PAUL's Gotta close his business . . . who cares?
- By l.t. Dravis
- Published 11/23/2008
l.t. Dravis
I created and have written the nationally distributed marketing newsletter, BOTH SIDES NOW, since 2003. I authored two books, BOTH SIDES NOW, Sell Like Professional Athletes Win and DEATH OF A SALES MANAGER. In 2008, I introduced a daily column for national syndication to newspapers.
By
l.t. Dravis
SMALL TOWN, OHIO –
Sunday, November 23, 2008 – Even a casual encounter with any of the 27 men and women
who work for Moreau’s Machine Works (not the company’s actual name) in Ohio today
would tell you that something is seriously wrong. These are good, hardworking
Americans, salt of the earth folks who love their country, who love their
husbands and wives, who love their children, and who take pride in the quality
of the products they produce.
But they don’t smile much these days; that
Midwest heart-of-the-country sparkle is gone from their eyes; they don’t stand
quite as tall as they used to; and they walk and move not with the innate confidence
of people born and raised in
One month from today, two days before
Christmas, Paul Moreau (not his real name) will close the business founded by
his father in 1948, a business that in better times not only supported the
lives and families of 202 machinists, tool makers, estimators, quality control
inspectors, warehousemen, secretaries, and managers but also supported the
stores, gas stations, real estate agents, professionals, and the tax base in
and around the little Ohio town they call home.
Moreau Machine Works will close its doors
forever after it ships the last batch of parts due on the last purchase order
from the last of the Big Three suppliers on the third Tuesday in December.
And 27 families will celebrate Christmas this
year against the backdrop of economic uncertainty that promises not only to
dampen their holiday spirit but will also dampen their hopes and plans for a
happy, prosperous New Year.
Paul has run Moreau Machine Works since his
father’s death in the early seventies and, like his father, he’s made it a
point to work harder and longer than anyone else, creating a sense of family
that contributed to pride of workmanship, maximum productivity, and a
‘never-say-die’ attitude on the part of everyone in the Moreau Machine Works
family.
But as the car business goes, so goes Moreau
Machine Works and things are not going well.
“At 67, I’m already past retirement age, but
I’ve put everything back into the business, so me and my wife, only got Social
Security to live on,” says Paul Moreau, Jr., a big man who resembles Harrison
Ford, the actor. “We also got a ton of debt to pay and how we’re gonna make it,
I don’t know.
“I mean, I never thought American car companies
would ever be almost bankrupt. I can’t believe that here, in the greatest
country in the world, good people who want to work can’t find good jobs. I
mean, who’d have thought this would happen?
Paul is in personal and corporate debt up to
his ears. In the years leading up to the current crash, when SUVs and pickup
trucks were selling like hotcakes, when Ford could generate an $18,000.00 profit
on a single Excursion, the Big Three and their top tier suppliers pressed Paul to
upgrade his equipment to improve quality, to reduce lead times, and to reduce
costs. In fact, his contracts to supply machined parts called for price
reductions of as much as ten percent a year, every year, for at least three
years.
It wasn’t like he had a choice . . . purchasing
agents were quite clear about it: Either
agree to drop your price by ten percent a year or we’ll deduct the difference
from outstanding invoices and cancel our purchase orders . . . in other words,
do it our way or go away.
So, Paul did what he had to do. He used up his
savings, refinanced his house, and took on thousands of dollars of debt to buy
and lease the newest, high-tech computerized control machine tools, expanded
his facilities, and upgraded to an electronic energy management system to accommodate
the new equipment.
Paul’s wife, Loretta (not her real
name), a pretty 65 year old petite lady with big blue eyes and a ready smile,
Moreau Machine’s receptionist, payroll maker, and mother figure to just about
everyone, held Paul’s hand and said, “It’s like this . . . Paul and I’ve worked
hard all our lives so we could hand over a better world not only to our
children and grandchildren, but also to our employees and their families. And now,
because we’ve elected and re-elected politicians who don’t care, we’re going to
hand them a world in much worse shape than when we arrived.
“And, for that, we should all be ashamed.”
Copyright
© 2008 by l.t. Dravis. All rights reserved.
