Heartland Capital Strategies, an innovative policy initiative of the SVA, has launched a series of Responsible Investment (RI) Forums. 
Aiming to educate the capital stewards of pension and institutional investment funds, the forums are being held to examine opportunities to invest in good jobs and the clean economy and to revitalize industrial communities, The forums are a collaboration between Heartland Capital Strategies (HCS) and Blue/Green Alliance (BGA), a coalition of green businesses, unions and environmental groups and are running concurrent with four regional conferences planned by the BGA in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Detroit.
Recently Sewn Consultant Jack Bardol and SVA's Deputy Director Bob Value presented a well received seminar on costing and pricing strategies for manufacturers in northwest Pennsylvania.
The goal in developing an effective pricing strategy is to understand your product costs and what the major cost drivers are in your company. The challenge in manufacturing is there is a major disconnect between how Generally Accepted Accounting Practice or “ GAAP” financial statements are prepared and how manufacturing operating managers need to think about their business operations.
Bill Wallace's company, William J. Labb Sons Inc., a small manufacturing firm in Philadelphia, survived the recession - but barely. Whether it would make it through the recovery was another question entirely, one extremely important to the 20 people who work at Labb's Bridesburg factory.
"Our industry came back to life," said Wallace - and when it did, he said, he needed help to switch gears from survival to revival before his family-owned company got chewed up in the process.
Labb was nearly out of cash and some key employees had left by October when Wallace, the plant manager and owner's son, called the Strategic Early Warning Network (SEWN). The network, with a statewide $1 million budget, estimates it saved 1,017 jobs at 25 businesses last year at a cost of $976 per job.
"Saving a job is significantly cheaper than creating one," said Greg Olson, SEWN's Manufacturing Director who heads the network's new Southeast Pennsylvania office. The math seems simple. Pennsylvania's weekly unemployment benefit averages $302. So in less than a month, the taxpayer cost to fund a lost job tops what the network might have spent to save it. Olson, however, points out that not every job can be saved. Six months of benefits cost the state $7,852. Read the entire article in the digital edition philly.com.
Wendell August Forge, located in Grove City, has been a regional "heirloom" since 1923. Its fine, hand-finished giftware sells in many of America's finest department stores. Over the years, Wendell August Forge established a world-wide following through its catalogue and e-commerce sales.
Fast confidential request for SEWN information and assistance. Email us today.
