Access Nation

Interesting review of the JLG/Genie vs. China situation. Think how funny that sounds. What in the world has to happen to get those two players on the same field going in the same direction. Then again who would ever thought Stalin and Churchill and Roosevelt would ever work together? Listening to the two market share leaders of the last 25 years talk about how unfair it is to have Chinese companies come into the United States and mess up their monopoly is precious. Skyjack not Included? No Snorkel? Wait a minute, why not? As you said Duane, Skyjack has been the low price product for 25 years and everyone seems to be OK with that. You have to love it when any manufacture is facing new competition and they decide to call on the Government to change the rules. I always thought the best price with the best aftermarket service, and best parts support got the highest market share. Read John Groves book and see what he thought of a young upstart company in the North West called Genie who came after his business with machines made out of aluminum! He called them toys and not worthy of being called a competitor. But those aluminum products were easy to move because of their weight, and they were much less expensive! He should have called for an aluminum surcharge be put on them. 30 years ago no one would admit they would buy a Japanese automobile. 20 years ago no one wanted Chinese dirt equipment. 15 years ago every US manufacture ran to China to produce machines and purchase parts. And along the way teach an entire generation of Chinese laborers how to build Construction equipment including AWP’s. Does everyone think China needed the rest of the world to provide their people with jobs?? No they needed to learn how to build different types of machines. They needed to know what kind of tools they needed to have to build them. They wanted to copy the best manufacturing processes in the business from the best manufactures in the world. China left everyone into their country and American companies thought it was because they were happy to let us take advantage of their extremely inexpensive labor rates and buy their somewhat lessor quality parts for roughly 50% of a US part! Was anyone one complaining then about the poor US component manufactures going out of business or downsizing due to loss of business to Chinese manufactures? I do not remember that! So the US component manufactures had only one thing they could do- - - go to China and open a plant to make their parts in China so they could compete. So now China had construction equipment manufacturing plants and Chinese based component companies hiring and teaching Chinese labors learning how to build equipment. The name of the equipment was still American most of the time, but everything else was Chinese, or at least for US built product many many parts came from China. It happened with computers, autos, cloths, furniture, sunglasses, and 60% of everything in a Walmart! Retail stores likeSears and Penny’s either closed after 100 plus years in business or is almost entirely gone from a new generations memory. Yes US company’s want to level the playing field now that the terms of the deal have changed. They went to China to lower costs and they did but did they lower the price or Increase their margins and their stock price?? You know the answer. So if you want to keep the competition out of your key marketplaces you might want to try a few things that started this industry. - Keep the price at a level that makes a solid return but not at the cost of your distribution who has to deal with the month to month and seasonal changes in demand. - be the best service company you can be and don’t outsource your key competencies. - don’t think for a minute everyone is going to lay back and let you dominate the business you are in. To arrogantly think you will always get the majority of the business because you always have is a fools game. - understand that when you teach assembly, technology, and manufacturing processes to anyone so they can help you build your product, you are teaching your next competitors. - study your history because those that don’t are bound to repeat the mistakes. -finally the world is changing due to social media so fast that customers feelings about where machines are manufactured and where the manufacturing company calls home either do not matter or only takes a year or two or even months to change. “Made in America” is as important as the manufacture tries to make it. But if you start the process that leads to an international company coming to your home country to sell machines that you taught them to build In order to increase your profits, then stop the hypocrisy and admit it is a global market and only hard work, and customer relationships are omnipotent. Those two things by themselves lead to being a better partner because you will have a better understanding of the distributors needs and problems. Solve that and you will make more money because you will have earned it. And anyway they are here and they are staying. You can not run them off and if you are lucky you will delay them for a little bit. But learn a lesson. Ford and GM chased Japan right into making the decision to build their plants in the United States. Their share is a lot higher now then it ever was before they moved into the USA. Ford and GM may have somewhat leveled the playing field but once you produce in the USA you are as American as everyone else. And then you are back to where you started. Just with many new very well financed competitors!