| Q. |
Does China affect your business? |
| A. |
Absolutely. I just came back from a month there. It
affects us in two ways. First, we are buying base products
used in manufacturing from China. (But, we're not
replacing the things we do here with Chinese manufacturing,
because we can out-compete them here on what we do.)
Secondly, we're developing a sales strategy in
China, and we're currently even introducing products
in Southeast Asia. |
| Q. |
You are a bit of a mentor to a variety of area HBS
grads. Did you fall into this, or did you actively seek
out this type of role? |
| A. |
I have an absolutely fanatical commitment to education.
We're paying for two MBAs inside Superior, which
is a very small company. We had five interns this summer
from Miami of Ohio, Dartmouth, Ohio State and others.
I'm on the board of education in Chagrin Falls,
and on the advisory board for Max Hayes high school.
I'm very, very committed to developing talent
for the future. I will stop everything I'm doing
to help someone, whether a machinist or an MBA graduate,
get excited about manufacturing. We have to improve
our employees or we cannot be competitive.
|
| Q. |
If you could go back to HBS today to take one class,
what would it be? |
| A. |
Logistics. I don't think they tied it all together
well when I was there. Logistics was kind of a non-important
issue, or perhaps it didn't even exist at that
point. However, it's what customers want more than
anything else right now. |
| Q. |
What's the best part of
being a member of HBS-NEO? |
| A. |
It offers great contacts to talented people. The
key to running a small business is to have great contacts
and advisors on the outside because you can't
have them inside the company.
|
| Q. |
What would you like to see the HBS Club of Northeast
Ohio do differently, or better, over the next five years? |
| A. |
Focus on the programs, especially in the Patron's
breakfasts. I'd like to see them continue to focus
on a theme and pursue that theme throughout the course
of the year. |
Programs 