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Billy Ray Motorsports: Part Two
Last month, we heard about Billy Ray Motorsports’ rise and decline. A new organization with the potential to win was hit with declining performance and spotty reliability. Upper management responded with cost cutting, cutbacks in staff, reorganization, and the elimination of “unnecessary” work processes. But they were still losing money! Ultimately, the desperate owner of Billy Ray Motorsports had to make a series of carefully calculated decisions that could either turn the race team around or put them out of business. Let’s see what they did in their attempts to preserve their investment and grow the business.

Billy Ray Motorsports: A Parable in Two Parts
It’s not easy to stay on top in the highly competitive racing business. It just doesn’t happen overnight. And it’s true not only in racing. It’s not easy to stay on top in any business, especially one that relies on high-performing and reliable equipment to compete.

The Aging Maintenance Workforce and the War for Talent
Well, here it is! We have just stepped into the era of the aging Baby Boom Generation. For the next two decades, this generation will signal an unprecedented growth of older workers and retirees in the United States and most of the world’s industrialized nations. As our workforce ages and reaches the traditional retirement age, tough decisions must be made – first, to accommodate and possibly retain the highly-skilled older workers, and second, to prepare for an all out assault in the “war for talent.” What can we do? What should we do? Employers and older workers must face new challenges head on and make the right decisions for there is no turning back.

Made in America!
John Ratzenberger, better known as Cliff from "Cheers" and host of the TV show "Made in America", recently spoke at the MARTS Conference in Chicago. The TV show "Made in America" explored how American workers drive an often overlooked share of our nation’s economic well being. Ratzenberger explored behind the scenes in more than 240 businesses. His passion for American manufacturing and the unsung choruses of the American workforce is inspiring. In his book "We’ve Got It Made in America," Ratzenberger tells stories about his experiences in making the “Made in America” TV shows punctuated with stories from his growing up years and throughout his adult life. Our skills shortages, our job loss, our productivity, and our top economy in the world are being seriously undermined by greed, ignorance, and half-truths.


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Too Much Information?

Small businesses and highly reactive maintenance organizations can easily fall into the trap of not knowing what action to take because of a lack of reliable information. Or the opposite: a trap of taking swift action with defective information. We are awash in information. Well, not real information, just lots of stuff coming at us faster than we can sort it out. How we access this information and search for answers to help us take the right action can be a growing challenge that must be mastered.

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