Bremen Castings is very fortunate to have a forward thinking President focused on technological advances that will cement a strong future for our organization. Today, JB Brown celebrates 16-years with Bremen Castings. From the days of running the Cupola to becoming President in January 2005, has been a journey of change that many of us have been able to witness all or part of that journey. Congratulations JB Brown, President of Bremen Castings!
Carol Senour
Today was the end of Charlie Weis’s five year tenure at ND. With a 35-27 win loss record, and ending this year at 6-6, the stock holders at ND are less than pleased. Athletic director Jack Swarbrick announced the decision, saying in a news release: “We have great expectations for our football program, and we have not been able to meet those expectations.” Charlies is gone.
Those close to me all know that I am not a fan of Notre Dame (personal reasons) but I am a huge fan of sports and more importantly a huge fan of success and the fact that “Status Quo Sucks”. I have been listening to the fans, friends, co-workers, family and all others say: “Charlie needs to go!” Now that being said I respect ND as a business machine and a lot can be learned from ND as a business model. ND will need to belly up 15 – 20 mil to buy out CW’s contract than somewhere around another 5 mil for a new coach. Do you think the amount of money even comes into play? No amount of money will keep ND from making the correct decision. Summarizing the AD, they have expectations and it ain’t losing!
This brings me to another point. All sports teams are ran like a business: high school, NCAA and the pro’s. You can try to argue that they are not, but they are out there to win and be successful just like business. When there is a losing season or seasons the fans want the coach and/or coaches replaced. You never hear”Awwww, how can they fire him”, or “he has been with the team for years, how can they do that?” It’s always good riddance, bring on the next coach. Such the opposite in most work places. It’s kinda funny how one’s desire for a sports team to be successful vs the desire of the companies success. Just sayin.
The demise of customer service in America seemed to come about through a gradual decline over the last decade. Today, with the current economic climate, we are seeing significant improvements in our treatment as consumers. In the past, we were consuming in large amounts regardless of how we were treated as the customer. Contrast that with the current climate, where we have all reeled our consuming in favor of more saving and you see the decline in demand has dictated better customer service.
Consumers today are diverting their reduced dollars to those providing the best customer service. We have grown intolerant of poor customer service or have we always been intolerant? I would argue that we have always been intolerant and that we did not demand good customer service. We received exactly what we demanded, nothing more and nothing less. Today, we are demanding more and we are getting it or moving to where we receive better customer service. If consumers are smart enough to learn from the past, then we need to continue to demand good customer service even when we return to a new level of normalcy in the economy.
Well organized US protests, called Tea Parties, are going to happen across America tomorrow, named after that historical tax protest in Boston Harbor. Hundreds of thousand of US citizens who have not forgotten that America is a glorious experiment in self government, and the time has come for as many self’s as possible to stand up and take our country back. Outraged by the so-called “stimulus bill” spending that none of our representatives even read, unauthorized bailouts, a Fedzilla feeding frenzy destroying everything in its way, and like spent shell casings at a machine gun shoot in the hills of Kentucky, wasted tax dollars too huge to imagine, and corruption by bureaucrats gone mad, we the people will peacefully demonstrate with our hearts and emotions on our sleeves, gather at local government centers to show our employees that they are out of control. It is time to shout it loud and proud that we simply will not take it any more. Our employees (elected officials) are destroying our country by taxing companies more to help spread the money because no one is held accountable. It’s about time our employees are held accountable.
Yesterday we met with Governor Daniels in Elkhart, IN. Bremen Castings was awarded some grant money to help expand and keep jobs in IN. This is not exactly free money as there is a large investment by BCI and the other funds will help pay. As Long as BCI grows so does our workforce knowledge. Part of the responsibilities of a state and private business is to invest in our team and communities future. With the help of IN this will not be such a financial burden on BCI. Indiana has some of the lowest operating cost in the US and we invest in our Hoosiers to make better Hoosiers while other state, the incentives only are short term and go away after a number of years. Thank you, Indiana