In Defiance Thousands of companies who manufacture products in America are searching for authentic ways to tell their own stories without sounding like they’re patting themselves on the back. Others are searching for a genuine way to reinvigorate the skilled trades without making a recruiting commercial, or coming off as false, self-serving, or manipulative. I know this because I’ve talked to many such companies and encouraged them at every turn to tell their story in the only way I’ve ever seen to be effective - through the eyes of their own employees. Because no one can talk more honestly about the mission of an American-made enterprise than the people who do the actual work. Attached, for your consideration, is a short example of what that looks like. It’s a video from a company called @DECKED, which I suspect many of you have never heard of. DECKED makes a sliding drawer system that can be installed into the beds of virtually any pick-up truck. It’s an ingenious design that allows tradespeople, farmers, and hard workers of every stripe to access the stuff they haul around with remarkable ease. DECKED’s ingenuity has been rewarded with remarkable growth. The product is entirely American made, and 90% of their manufacturing is accomplished in a town called Defiance, Ohio, with 250 employees working away in several hundred thousand square feet of space, along with a LOT of machinery and technology that I won’t attempt to describe. Anyway, two of the principals, Greg Randolph and Bill Bonta, decided to host a company event last week that brought together employees, local media, local politicians, and yours truly, to discuss the challenges of making things in America. More importantly, Greg and Bill had the good sense to record everything, edit it together in a sensible fashion, and then share it as broadly as possible. I promised to do my part to spread the word, and if you agree with the effort, I’d appreciate it if you passed this video on. Because what DECKED is doing in Defiance is important. And so, too, is the way they’re doing it. The bottom line is obvious. If America is to truly reinvigorate our manufacturing base, it’ll require something more than sensible policies and logical incentives out of DC. It’ll also require something more than trade unions fighting for a better deal from management. I’ve got nothing against unions, (at least, not all unions), and I understand the eternal struggle between labor and management. But this struggle is not that struggle, and even if it were, we can’t have the conversation we need to have with just 8% of the workforce, which is currently the percentage of workers represented by a union. This is a struggle for the essence of who we are as country and what kind of country we will become, if we simply give up on the challenge of making quality goods ourselves. This is about entrepreneurs betting on themselves, their people, and their ideas, despite a global playing field that’s not level, and the need to assume a level of risk that most Americans simply couldn’t stomach. DECKED is doing that. They’re manufacturing a terrific product in defiance of a great many obstacles. They’re also doing it in Defiance, literally, which is good news for Ohio, good news for the United States, and good news for the 250 employees who are proud of what they do, and eager to share the success of their company. Which you’ll see them do in the attached video. Please give it a look, and pass it on...