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The Buy Local Food Movement has helped to dramatically improve the economic fortunes of the local agricultural sector. Through books, ads, new distribution channels, national pubicity, this movement has created a legion of consumers who are looking for locally grown and raised products . These same consumers have in turn forced the major grocery chains to purchase more locally grown products. Its my belief that this same "Buy Local" could help general manufacturers in the same way.
THE BUY LOCAL FOOD MOVEMENT
WHAT MANUFACTURERS CAN LEARN FROM AGRICULTURAL MARKETING
For the past 3 years, every Wednesday afternoon, I run a local Produce Stand in our neighbourhood that sells fresh, locally grown, fruits and vegetables to my neighbours who mostly walk to the stand with their fabric shopping bags. The stand has been a…
My blog has tried to highlight companies like Roots, Salus, Kodiak, Cutco, and Custom Leather who pursue a balanced strategy of domestic versus offshore supply. Add New Balance Footwear to this list. Like their counterparts, New Balance sees value in continuing to manufacture 25% of their footwear volume domestically; the only athletic shoe company that does. They do it through passionate management, branding, marketing, and distribution, innovative product, and efficient manufacturing.
NEW BALANCE FOOTWEAR, STILL MAKING ATHLETIC FOOTWEAR IN AMERICA
Some of you who read my blog must think I'm a starry eyed idealist to believe that it still makes sense to make small, lightweight, intricate products in North America. Sure you say. I've given some local examples in my blog of companies like Custom Leather(belts), Salus(lifejackets), Kodiak(workboots), Roots(Leather Bags) and Cutco(kitchen cutlery) who produce some or all of their production on this…
The 6 year "Own the Podium" Strategy lead to unprecedented success for our Olympians in Vancouver. A combination of public/private support for our country's best athletes combined with world class training facilities, coaching, and competition, lead to our best ever medal haul and an Olympic games that was the envy of the world. This recipe for Olympic success could be a model for rebuilding our manufacturing sector into a global force.
"OWN THE PODIUM"
WHAT CANADIAN MANUFACTURERS CAN LEARN FROM OUR WINTER OLYMPIC SUCCESS STORY
Arguably, the overwhelming success of the Vancouver Winter Olympics and our Canadian athletes should be a shining example of what it takes for Canadian manufacturers to compete on a global scale. After winning the Olympic bid, an audacious(some would say unCanadian) plan was put in place called "Own the…
Factories may not be the first place you'd expect to see demand for social technologies. But social networks are changing how manufacturers view their operations.
In a recent survey of 268 manufacturers, 63% of respondents said that enterprise resources planning (ERP) software will provide its highest value when integrated with social computing technologies. Users want ERP software to perform the functions of collaborative technologies and social networks.
But why do manufacturers want social…
Well, I posted my "crowdsourcing" project online to over 50,000 designers around the world and asked them to submit a logo design for my company. Here's what happened.
Winning crowdsourced logo design by Greg Scott
Two weeks and 122 logo design submissions later ... success! I actually found the perfect new logo design for my company, Integrated Website Solutions Inc., and I couldn't be happier with the results of my crowdsourcing experiment!
Crowdsourcing this project allowed me to tap into a rich pool of international design talent and ask "creatives" to provide me with their designs "on spec". The award I offered to the winning designer in this logo…
In my last post I asked, "Why not try crowdsourcing?" I decided to try it myself and report back here.
I'm now one week into my quest to find a new logo for my company using www.crowdspring.com, a well-known crowdsourcing website.
For the uninitiated, crowdsourcing is a way for anyone to tap into a large pool of skilled workers and international talent at a reasonable cost. You can crowdsource anything these days from graphic design, research and development, computer programming to photography.
Detractors of crowdsourcing mock it as a poor substitute for hiring "true professionals" such as those…
According to Jeffrey Rubin, author of the recent bestseller entitled "Why Your World is about to get a Whole Lot Smaller" cheap oil has been the engine behind the trade globalization of the past few decades. However, if predictions about the future world supply and demand for oil are correct, $100/barrel plus oil will become the norm, leading to a sea change in how we source products and where we locate factories. Local production, closer to customers in order to minimize shipping costs, espec
IS THE WORLD FLAT OR ROUND?
IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE PRICE OF OIL
In my last blog, The Last (Man)-ufacturing Standing Strategy, I argued against Canadian manufacturers liquidating their factories and becoming strictly importers and distributors from Asia.
To me, maintaining your ability to make product on this side of the pond makes good sense as a hedge against unforeseen events that could change the cost structure of your imported goods literally overnight.
In his recent Canadian bestseller…
Tapping into the "wisdom of crowds" to reach new talent and reduce costs.
Jeff Howe is a writer at Wired magazine and a Neimann Fellow at Harvard who coined the term "crowdsourcing" in 2006. In this video he explains the basic concept behind crowdsourcing and its impact on the way companies do business.
What is Crowdsourcing?
Wikipedia, which is itself a crowdsourced online encyclopaedia, says "crowdsourcing" as a combination of the words "crowd" and "outsourcing". It is defined as,
"the act of taking tasks traditionally performed by an employee or a contractor, and…
This is the second in my blog series on how to develop your company’s social media strategy using free online tools to research the marketplace.
There is a cost to participating in social media. Although social sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are "free", before jumping on the social media bandwagon, a company must understand the supporting costs involved in 1) launching a presence and 2) maintaining a following on these sites.
Costs include the dedication of staff to this social media effort. Employees must be trained in the effective use of social media for promotion and, more importantly, human "conversational" contact…
In many industries, there are always a few manufacturers that manage to balance the urge to import everything they sell from Asia with the need to maintain a domestic plant. These companies recognize that it doesn't make sense to outsource everything. Future changes in the global economy can change the economics of global versus local supply overnight and maintaining a domestic capability as a hedge against this uncertain future makes perfect sense. Custom Leather, a local manufacturer of men's belts, is
THE LAST "(MAN)-UFACTURER" STANDING STRATEGY
When you enter the lobby of Custom Leather's 60,000 sq. ft. men's belt manufacturing company in Kitchener's new Bingeman Industrial Park, the unmistakable smell of leather greets you. For me, this smell takes me back to my early days of selling cutting dies to Kaufman, Greb, Bauer, Savage, New Balance and the many other local companies that once converted leather hides to shoes back in the 70's but no longer exist today. Then I ask myself. …
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