Does anybody know your name? Unlike PCB shops where there are now less than 200 left in North America, there are well over 1000 contract manufacturers of all shapes and sizes. Everyone knows the big guys from Celestica, to Flextronics, to Sanmina to Plexus all of them doing hundreds of millions to billions of dollars, […]
Better Relationships With Your PCB Vendors Will Yield Better Boards
We have talked a lot in this column about how board shops should treat their customers. How they should try to get to know their customers and their needs. So now let’s switch things around and talk about how customers should treat board shops, how they should work with board shops to get the best […]
Training The Youngsters: Show Them The Possibilities
There is no doubt there is a shortage of young people in our business. As we all get older, the challenge of finding young people to replace us is getting more severe. Last week in this column, we talked about finding young people in our own organizations and then nurturing them to become an integral […]
Rethinking Our Approach To Rep Firms
When are PCB shops going to get it? I send a lot of my time helping board shops with their rep issues. I spend a lot of time trying to convince these shops that they are going to have to change the way they handle their rep relationships and start treating them as partners rather […]
Building Leaders
The hottest topic on the PCB circuit these days is the lack of young people in our industry. As the rest of us get older, it is finally occurring to us that there is no one following in our footsteps, there is no one there to fill our shoes, when we decide enough is enough. […]
Customers Still Deserve Your Respect
Times may have changed, but some things never do. The old adage that the customer is always right still stands. No matter how hard it is to accept, you have to live with that law if you want to stay in business. We all know that it is harder to respect the customer now than […]
Three Easy And Inexpensive Ways To Market Your Company
Okay, I give up, you don’t have the funds to properly market your company. You don’t have the less than one percent of your revenue that it would take to get your name out there like it should be. Or maybe you don’t want to. Remember the motto of PCB shop owners, “when your sales […]
The Best Way To Compete With The Chinese
Don’t. Just do what they can’t do instead. While talking to a friend of mine the other day our talk turned to how American Printed Circuit Board shops can compete against the Chinese and other Asian board fabricators. After an extended exchange he turned to me and said. “It’s very simple Dan, the best way […]
Dare To Be BOLD!
Boldness is behavior born out of belief Groeschel When things get tough, the bold ones will always take action. They will forego the feelings of dread, the anxiety about what could go wrong if they took that action or any action for that matter. They will not be afraid of the possible dire consequences if they […]
Tales From The PCB Crypt
Author’s note: I wrote this column last summer, but thought it was particularly fitting given my column on the DoD a couple of days ago.) The young sales person had been waiting patiently for the buyer to come out for almost an hour. He was a bit nervous and also excited because he was finally […]