Keith Jennings

Articles • March 1, 2016 • Keith Jennings

Improving employee morale

Whether your shop is busy or struggling to survive a downturn, employees are your best asset. We've had to downsize over the past few months, but a good group remains. Many are handling new tasks, but a reengineering of employees' tasks can be beneficial, driving everyone to work smarter, not harder. It is working well so far, thanks to everyone picking up the slack created by the departed employees.

Articles • February 1, 2016 • Keith Jennings

The power of relationships

With 2015 being a year of changes and volatility in our market, the importance of strong, supportive business relationships was made even clearer. Longtime business associates became friends, and new business relationships formed with former employees who stayed in touch, neighbors, contacts made through my local chamber of commerce and even my brother's gym-workout partners. These are people who provided helpful insights and became ambassadors of our company, because they got to know us and saw potential.

Articles • December 1, 2015 • Keith Jennings

Recognizing all that is good

Addressing weighty issues is an important part of the Manager's Desk column, and there will be no shortage of them to debate and discuss in 2016.

Articles • October 1, 2015 • Keith Jennings

Offshoring again

Even with a good fourth quarter and my natural optimism, reports from contacts at some of our larger customers concern me, reports the Manager's Desk columnist in the October issue of Cutting Tool Engineering magazine.

Articles • September 1, 2015 • Keith Jennings

Free benefits come with a price

You never know when a simple comment will have a significant impact; sometimes that's not even the source's intention.

Articles • August 1, 2015 • Keith Jennings

Lemonade out of lemons

Manager's Desk column covers the ups and downs experienced in the shop this year lead to hard decisions, including staff reductions.

Articles • July 1, 2015 • Keith Jennings

Shop’s buried treasures

After visiting a few fellow shop owners, Manager's Desk Columnist Keith Jennings found that generating extra cash was a frequent topic of interest -- particularly with the fickle state of the market and governments being desperate to extract additional revenue through taxes and fees.

Articles • June 1, 2015 • Keith Jennings

The global machine shop

Have you noticed job candidates and the people you're dealing with across the business world are increasingly from other countries?

Articles • May 1, 2015 • Keith Jennings

Symposium promotes growth

While writing his Manager's Desk column for the May 2015 issue of Cutting Tool Engineering magazine, Keith Jennings attended a 3-day symposium hosted by a key customer -- a large, growing energy company.

Articles • April 1, 2015 • Keith Jennings

Keeping your distance

Keeping employees' personal matters separate from professional ones.

Articles • March 1, 2015 • Keith Jennings

Protecting digital assets

Machine shops need lots of tangible assets to make parts: machine tools, cutting tools and real estate, among other items.

Articles • February 1, 2015 • Keith Jennings

Discounts and increases

I strive to start each year on a positive note, but 2015 sure hasn't taken long to throw us our first challenging management scenario. It requires immediate oversight of rapidly changing economic conditions.