3 Keys To Saving The Bloated And Broken American Manufacturing Industry

Many American manufacturers are bloated and broken. And their CEO’s are fat, dumb and happy. That is until a foreigner comes along to dismantle and dismember the company.

Many American manufacturers are bloated and broken. And their CEO’s are fat, dumb and happy. That is until a foreigner comes along to dismantle and dismember the company. By then, the CEO’s are still fat, they are still dumb, but they are not happy.

Heinz is a perfect example of the bloated and broken model. Waste and inefficiencies everywhere you look. That is why it was bought by a Brazilian company backed by Warren Buffet. Because the acquisition could be rationalized by eliminating all that expense. And guess what the Brazilian’s first move was? You got it, dismantle and dismember the company. Now they won’t call it that but the net effect is lots of Americans will lose their jobs-all because Heinz didn’t fix itself.

There are 3 keys to saving a bloated company. They are the same 3 keys you can use to see to it your company never gets that way.  

Execute With Precision

Your entire team must be operationally at the top of their game.  You must precisely control all of your business processes from the time someone makes a sales call to the time receivables are collected. If any part of that process is not executing with precision, the whole thing comes apart.

Innovate On Demand

People say you are either creative or you are not. Some people even say that most people are not creative. Studies show that innovation is a process that can be learned. It can be institutionalized in your organization. You just have to make it a priority and put resources and a process in place to make it happen.  In my case, I hired the ex-chief culture officer at QVC to train my organization how to be innovative.

Create A Cirque de Soleil™ Culture

Most CEO’s have cultures by accident. What you need is a culture by design. The model you should have in your head for your culture by design should be Cirque de Soleil™. If you have seen the Cirque, you will know what I mean. The Cirque is a highly talented, highly motivated, and highly integrated team that performs on the edge. Why would you want anything less? I know what you are thinking-easy for him to say but building a culture like that is hard. Yes it is, but I have done it time and time again. You can too.

I do not want to see even one more American company get eviscerated by a foreign predator. I am on a crusade to revive American manufacturing. That is why I created Ingenuity University™. Its mission is to revitalize American manufacturing and save American jobs. Its curriculum teaches people how to fix bloated and broken companies, how to make good companies great, and how to make great companies greater. 


With more than three decades of management, executive, consulting and speaking experience in markets all over the world, Miller Ingenuity CEO Steve Blue (www.StevenLBlue.comis a globally regarded business growth authority who has transformed companies into industry giants and enthralled audiences with his dynamic keynotes. In his upcoming book, “Outdo, Outsmart… Outlast: A Practical Guide to Managed, Measured and Meaningful Growth,” he reveals why seeking growth and surviving growth are equally perilous, and require different sets of plans to weather the storms. Follow Steve @MillerIngenuity.

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