. It is “Core Competencies”.

NOTE: These blogs will deal with marketing strategies and ways to engage them to create a competitive advantage for your company, your products and services in a busy ever-changing environment.

Franklin Cooper © 2017