J Schneider, VP, Strategy

Rightsizing Innovation for the Enterprise

https://vimeo.com/642864703 J Schneider, managing director of the consulting practice at Dorn Group, answers the questions 'What does innovation mean today?', 'Why is it important to have the customer at the center of innovation?', and 'How do you build a culture of innovation?'. Video Transcript: Tom Lovell: And welcome everybody. This session we're going to be starting today is going to be Rightsizing Innovation for the Enterprise. I'm Tom Lovell, manufacturing and distribution industry lead from Hike2. During the session, you'll hear from one of our partners in the manufacturing industry about how [...]

Rightsizing Innovation for the EnterpriseJ Schneider2021-11-17T16:49:37-06:00

How to Raise Your Manufacturing Company’s Prices Without Undermining Your Market Position

If your manufacturing company is like most, you probably don’t relish the idea of raising your prices. After all, you operate in a cutthroat market. Your prices are finely tuned to stay competitive. And your end market may not be willing to pay more for your products at a time when cheap imports are gaining traction. Yet you know you can’t let your prices stagnate forever. Your own cost of doing business is going up — while your margins get even thinner. Too many companies employ manufacturing pricing models from a [...]

How to Raise Your Manufacturing Company’s Prices Without Undermining Your Market PositionJ Schneider2021-11-15T11:13:40-06:00

How to Measure the ROI of Innovation

Manufacturers across nearly every segment are obsessed with innovation. They pursue it relentlessly in an effort to stay ahead of today’s increasingly competitive marketplace. And they do it because they assume innovation is the surest way to achieve growth. But the single-minded pursuit of innovation in the manufacturing comes at a literal cost — one that some companies fail to scrutinize as closely as they should. Too often, instead of looking critically at innovation through the lens of a single investment, R&D work is treated as a sunk or blended cost. [...]

How to Measure the ROI of InnovationJ Schneider2022-08-11T15:28:11-05:00

Preparing for Growth with Change Management

Everyone in the industrial manufacturing space knows that if you aren’t actively growing, your share of the pie is actively shrinking. That’s why manufacturing firms dread the thought of remaining static. It’s also why your manufacturing firm is almost certainly in a constant state of growth and expansion. Of course, you don’t achieve continuous growth by resting on your laurels. You do it by proactively seeking out new approaches and pursuing new initiatives. Sometimes, you even do it by taking big bets. To put it really simply, growth is a byproduct [...]

Preparing for Growth with Change ManagementJ Schneider2022-01-18T15:33:26-06:00

Why Manufacturing Distributors Are Losing Relevance – and What They Can Do About It

The role of manufacturing distributors has changed. Historically, distributors positioned themselves as product experts and were seen as valued advisers. Today, they are often thought of as little more than order-takers. As a result, buyers are increasingly turning to online retailers or seeking to purchase products directly from manufacturers. This trend extends even to the industrial markets. For many distributors, the outlook is bleak, with all but the most successful businesses flailing to find ways to remain relevant. Some in the manufacturing space are even beginning to question whether distributors are [...]

Why Manufacturing Distributors Are Losing Relevance – and What They Can Do About ItJ Schneider2022-12-15T09:59:21-06:00