A recent article on our SOURCING CENTER used one of my favorite quotes: "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth" — Mike Tyson
We're all getting punched silly, especially by our customers. We're hearing some tough stuff - no payment; inventories stockpiling; shipments stopped; trucks turned back while at the same time having to pay your people, not fire them, and on and on.
You know the old saying, "I may forget what you said. I may forget what you did. But I'll never forget how you made me feel".
We're going to recover, and we're going to remember how everyone else made us feel.
We're going to start producing again soon. Some brands are going to give the Americas a hard look. That's why we're laying out our view of the 'new world', one for which we've turned the supply chain into an activated supply cloud of connections and communications that exploded so quickly.
When we announced the SOURCING CENTER, our 200 members were on it immediately. Within a couple of weeks, nearly 600 additional producers joined the exchange. This Friday I'll visit a facility cutting and sewing 40,000 medical gowns in a project YOU put together. It includes producers we had not met before.
If we were able to build a network of some 800 companies for the crisis, think about what we can do for the country. That's why we're so optimistic.
Still, don't you share the feeling that at our next event, we'll look at one another, laugh nervously....and change the subject!
Hang tough Industry. We're close.........Mike