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A “No or Low Hire, No or Low Fire” Economy – An Industry Solution?

In the United States we have a challenging economic situation. GDP grew at an annual rate of 2.1% in quarter 1 of 2026, slowing to 1.5% in quarter 2. Inflation (CPI) in July was down a little to 3.4%, still way above the fed’s target of 2.0%, leaving people to worry...

EVERYONE IS DOING THEIR JOB – So Why Aren’t We Getting Better Results?

A Paper by Mark Fitzsimmons Managing Director, 360 Degrees Management Consulting The Meeting Looked Good Many of us have attended a meeting like this. Sales reports a strong month. Operations says productivity has improved. Finance confirms that costs are under...

Why We Created an Employee Development Business

In many capital goods companies, employees receive basic training when they are hired. They are shown how to do the job, told they will become faster and make fewer mistakes with experience, and then left largely on their own. Over time, employees often develop...

Careers Aren’t Linear. They’re Relational.

A reality check for dealership leaders in parts, service, and operations In the heavy equipment world, we like to think careers move in a straight line. Technician → Lead Tech → Service Manager Parts Counter → Parts Manager → Ops Leader Sales Rep → Territory Manager →...

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THE GREAT AI INVERSION

Why distributed beats centralized for Manufacturers and Distributors We are in the early stages of the most significant shift in industrial economics in a generation. I call it the Great AI Inversion — the point at which the advantages that once belonged exclusively...

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What We Owe After the Scars

In my last article, Learning With Scars, I wrote about the lessons that shape us — the hard-earned ones. The mistakes. The missteps. The seasons where we learned more from failure than success. Scars are proof of survival. But they’re also proof of responsibility....

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Brace Yourself for the AI Tsunami

Inventors and executives are warning of widespread consequences that they don’t begin to understand. Published in the Wall Street Journal Feb. 12, 2026 As we have been having blogs and podcasts on the use of AI in the Capital Goods Industries, I thought it would be...

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Nothing Counts Until the Paperwork Is Complete

Why Most Service Departments Don’t Have a Performance Problem They Have a Leadership Problem In 1996, I was a young corporal in the United States Marine Corps, assigned to a small task force deploying from Okinawa to South Korea. We landed in a blizzard after leaving...

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