Once again, I welcome a thoughtful post from our industry peer, Taha Raja. Taha has also provided a link to his blog where he has other posts. Like I always say, it’s a big old world and there’s plenty of room for us all. Below is link to his site and below that is his most current post which he has graciously allowed me to publish here. Enjoy, and have a very Happy New Year.
http://taharaja.blogspot.com/2010/12/closing-2010-in-fasteners.html
Closing 2010 in Fasteners
This week, business is winding down 2010. A year that began with optimism but quickly became the year of not so much recovery.
In the Fastener world, many businesses experienced a “recovery” of sorts. Comparing the huge decline of 2009, this year presented stability and normalization. The rapid downward curves were gone and predictability had arrived once more.
However, the stark reality that the new “norm” was somewhere in the 2005 or earlier levels has hit hard. With sluggish growth on all sectors, the US economy is in the long run for a gradual increase. We need growths in the mid 3% area to recover the losses we have experienced in the past 4 years and to bring the unemployment down from where it is. The news of low to mid 2% growth means we are just barely keeping up with the new folks entering the labor market.
The issue is further compounded by the fact that the requirements for new labor is completely different than those that have been laid off. More technologically savvy and educated workforce is becoming a must. New jobs are going to be dependent on high productivity associated with technology, internet and high end manufacturing (check out Germany’s economy for the past 3 years – Lessons from German Economic Boom ).
Fundamentally, we need to work closely with our working force to educate and uplift the workers capabilities. Basic education, retraining and partnerships have to change. These will take time….in my opinion 5 to 7 years.
So what will happen to Fasteners? I think we are ripe for similar changes. I truly believe the old model of multi-tiered distribution are going to change. With customers and manufacturers demanding more productivity, the industry is going to experience gradual but big transformation over the next few years….
Source : Fastenerblog.net – Read the full Article here via Fastenerblog.net: Another Guest Blog from Taha Raja.