I was sitting on the tarmac in Atlanta when I saw the following words appear on the little television screen of the fellow traveler cross the aisle – “how far you go depends upon how far you go”. I was so struck by these words that I had to write them down and share them with you, the NTMA family.
What do these words mean to you?
Are you bullish on precision manufacturing in the short to medium-term? Most analysts that cover our industry are. For example, Capstone Partners released the following forward-looking statement in its January 2022 Precision Manufacturing Sector Update – “key indicators including Industrial Capacity Utilization, Total Manufacturers’ New Orders, and the Industrial Production Index demonstrate the continued recovery of manufacturing activity. Sector performance is expected to remain strong throughout 2022, driven by growth in key end markets including Defense, Medical Devices, and Electronics”. Capstone Partners is among the largest independently owned investment banking firms in the United States. They get paid to get this stuff right.
It appears that now is the time to “make some hay” if you own a machine shop. There is no promise that the current economic environment will generate record revenues and profits, but it does appear that the road is being cleared for those lucky enough to be in the industry right now. Of course, luck is the intersection of hard work and opportunity. In other words, we make our own luck. So, there you have it. The stars and moon may be aligning for us to have a pretty good run.
If this is the game that is on the calendar, you may as well play it. But hoping that you get your fair share is not going to make it so. Hope is not a strategy. If ever there was a time to develop a real strategy, now would be it. Develop a real strategy that includes five plans – Sales, Marketing, Finance, Operation and Management – and then flawlessly execute those plans with the help of trusted advisors that hold you accountable to getting it done. That is the prescription for profits in 2022-2023.