AFS 2014 Marketing & Selling of Castings Conference
The AFS 2014 Marketing & Selling of Castings Conference will be held December 10 –11, 2014, at The Westin O'Hare, Rosemont, IL. At this conference I will participate in a panel, along with other members of AFS Division 14 (Marketing and Management). The topic will be “Prospecting Case Studies in Success: Resources for Finding New Customers”.
If you are involved in casting sales, purchasing, or design this event will be helpful to you. This blog will keep you informed as plans shape up.
Things That Need to be Taught to Humans
This blog mostly discusses casting design, austempering, etc. However, I will ask for some leeway to offer some periodic advice for all sentient humans. Some people have been poorly parented and as such they display shocking ignorance of some basic rules.
Today we start with “Things That Need to be Taught to Humans #1: Disembarking the Airplane”, which is stated as follows:
"When getting off of an airplane, do not proceed down the aisle until the entire row ahead of you has already gone before you.”
The only exceptions apply to those with tight connections, but even then the person in a hurry is obligated to ask first.
I am willing to take suggestions on future “Things That Need to be Taught to Humans”. You can email me with your ideas. If your idea gets mentioned here you will get a free lunch on AP.
AP’s Dr. Kathy Speaks!
Kathy L. Hayrynen, PhD, FASM, will speak at Northeastern Wisconsin Chapter of the American Foundry Society on Monday, September 8, 2014. Be there in person so you can feel yourself get smarter!
Target Article
The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on Target department stores. There has been a string of events illustrating a lack of leadership for several years.
The piece states “interviews with more than two dozen former and current Target executives, managers and vendors reveal a deep malaise within a chain that, increasingly, had lost its way. Management became mired in a new thicket of bureaucracy. Creative leeway—once the DNA of the chain … took a back seat to rigid performance metrics.”
Now, your blogger is the first one to say that meaningful metrics are critical in the execution and management of sales (B-to-C or B-to-B). The operative word here is “meaningful.” Please do read the rest of the article as a cautionary tale.