‘Factory Man’ shares insights at Transformation Conference
John D. Bassett III, chairman of Galax, Va.-based Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Co., said that Americans make a critical error when competing in the global marketplace by thinking “everybody in the world runs by the same rules we run by.”
Unfortunately, he says, they don”™t.
Bassett, who previously served as president and CEO of Vaughan-Bassett, learned that lesson firsthand. While a number of American companies decided to close down their stateside factories, choosing instead to import cheaper products from Asia, he filed, and ultimately won, an anti-dumping petition with the U.S. International Trade Commission against those Chinese firms. During his keynote address at the Transformation Conference, an event on May 19 presented by Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Westfair Communications Inc., publisher of the Westchester County Business Journal and Fairfield County Business Journal, Bassett shared insights from his book, “Making it in America: A 12-point Plan for Growing Your Business and Keeping Jobs at Home”
“This book is about surviving,” he said.
And survive he did. Bassett, who has worked in the furniture industry for more than 50 years, led his company to become the largest wooden bedroom furniture manufacturer in the U.S. His story was also the subject of Beth Macy”™s “Factory Man,” a book detailing both his personal and professional lives that spent seven weeks on The New York Times bestseller list in 2014.
All of Vaughan-Bassett”™s furniture is crafted in the U.S., at factories based in Galax and Elkin, N.C., a fact that he hopes will drive customers to his products.
As for whether “Made in the USA” will become just as buzzworthy as today”™s “organic,” Noah Lapine, who was part of a panel held following Bassett”™s keynote address, said that American consumers “want to buy American if it”™s the right price.” Lapine, president of family-owned brand-performance business Lapine Inc., said the consumer landscape is undergoing a shift, as buyers”™ are beginning to see how their choices are affecting job creation at home.
“We”™ve been trained by Walmart and everybody else to believe that we”™re entitled to goods at $9.99 that really cost $19.99, and that”™s a hard mentality to break,” Lapine said.
Bassett said that in order to compete in today”™s marketplace, business owners and leaders must also “put people back in the formula.”
“We have to build trust” with employees, he said, along with being “willing to change and improve again and again.”
Those changes can be difficult to make in certain business situations ”“ especially at a time when the company is experiencing positive results.
“The competitors you see coming aren”™t the ones I most worry about,” Lapine said. “It”™s the ones you don”™t see.”
Rodica Ceslov, a business consultant, also urged professionals to continually look at players in the industry that may have been previously ignored.
“One of the dangers is that companies ignore the threats when they are profitable,” Ceslov said.
“If you don”™t change, you die,” Bassett said.
In order to compete with less expensive furniture produced in Asia, one of the notable changes Bassett made was launching a seven-day delivery program, Vaughan-Bassett Express.
“We concentrate so much on price, we don”™t look at what else we can do,” he said.
Bassett also urged business leaders in attendance at the event, which was held at Whitby Castle in Rye, to remain calm even during their company”™s challenging times.
“I”™ve never seen a good business decision made when people were panicking,” he said.
Wilson Elser was a Bronze Sponsor of the event.