Gastonia North Blog

A few days ago, Susan and I were talking about traffic. What does traffic have to do with our business you might ask? Everything! You see what we noticed was the volume of traffic; it has gone up significantly in the last several weeks – a clear indication that people are getting back out again….

Is the US Industrial Economy Growing? As I’ve gotten older the phrase “Talking Heads” is much more informed than it was in my younger years. It’s tiresome because almost every single, trusted source for information has become a talking head and to say I’m gobsmacked by that would be an understatement. Today almost all of…

I just realized while reading through another White Paper on COVID how anybody with opposable thumbs can write and/or say anything they want to say about anything. It’s true and if you want proof; count the number of times you hear someone say “Just Google it” in the next 7 days. Why? The phrase has…

I have to open with a disclaimer: I’m an old manufacturing guy. I’ve always been a strong supporter of US manufacturing and strongly criticized the risks of letting others make “our stuff”. Through the years, we have heard from several of our President’s about the shift to a ‘Global’ economy and how we were ‘heading…

Americans and American business’ now wander a landscape that changes on an hour to hour basis and we’d all like to know what the next step looks like. But none of us knows where we’re headed because we’ve never been here before. What we do know is there will be a light at the end…

Many candidates will consider relocation which is fantastic and opens a lot of options for them to find the ideal new next opportunity! One of the first things we discuss is Cost of Living (COL) and Salary Expectations, particularly if a high COL is on either end of the decision. If they’re thinking about a…

Recruiting can make you weary, but once in a while, a client or candidate or both will surprise you – making you feel good about the business you’re in; and putting a smile in your heart.  This story has nothing to do with a fee but everything to do with a candidate that really wanted…

In my lifetime, finding someone to talk about the economy in simple language has not been easy.   Their economic indicators often feel like a euphemism for “we don’t know what we’re talking about”; their acronyms more complicated than a radar chart; and their inability to say anything good, frustrating.    Not so with the folks…

It’s a new year, a new decade even, and as sure as I’m sitting here writing this little ditty you can be sure … THINGS WILL CHANGE. The Promise No, I can’t promise you what will change. e.g. I can’t promise you the price per ounce of gold will go up the nearly 300% it…

Life plays funny tricks on us; 24 hours ago, I would never have used the phrase “Situational Imperative” and today I’m parroting its use from an article I just read (the link is below).  The definition says that you select situations you know you’ll encounter and that you HAVE to respond to them in a…

Early in my career I would never have used “Data Analytics” (DA) in the same phrase, probably not even in the same sentence and perhaps not even on the same piece of paper!  Yet for the last 20+ years of my life, those words appear together ubiquitously.  Just 2 days ago, I was catching-up with…

When you’ve been around manufacturing as long as I have, it’s inevitable to have moments when you wonder whether the latest “thing” is nothing more than a shell game.  I remember in the mid-90’s when Six Sigma and its various belt levels was all the rage.  One of my best contacts at one of our…

Recently we had an engineer interview for a position he was highly qualified for because of his unique skill-set.  We worked with the client to help them quickly get from the candidate what they needed to ensure the technical criteria and let them focus on the cultural needs.  We prepared the candidate on the process…

I sometimes feel as though the whole age and wisdom thing has been lost on me. It makes me wonder if I’m suffering from “too much change in too short a period of time”, or what Alvin & Heidi Toffler called “Future Shock”.  I mean, really, the volume of information I have to handle in…

Whether the subject is Lean or Six Sigma, what I’ve seen in my manufacturing career is that too often we seek out continuous improvement expertise for all the wrong reasons.  I just read an excellent article on Lean that should be required reading for everyone in manufacturing from the shop floor to the executive level….

After nearly 30 years in and around the Medical Device space, I’ve seen success defined by both Evolutionary and Revolutionary products.  Both come with their own specialized set of risks – Evolutionary is generally an easier Regulatory pathway but can easily be mistaken as a “me too” product which makes gaining the attention of investors…

As a manager in a manufacturing environment, any time the subject of multi-tasking/project management/time management came up; I looked like a flirtatious Peacock’s tail.  I mean, if you wanted to know whether I had it together, all you had to do was ask me.  (Make a coughing noise while saying BS at this point.) But…

How many times have you heard someone say this?  Have you, like me, heard it so often it’s starting to feel like a euphemism but you can’t figure out what it’s a euphemism for? We really do try to focus this segment on more technical subjects but in our most important relationships, HR is a…