InsideFurniture

A LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE: Mike Dugan and Lenoir-Rhyne College produced a dynamic leadership event with dignity, courage and resolve

Cut to the chase: Know thy consumer. The way they eat, dress, think, drive and live, and you are almost ready for satisfying them. The rest is commentary. Go learn it with an investment in substantive marketing.

Yes, invest in trenchant marketing services to establish the context for satisfying consumers, giving them what they want and need, in accordance with their (no yours) dreams, wishes and aspirations. That’s the springboard. (Click on image to enlarge)

In the rough and tumble retail world, veteran furniture savant and executive Mike Dugan, now college professor at Lenoir-Rhyne College, drew on the minimalist approach for the maximum impact: Busy, committed and serious furniture folk need concise and credible insights as platforms for progress and productivity.

Mike, the former president of Henredon, is the Alex Lee Professor at LRC’s and chairman of the Charles M. Snipes Business School. Earlier this week, he celebrated substance over style in leadership, crafting a one day event that transported the mind now for the brave new world ahead.

The title of the leadership conference was challenging, yet respectfully frightful: The Future of Furniture Retail, and that’s really the real brave new world.

The dense program was brief, effective and significant. Without bombast, comedians, entertainment, brand-building, subterfuge and puffery, Dugan produced an effective one day event at an academic gem, Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, North Carolina.

By know means and no means is Hickory a resort city, and it was a resort of the mind to lead and find solutions that grip our industry. Getting tan and relaxed with knowledge is the business vacation that’s really meaningful.

Here’s Mike’s charge to about 175 serious home furnishings persons:

It is exciting for us to have so many visitors from the cruel “outside world” and we certainly hope it will be stimulating for you to spend a little time in the ‘world of academia.

A world in which there are:

·         No plants to close,

·         No shrinking backlogs to fret over,

·         No quick trips to Dongguan Province,

·         No inventories sitting on the lot, and,

·         Here’s the amazing thing  . . BlackBerries!

SUMMER REPOST

BlogNote: Attending a seminar today. Enjoy the repost from October 26, 2006

FUTILITY OF TRICKLE-DOWN MARKETING: Too much attention focused on retail executives and buyers, giving short shrift to the salespeople actually needing information to succeed

Just another blog-rant about the futility of trickle-down marketing, the mercantile malady of choice in furniture, as well as other industries.

Festering for years, the preventable disorder arises from swallowing too much pride and forgetting to exhale, causing the business brain to stultify with crippling amounts of carbon dioxide.

Said differently, many manufacturers do the least and expect the most from inadequately informing and educating their retailers — especially the folk on the floor —expected to possess universal knowledge of their markets and the merchandise they offer.

What I said a couple of times previously in this space: The furniture industry needs to give up on trickle-down marketing.

So old world, so unsophisticated, trickle-down marketing forces manufacturers to direct their attention exclusively on the upper echelons of the retail world — the owners, managers and merchandising personnel.

Wrong focus!! Why? They shun, exclude and bypass the most important people in the mix – the floor sales personnel who are on the front lines, needing the the most information.

In the furniture industry, the typical manufacturer-to-retailer transfer of information to sales people reminds me of how birds feed their young.

It goes something like this: Big Daddy manufacturer flies into the retail nest with the new product worm. He chews it furiously into a product information puree and gleefully regurgitates into the mouth of a hungry Mommy retailer.

She further chews it and spits into the mouth of her fluttering sales managers who continue the mindless mastication. Then this sales slop is forced fed to and swallowed by the starving floor sales personnel.

Such feedings are devoid of either taste or nutrients, and cannot fortify a manufacturer or retailer with the strength necessary to earn the trust of savvy furniture  shoppers. Incidentally, furniture shoppers are more informed about furniture than many retail sales people.

It’s a battle for mindshare. From the perspective of real world competition — call it mercantile war — arming only the retail command structure with product information is archaic, in fact, stupid.   

Expecting the retail top brass to motivate and equip the ground troops with the occasional input of sales representatives underscores the inadequacy of trickle-down marketing.

All wars are won on the ground. In furniture, the ground is the retail sales floor, where the real gladiators are the men and women in the trenches daily with furniture shoppers. Those mercantile warriors need all the ammo they can get when they need it the most.

Given the desire of good-intentioned manufacturers to generate more business, why do they choose to misdirect and misallocate valuable information resources?

SUMMER REPPOST

BlogNote: Enjoy an encore posting from April 5, 2006

THE NEWS NOOSE: The retail sales person regularly receives short shrift from manufacturers wanting more sales yet declining to invest in basic, simple and effective empowering information

News, news all around us, but not enough to satisfy the thirst for sustained information! Huh? What?

Yeh, here’s some startling news: Most retail sales people are ignorant (under informed and not stupid), that is, of the virtues of what manufacturers produce, so they are able to transmit that knowledge with confidence to furniture shoppers.

Why? Manufacturers are too busy selling and not informing and satisfying. According the sensible values, the mercantile ethos  that needs to be honored: The reason manufacturers and retailers are in business is to satisfy consumers, first, to be able to earn legitimate profits.

In the real world, consumers are usually smarter than most retail sales people. Before arriving at the store, many furniture shoppers have discovered, empowering themselves with online research, important facts that have informed, guided and educated them about a store, product or category.

Contrast that against reality: Retail sales people — the ignored in-the-trenches ministers of home furnishings to the public — are usually under informed and may not be ready for smart consumers.

Not only are retail sales people ignorant, but their vendors could be considered benighted for not helping themselves and merchants with a simple investment in keeping the retail sales person well informed all the time.

Under informed retail sales people can’t lead, meaning they are ill equipped to lead and direct furniture shoppers.

For a manufacturer, ignorance could be death on the retail floor because the producer didn’t invest adequately in mutually informing, guiding and educating the retail sales person and the furniture shopper.

As we know, retail sales people are busy retail bees — a veritable corps of informational pollinators. Get this: They rarely read the self-vaunting trade publications!

Ignorant or Under Informed Yes, that important front line army of retail sales people hasn’t the time or the inclination, to invest in reading trade publication stories that, mostly, aren’t really geared to them, anyway.

Back to keeping the retail sales people well informed. Every manufacturer has many stories that will never appear regularly in trade publications. For the valuable, precious mercantile souls — the retail sales people — vendors are regularly neglecting them and directing most of their attention on selling to the retail bosses.

Most vendors could improve business with a clear and present plan to keep the retail sales people informed, with all news all the time. Yes,  keeping retail sales people has a cost, but it's not as much as the cost of lost business!

Typically, the factories place too much of the burden on their limited sales representatives. While not exactly lazy, many reps are benign order takers, not trenchant marketers. Even if they were, they can’t be personally in all stores all the time, but they can be electronically or, yes, in the surface mail.

The reps’ marketing deficiency is not solely their fault, as much as it is part of the tradition of just selling in the product and allowing (hoping, and hope is not a strategy!) the retailer does all the rest, with an infrequent meeting and there and whenever. Retail sales people can't wait for information.

Nor can retailers do all the rest, without methodical help from serious reps and savvy manufacturers. The vendors and their reps need to be willing to hear the new mercantile music, an information rap to wrap business and rap, as in knock the competition.

Satisfaction Isn't Comfort. No longer can they intently and retrogressively listen to the comfortable  sales oldies-but-goodies on their favorite radio station, WIIFM, What’s In It For Me?! On WIIFM, the hit song is always “Money, Money, Money” instead “Please, Please the Consumer.”

To stay ahead, manufacturers need a consistency of message in direct and frequent communications with retail sales people. Again, if the floor sales people are under informed — ignorant of a brand or product — then that manufacturer has invested nothing, literally and figuratively, an in return could be assuring sales disappointment.

Whatever the retail sales person sees (seize), he or she is likely to sell. So the burden remains on the manufacturer to chart the course, to direct attention to its brand in navigating on the High Seize of business.

WEEKEND REPOST

BlogNote: A golden oldie blogservation from June 15, 2006. Enjoy!

THE HOME, STUPID! Yes, Yes, Yes, Know, Know, Know the home as the power base for home furnishings direction from the power of local search online

Insulting, isn’t it? For me to suggest in such an inflammatory headline that pockets of decreased vision and intelligence could possibly flourish within the furniture industry.

Omigod! What an outrage! What heresy! And, oh, yeh, where is the outrage?

With the power of online shopping (fact-finding and discovery) — NOT BUYING!! — growing so exponentially, I am dumbfounded (maybe just dumb!) and befuddled over the gross misuse of the commercial power of the Internet.

Hey, the Internet ain’t your father’s sales-mobile! It's your snazzy, souped up platform as a destination to a self-qualifying shopper's search mobile.

The high touch, high feel factor of furniture demands that shoppers develop a comfortable point of reference — the butt test or drawer pull — to confirm or validate a buying decision.

But first they have to discern the best store to visit, and with costly fuel that precludes just driving around, shoppers don't want to be fooled online. And if they are, they ain't never gonna go back.

The challenge is howya gonna get 'em into the store when  shoppers are seeking information and many retailers are delivering online sales patois that is usually  warmed over newspaper bombast?

This is mercantile limbo. How low can they go? Remember, you can take the sale out of the ad, but can't take sale ad out of the retailer, even though online prowess becomes the wind for successful merchant sails.

Remember, all furniture is local, and that means virtually all furniture buying is local. So, when shoppers search for authority online, they dismiss sales drivel that they inherently know contains some kind of too-good-to-be-true catch.

Anyway, women are the decision makers, and they innately know what retailers (men) want with unrequited mercantile love.

So, how will retailers and their vendors comport themselves online to change the perception of home furnishings? Well, it won't be evolutionary. But, instead, the change will emerge from intelligent design. That means knowing what people (code word for women) want, and to be ready with the trusted information when they want it, and that’s all the time in full Twenty-four/Seven responsiveness.

AVOIDING THE ACTIVITY TRAP: Attending all those quick fix, get sales now seminars may be less effective than attending to some low tech methods

The snake oil sales guys are out in force now. When going gets tough the tough have already been going, and the rest squander good money chasing quick solutions for complex situations.

If you doubt it, look at the some of the “quick fix snake oil” remedy seminars adorning the recent regional trade shows. More of “do this now and drive sales” nostrums are heralded at the forthcoming world home furnishings market in High Point.

Most of them are a waste of valuable time, unless you enjoy observing the progeny of P.T. Barnum in action. Those so-called seminars are actually sales platforms that defy most logic, promising speedy solutions for a sluggish situation. You can't make people buy furniture, just work on increasing the demand.

If you want increase sales now, you had to begin months and years ago with a plan and solid, credible message. A continuity of image — stressing living better with home furnishings — needs to be the dominant message reinforced all the time.

Even though shoppers are in and out of the home furnishings buying frame of mind, they are still aware of the barrage of furniture messages. If the blare is price, and it usually is, the reception diminishes because the primary reason people buy home furnishings is function and comfort. Price factors in later.

While sales techniques are critical — asking the right probing, yet cordial questions of consumers — persuading people to visit a store requires learned finesse. And seeking to drive business by interrupting peoples’ lives with every kind of message other than living better probably won’t resonate.

So what will work? Probably the low tech, more difficult personal initiative. It can be more effective than mindless price-item ads or cutesy e-mail blasts.

Sturdy business comes from the relentless mercantile ground game. It’s a one-on-one approach, usually out of the store, and that requires a plan with smart coach for the committed team.

Does everyone in the store have a business card? Are they trained to declare the value story, and do they distribute the card to everyone they encounter?

That’s right, everyone a store employee encounters needs to receive the business card and the value message of living better with home furnishings. Here’s an economical, way to establish a financial bonus system to induce the method.

In some way, the message  — everyone's a prospect — needs to incorporate: “I know how important my business is to your business (dry cleaner, restaurant, grocery store, hair salon, pet shop and others). I am inviting you to live better with furniture. Come on over and into my store, where I work, and I’ll introduce you to my colleagues who can really be helpful.”

Creating a buzz, spreading excitement, certifying an experience and asking friends, family and acquaintances for the business is good business.

FURNITURE’S REP PATOIS: For many road warriors, the repertoire is the same the old shift to selfishness

Tough times continue on furniture’s highway where the restless, weary corps of sales representatives are running in circles while running scared.

With bags drooping under their eyes and arms, many reps are at wits end, too consumed with trying and not enough time satisfying. Why? Because many reps frightfully drive their businesses while looking forward into their rear view mirrors without facing the new horizons of reality.

The past has past. Not only are past relationships changing out of need and circumstances, the means of informing, guiding and educating retailers are vastly different. Today, reps are more than representatives, they are marketing communicators and diagnosticians.

Reps aren’t salespersons anymore. They really haven’t been in years, except for the misnomer of their titles. If anything, they’re really dream merchants and ardor-takers for the love of helping people live better with furniture.

More than ever, reps are savvy solution providers, providing they possess access to information from attuned factory-importers dedicated to empowering retailers.

What’s more, today’s successful reps need to be trained observers, well informed and equipped to help retailers satisfy their customers’ dreams, wishes and aspirations.

The bottom line resides where it’s always been for reps, their companies and retailers: With people we call consumers. Too many reps are defiantly out of step and out of touch with the needs of the people who pay the industry’s salaries and bills: consumers we all take for granted.

Probably not enough fingers exist to point to all who need to catch the blame. But the blame game and finger-pointing are pointless and futile. Action is what’s necessary, to be positively pointed.

POSITIVE TENSION: Retailers need to get off their frightened assets and aggressively chart their destiny instead of commiserating about sluggish business

Just as hope isn’t a strategy, unhappy retailers hunkered in their stores, wondering and worrying how to improve business, is just as hopeless.

Want a quick, but challenging solution to the current business doldrums? Get a fix and jolt. Plan on attending the High Point Market, October 1 to 7, and you won’t need to hope you’ll never make the same do-little, complain-a-lot mistakes again.

What do I mean? I mean map a sensible plan and get off your frightened assets and act to improve your business.

Yeh, that means going to the Big Bad Market in High Point, which you’ll discover quickly that High Point isn’t so bad, but is it ever so BIG! In fact, High Point is BIG in every way that can mean more business.

Unlike any brash regional trade shows, where the merchandise pickin’s are slim, High Point is Big Time, where class acts flourish everywhere and where everyone who is anybody in home furnishings struts his or her stuff in big, glittering showrooms.

If you’ve never attended the High Point Market, take a calculated chance to improve your business instead of gambling on retrenching. If you’ve attended, but mistakenly hold your nose, you must be aware that the odor of rotten business reeks considerably more and longer than any real and perceived deficiencies in High Point.

As anything of lasting value, yes, you’ll work extra hard in High Point, where the amazing experience will generate great stories and where you’ll be rewarded handsomely in breadth and selection found nowhere else.

In many ways, the High Point Market possesses the same strengths as a tough teacher or demanding coach, whose dignity and authority makes you do something you don’t want to do, but glad you did!

WEEKEND REPOST: From June 30, 2006

FIRST RULE OF HOLES: Stop digging and and start filling to get out of the hole

Stop digging is the obvious action, and the first rule of holes, if you're stuck in a hole, especially a hole you've dug yourself!

The furniture industry is stuck in a hole of its own doing. More like a cavern, but still a hole that most single-minded and benighted merchants and manufactuers have dug for themselves.

Wittingly or not, they have dug the hole, a hole of missed opportunities, for themselves. No new products or furniture trade shows can lift the industry out of its holiness.

Yet, amazingly, despite a frenetic desire to escape, they keep digging. That is, they keep doing the same things — selling instead of marketing — and expecting different results.

Invoking the first rule of holes, stop digging, already!

Take heed: The next step (important word, step) is start filling the hole, not to bury an old industry, but to establish a new foundation and firm footing to climb out with a new appreciation and desire to promote satisfaction, comfort and better living.

The fill material is commitment and desire to expand the industry's knowledge and refine its approach to the people it serves.

For a better perspective, the following Native American tale tells it all:

One day an old Native American's donkey fell down into a deep hole. The animal cried piteously for hours as the Native American tried to figure out what to do.

Finally, he decided the animal was old and the hole needed to be covered up anyway. It just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey.

He invited all his clan people to come over and help him. They all began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement, he quieted down.

A few minutes later, the old Native American finally looked down the hole and was astonished at what he saw.

With every handful of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing!

He would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the hole and trotted off!

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt! The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up.

Each of our troubles is a stepping-stone. We can get out of the deepest holes just by not stopping and never giving up!

All we have to do is shake it off and take a step up.

Morale of the story and predicament: When your ass in a hole, stop digging and start filling with innovation.

Stop digging is the obvious action, and the first rule of holes, if you're stuck in a hole, especially a hole you've dug yourself!

The furniture industry is stuck in a hole of its own doing. More like a cavern, but still a hole that most single-minded and benighted merchants and manufactuers have dug for themselves.

Wittingly or not, they have dug the hole, a hole of missed opportunities, for themselves. No new products or furniture trade shows can lift the industry out of its holiness.

Yet, amazingly, despite a frenetic desire to escape, they keep digging. That is, they keep doing the same things — selling instead of marketing — and expecting different results.

Invoking the first rule of holes, stop digging, already!

Take heed: The next step (important word, step) is start filling the hole, not to bury an old industry, but to establish a new foundation and firm footing to climb out with a new appreciation and desire to promote satisfaction, comfort and better living.

The fill material is commitment and desire to expand the industry's knowledge and refine its approach to the people it serves.

For a better perspective, the following Native American tale tells it all:

One day an old Native American's donkey fell down into a deep hole. The animal cried piteously for hours as the Native American tried to figure out what to do.

Finally, he decided the animal was old and the hole needed to be covered up anyway. It just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey.

He invited all his clan people to come over and help him. They all began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement, he quieted down.

A few minutes later, the old Native American finally looked down the hole and was astonished at what he saw.

With every handful of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing!

He would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the hole and trotted off!

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt! The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up.

Each of our troubles is a stepping-stone. We can get out of the deepest holes just by not stopping and never giving up!

All we have to do is shake it off and take a step up.

Morale of the story and predicament: When your ass in a hole, stop digging and start filling with innovation.

Stop digging is the obvious action, and the first rule of holes, if you're stuck in a hole, especially a hole you've dug yourself!

The furniture industry is stuck in a hole of its own doing. More like a cavern, but still a hole that most single-minded and benighted merchants and manufactuers have dug for themselves.

Wittingly or not, they have dug the hole, a hole of missed opportunities, for themselves. No new products or furniture trade shows can lift the industry out of its holiness.

Yet, amazingly, despite a frenetic desire to escape, they keep digging. That is, they keep doing the same things — selling instead of marketing — and expecting different results.

Invoking the first rule of holes, stop digging, already!

Take heed: The next step (important word, step) is start filling the hole, not to bury an old industry, but to establish a new foundation and firm footing to climb out with a new appreciation and desire to promote satisfaction, comfort and better living.

The fill material is commitment and desire to expand the industry's knowledge and refine its approach to the people it serves.

For a better perspective, the following Native American tale tells it all:

One day an old Native American's donkey fell down into a deep hole. The animal cried piteously for hours as the Native American tried to figure out what to do.

Finally, he decided the animal was old and the hole needed to be covered up anyway. It just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey.

He invited all his clan people to come over and help him. They all began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement, he quieted down.

A few minutes later, the old Native American finally looked down the hole and was astonished at what he saw.

With every handful of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing!

He would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the hole and trotted off!

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt! The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up.

Each of our troubles is a stepping-stone. We can get out of the deepest holes just by not stopping and never giving up!

All we have to do is shake it off and take a step up.

Morale of the story and predicament: When your ass in a hole, stop digging and start filling with innovation.

FRIDAY’S FABLES: The various true-to-life dramas, situations and circumstances swirling around and challenging the furniture industry can have their basis in delicious fables that guide our lives

Let your imagination run, as you read and savor a couple famous fables appearing below. They are, but two of many more fables and stories that serve us as important moral guideposts and compasses.

The fables appearing in today’s posting possess distinctive merit and are open to wide interpretation involving nations, people, institutions and globalization.

If you wish and are so inclined, please suggest some of your favorite fables or stories that help all of us comprehend and manage our lives in pursuit of the greater good.

The Hare and the Tortoise, an Aesop Fable

The Hare was once boasting of his speed before the other animals. "I have never yet been beaten," said he, "when I put forth my full speed. I challenge any one here to race with me."

The Tortoise said quietly, "I accept your challenge."

"That is a good joke," said the Hare; "I could dance round you all the way." 

"Keep your boasting till you've beaten," answered the Tortoise. "Shall we race?"

So a course was fixed and a start was made. The Hare darted almost out of sight at once, but soon stopped and, to show his contempt for the Tortoise, lay down to have a nap.

The Tortoise plodded on and plodded on, and when the Hare awoke from his nap, he saw the Tortoise just near the winning-post and could not run up in time to save the race. Then said the Tortoise: Plodding wins the race.

The Scorpion and the Frog

One day, a scorpion looked around at the mountain where he lived and decided that he wanted a change. So he set out on a journey through the forests and hills. He climbed over rocks and under vines and kept going until he reached a river.

The river was wide and swift, and the scorpion stopped to reconsider the situation. He couldn't see any way across. So he ran upriver and then checked downriver, all the while thinking that he might have to turn back.

Suddenly, he saw a frog sitting in the rushes by the bank of the stream on the other side of the river. He decided to ask the frog for help getting across the stream.

"Hellooo Mr. Frog!" called the scorpion across the water, "Would you be so kind as to give me a ride on your back across the river?"

"Well now, Mr. Scorpion! How do I know that if I try to help you, you wont try to kill me?" asked the frog hesitantly.

"Because," the scorpion replied, "If I try to kill you, then I would die too, for you see I cannot swim!"

Now this seemed to make sense to the frog. But he asked. "What about when I get close to the bank? You could still try to kill me and get back to the shore!"

"This is true," agreed the scorpion, "But then I wouldn't be able to get to the other side of the river!"

"Alright then...how do I know you wont just wait till we get to the other side and THEN kill me?" said the frog.

"Ahh...," crooned the scorpion, "Because you see, once you've taken me to the other side of this river, I will be so grateful for your help, that it would hardly be fair to reward you with death, now would it?!"

So the frog agreed to take the scorpion across the river. He swam over to the bank and settled himself near the mud to pick up his passenger.

The scorpion crawled onto the frog's back, his sharp claws prickling into the frog's soft hide, and the frog slid into the river.

The muddy water swirled around them, but the frog stayed near the surface so the scorpion would not drown. He kicked strongly through the first half of the stream, his flippers paddling wildly against the current.

Halfway across the river, the frog suddenly felt a sharp sting in his back and, out of the corner of his eye, saw the scorpion remove his stinger from the frog's back. A deadening numbness began to creep into his limbs.

"You fool!" croaked the frog, "Now we shall both die! Why on earth did you do that?"

The scorpion shrugged, and did a little jig on the drowning frog's back.

"I could not help myself. It is my nature."

Then they both sank into the muddy waters of the swiftly flowing river.

COMMENTS AS CONDIMENTS: Blog readers post their thoughts and spice up the discussion

Blognote: The August 7 posting (scroll down to find it), Back to the Future, prompted some comments culled and reposted to continue the provocative topic that furniture manufacturing probably will return to North America, but much differently as in clustered production.

Agree, disagree or both. Share your thoughts. They are welcome.

The impetus for the posting came from Dr. G. Stephen Taylor, director of the Franklin Furniture Institute at Mississippi State University. Look to the right and click on the MSU logo for trip to a fine institution.

From Whitey:

I could not agree more with the premise that furniture manufacturing will return to the US. I also could not agree more with the premise that it will be based in the Southeastern region of the U.S.

Simple economic analysis indicates that the problem with US manufacturing in furniture was underinvestment.

For many categories of mainstream furniture, a dash of automation would have solved the comparative cost problem and exploited the benefits of local manufacturing — speed to market, custom manufacturing, and more.

In fact, in product differentiated competitive strategies, domestic manufacturing is superior from a total cost standpoint.

I do disagree with the fact that the manufacturing will return to High Point.

Just as the transplant auto and appliance manufacturing operations have concluded, it is best to get away from the intellectual base that created the fiasco in the first place.

From Calidad:

Once again, we see history repeat itself. This happened in automotive, electronics, call centers, and many other industries. Many of them also cried to Washington, "Unfair!".

At the end of the day, it seems that industry executives are unable to learn from others and have to make their own mistakes. It is unfortunate that so many people and communities suffer from their arrogant blunders.

From Steve Hodges:

Actually, I think you're quite prescient on this subject. I think too many CEOs with little foresight too quickly padlocked their factories in their rush to follow everybody and his brother to Asia.

Unfortunately, a lot of smaller manufacturers who couldn't weather the current rough retail climate couldn't hang on to survive.