Calm Before the Storm: SMI's 2020 Annual Meeting

By Gary McCoy

Those who attended SMI’s 2020 Annual Meeting at the Atlantis in the Bahamas in early March will long remember the unusually strong trade winds. Things were blowing everywhere! Everyone also left with a lot of happy memories of great networking and outstanding educational presentations.

Little did anyone know just how strong the winds of change were blowing back home, where the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic was just beginning to reap a devasting toll on people’s health and livelihoods (a story the continues to be written as we go to press).

Part of the celebration in the Bahamas was the installation of SMI’s new president, Bert Goering of Precision Coil Spring. Goering began his two-year term and takes over for Steve Kempf of Lee Spring, who will serve an additional two years on the executive committee as past president. The meeting also served as an opportunity to recognize Mike Betts of Betts Company for serving for 10 years on the executive committee.

The entire 2020–2022 executive committee includes Gene Huber, Jr., Winamac Coil Spring, vice president; Don Jacobson III, Newcomb Spring, secretary/treasurer; and David DeVoe, Plymouth Spring, at large.

Learning from Demographics

Kenneth Gronbach, president of KCG Direct, LLC addressed SMI attendees Monday, March 9. His presentation, “Charting the Course Through Demographic Change,” demon - strated how demographic trends can affect everyone’s business.

Gronbach said the most important question to ask in any business is: “How many people are in my market, and is that market growing or shrinking?”

He said regarding the future, the next 10 years will be known as the “decade of disrup- tion” because of huge changes in population. He said the millennial generation of ages 16 to 35 years old is made up of 88 million people, representing the largest generation ever born. “It will provide you guys with all the labor you’ll ever need,” he explained.

Gronbach believes the spring manufac- turing industry is poised to have a decade of unprecedented opportunity and success. He told springmakers, “You will have all the busi- ness you can handle, all the potential labor and technology that you’ve ever needed and readily available sources of capital.”

He encouraged springmakers to not be afraid. “Don’t be afraid to capitalize, don’t be afraid to expand, don’t be afraid to add to your business, don’t be afraid to hire. Simply put, don’t be afraid!”

Gronbach believes business in the U.S. is going to expand. “Plan on business getting very, very good.”

He encouraged spring manufacturers to know who is in their end user markets. “The millennial generation is larger than the baby boomer population by 10 million people, and they will be needing a lot of spring components in the coming future,” explained Gronbach.

To recruit the next generation of workers, Gronbach said, “Lose your bias against millen- nials. “They are brilliant. Hire them.”

Gronbach said when you look at the “big picture” based on demographics, the future is positive.

Using Weakness as a Strength

David Rendall, author of “Freak Factor: Discovering Uniqueness by Flaunting Weakness,” first started his presentation Tuesday, March 10, by thanking SMI for holding its meeting. Rendall noted that he had already begun to feel the effects of the coronavirus outbreak in his business with the cancellation of future speaking engagements.

The thrust of Rendall’s message was that most of us hide from our weaknesses. He argues that instead we should be using our weaknesses to our advantage.

He declared, “What makes us weird, also makes us wonderful. What makes us weak, also makes us strong.”

His view is that every characteristic we have is both a strength and weakness at the same time. “When we realize that and we accept that, it changes the way we think about getting better. The point isn’t to fix the weakness, the point is to build on the strength. You have to recognize there will always be a weakness there. There’s nothing we can do about it. And we don’t need to do anything about it.”

He drew the analogy of medicine, in that there is no effective medicine without side effects. “In the same way, there’s no such thing as a person without side effects.”

The goal is not to fix the side effects. The goal is to find the benefit and capitalize on it.

Rendall cited Peter Drucker, who said, “Strong people always have strong weaknesses too. Where there are peaks, there also valleys.”

“When we accept that instead of trying to fix that (weakness), it’s the first step to getting better and helping others get better,” said Rendall.

Rendall says the question everyone should ask when they walk into work each day is, “Am I making my strengths effective and my weaknesses irrelevant?” He advises to hire people to do what you can’t do, because they have a strength you don’t have.

Thanks to Our Sponsors

SMI is grateful for the generosity of its sponsors who helped support the 2020 annual meeting.

Platinum

• AIM (Automated Industrial Motion) • ISW (Industrial Steel & Wire) • Interwire • Sumiden Wire Products Corporation

Gold

• FENN/Torin • Gibbs • Radcliff Wire Inc.

Silver

• Amada

Bronze

• WAFIOS

The 2021 SMI annual meeting will take place at the Hyatt Regency in Scottsdale, Arizona April 24–27, 2021. n