management
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How the Right Materials Management Person Saved Us Millions of Dollars
- September 27, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Manufacturing
No CommentsWhen you say materials management to a non-manufacturing person, they often have visions of moving boxes around or driving raw materials around the factory on a forklift. When you say materials management to a manufacturer, they often think of the most important person in the building. The Materials Manager is quite literally responsible for the
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Surround Yourself With People Smarter Than You, and Listen to Them
- August 23, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Leadership, Management
In talking with other C-level executives, I’ve learned I was rather unusual in the manufacturing world, especially in the great state of Texas. When it came to our management structure, 60 percent of our managers were women. I always appreciated that, not only because the women I hired were amazingly competent, but they didn’t have
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Treat People Fairly, and They’ll Be Fair With You
- August 9, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Leadership
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
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
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
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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Does the Office Make the Person, or Does the Person Make the Office?
- June 1, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Manufacturing
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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Forever to Build, Lost in a Moment
- May 3, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Management
“To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.” 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
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Workplace Romances Create Problems in a Company
- April 26, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management
Since we spend more than a third of our day at work, and form close relationships with our coworkers, it’s not uncommon to find occasional workplace romances blossoming. However, this is something I strongly discourage and have been very strict about in the past. There are too many potentials for problems with workplace romances. Chances
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Kitty Litter in My Parking Spot: Sometimes Leaders Have to Make Hard Choices
- April 19, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management
Years ago, when we were still doing warehouse inventory counts by hand, we decided as a company that an inventory would be taken on a weekend so we wouldn’t disrupt service to our customers. This was not an unusual practice, because we were working toward taking inventory in a single day, not our previous 10