Final Thoughts

I had a whirlwind weekend having traveled to Cleveland to see family and to attend MidWest Materials’ 65th anniversary. Brian Robbins and his crew did a great job paying homage to their past and current employees. The company is much different today than it was in 1952 when it started. I have a feeling it will be quite different again in just a few years’ time as the pace of change quickens and companies either innovate or struggle to survive.

SMU recently began writing a series of articles about ethics–something that has concerned me during my active sales career and after I began writing Steel Market Update. Almost on cue comes Kobe Steel, which has admitted falsifying data to 500 customers. The exact depth of the deception is not yet known. But the parts went into airplanes, bullet trains and automobiles…. Now, because of the actions of one company on the other side of the world, people are asking questions about products they buy from steel mills everywhere.