I had the pleasure of talking to Ed Marsh, a strategy and revenue growth consultant for industrial manufacturers. One of the topics we discussed: Is Private Equity a blessing or a curse for middle-market American industrial manufacturers?
As I shared with Ed, I am troubled by the trends that I’ve seen with brands and manufacturing locations being shuttered, with history, pride, tradition, communities, and jobs all at stake.
And Ed agreed that he’s had some frustrating personal experiences as a consumer when some local services businesses have been rolled up, resulting in dramatic cost increases and quality deterioration.
We did, however, reach interesting common ground in our conversation. He also got me to open about how I approach marketing for manufacturers — which I don’t talk about enough because I worry about offending people.
Suffice to say, we both agreed manufacturers will make continuous improvement a priority but won’t apply the same rigor to marketing — and only think about it when they’re panicking due to lost or declining business.
My belief is, manufacturers don’t know what they don’t know — meaning, they don’t know how strategic and thoughtful marketing — that’s based on the same concept of continual improvement — will benefit them and their company and employees long-term.
You can also find this podcast on Apple Podcasts.
Thank you, Ed. I very much enjoyed talking with you.
