by Mark Dobbins
September 1, 2015
I’m baaack! It is with great excitement that I’ve accepted Chairman Steve Macias’s invitation and the AMC Board’s approval to return to a leadership role as Chair Emeritus of the AMC. It has always been a fact of life that state policy is an issue of life or death for manufacturers, and now we have the federal government seemingly doing all in its power to de-throne the U.S. as the world’s innovation and manufacturing leader, too. Believe me, there are so many, big issues facing the manufacturing sector that there’s plenty of work to go around!
Now, I can’t resist something personal . Today, my wife and I are taking a day off to babysit our wonderful, 2-year-old granddaughter. As I write, I wonder, “Will we leave her the same opportunity as an American, as an Arizonan, to be all she can be as an adult?”
So let me ask you: Are we are the right track? Are we doing all we can do to train our kids for today’s and tomorrow’s jobs? Have we created a business-healthy environment, based on a skilled, career-trained workforce? If the golden goose has the answer to these questions, I encourage all of you to get involved more heavily in the basics and help find the answers. As it stands now, we are firmly on a path to destroying the goose.
If there has ever been a critical time for us to be involved in the solutions, it’s now. It’s time to bring together the things that so many across this great state have initiated as good and successful: practices and policies that prepare our workforce to be ready for employment, whether it’s for the 30% of manufacturing posts that require a four-year degree or the 70% that are bolstered by post-high school training.
So, we have a job to do, and we need you to help us do it. Come join the effort for our future.
Mark Dobbins is senior vice president and secretary of SUMCO Phoenix Corporation; chair emeritus of the Arizona Manufacturers Council; co-chairman of Arizona Manufacturing Partnership; member of the board of directors for the National Association of Manufacturers; and a past chairman of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry
