David Marshall

  • The Knife Angel of Shrewsbury, England and Its Message of Peace

    • August 16, 2017
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Leadership
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    England is so much different from the United States in so many ways. For one thing, there aren’t as many guns per capita in England as there are in the United States — there are 6.6 guns owned per 100 Britons versus 112 guns per 100 Americans. No, our big problem is knives. British people

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  • Treat People Fairly, and They’ll Be Fair With You

    • August 9, 2017
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Business, Leadership
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    The Teatret Fair Play - Not a great representation about how to treat people fairly, but how would you represent it?

    I’ve always tried to treat people fairly, even going above and beyond what’s expected of me. I’ve been in more than a few situations that I didn’t need to do this. I wouldn’t have done anything wrong, and I could have received a small benefit to myself in the end. But by treating the other

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  • If You’re Going to Do Something, Do It Right or Don’t Do It

    • July 27, 2017
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Business, Management
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    If you're going to do it right, make sure even your venue is a five-star one.

    A few months ago, after I left Robroy and started my own consultancy, I received a very nice note from an old manufacturer’s rep named Jack, and it brought back a lot of memories. David, I keep up with you through Brian C. and John S.. I’ll never forget you calling me when you got

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  • Hire Slow and Fire Fast to Avoid Workplace Toxicity

    • July 19, 2017
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Business, Management
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    The question of sustainability versus remediation is an economic one as much as a humanitarian one. This is a photo of a toxic looking barrel laying on its side.

    Toxic employees can have a negative effect on company morale and production. Their bad behavior doesn’t just limit them and their accomplishments. It spreads like a sickness to the people who work around them, causing all kinds of internal strife and dissatisfaction. Even your star employees, who are probably pulling the weight of the toxic

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  • The Importance of Direct Communication Between Management and Labor

    • July 12, 2017
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Management
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    If we'd had a coffee machine like this, everyone would want a key to the break room!

    A few weeks ago, I talked about how I was never afraid of unions when I was the president of Robroy Industries. That’s because as the person whose name appeared on everyone’s checks, I always reserved the right to direct communication with anyone, one-on-one, about any issue, whether it was a shared interest or something

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  • The Importance of Measuring ROI in Manufacturing

    • July 5, 2017
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Manufacturing, Measurement
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    You can measure the back office staff, like HR, on their performance too.

    For the last few weeks, I’ve been talking about important leadership qualities, and how being persistent and decisive was key in automating one of our oldest, dirtiest, and most hazardous manufacturing processes. (We were hand galvanizing certain pipes, and the galvanization chemical contained arsenic!) So we tore out all the hand-operated process and built up

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  • Does the Office Make the Person, or Does the Person Make the Office?

    • June 1, 2017
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Management, Manufacturing
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    A good materials handling person can make all the difference in the world to your factory.

    There’s a leadership problem in this country that often has to do with people being promoted because of their technical expertise and not their leadership qualities or people skills. They assume they’re a leader simply because their job title says Manager or Director, only to find that no one respects them. I think of this

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  • Learn From the Past So You Don’t Repeat It

    • May 31, 2017
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Business, Innovation
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    Balmoral Castle - Understand the history of places and learn from the past to avoid repeating those mistakes

    The further backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see. I’ve always been a big fan of Winston Churchill, and as I was growing up, I adopted several of his quotes as philosophies to live by. This month, I’ll discuss four quotes that have guided me over my professional career. Being

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  • Move From Failure to Failure With a Smile

    • May 24, 2017
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Business, Manufacturing
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    Our old Duoline factory before we tore it all down and started over.

    Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. I’ve always been a big fan of Winston Churchill, and as I was growing up, I adopted several of his quotes as philosophies to live by. This month, I’ll discuss four quotes that have guided me over my professional

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  • How to Be Perfect: Improve and Change Often

    • May 10, 2017
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Business, Measurement
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    A stack of paperwork. This was one of the changes we had to make in order to improve.

    To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to change often. I’ve always been a big fan of Winston Churchill, and as I was growing up, I adopted several of his quotes as philosophies to live by. This month, I’ll discuss four quotes that have guided me over my professional career. I’m a

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