When Dr. Rick Rigsby came out with his first book, “Afraid to Hope,” in 2018, it was well received … and drew some pointed feedback, including some from people in Rigsby’s inner circle, who reminded him that hope is not a business strategy.
While the message was hard for Rigsby to hear, he reflected on it and saw some truth in it. At the same time, as the next couple of years brought all kinds of adversity, from racial injustice to political strife to a pandemic, he says hope has made a comeback.
“Hope is not a strategy. Hope is more powerful than a strategy. A strategy is a plan. Hope is the belief that somehow we’re going to get through this to a better day,” says Rigsby, noting that leaders he coaches call him now asking to hear messages of hope.
Rigsby, who will serve as the keynote speaker at the Manufacturing First Expo & Conference Oct. 27, knows businesses and leaders need more than hope as they continue to navigate uncertainty, but he will also remind them that hope is dynamic and transformative.
By the time Manufacturing First arrives, the pandemic will have been with us for nearly two years. People are weary, and businesses have faced upheaval in the forms of increased — or decreased — demand for their products, workforce challenges, supply chain woes and the need to implement safety protocols, to name just a few.
Rigsby, president and CEO of Rigsby Communications, is also an author, speaker, past football coach and college instructor. Throughout his life, he’s seen his share of adversity, the biggest of which came when he lost his first wife to breast cancer when his two sons were young.
At his wife’s funeral, Rigsby drew on the strength and comfort of his father, whose lessons he shares in his most-celebrated speech and in his second book, “Lessons from a Third Grade Dropout.”
“I looked at my dad and said, ‘Daddy, I’ve lost hope.’ And he said, ‘Son, you can’t lose something God gave you. You haven’t lost hope. You’ve lost perspective. Now, son, just stand.’ I want to challenge those business folks to keep standing,” he says.
In addition to sharing a message of hope in his speech, “Soaring to New Heights,” Rigsby says he’ll encourage attendees to ask themselves, now what? Companies must embrace a growth mindset and realize that business as usual isn’t enough. It’s time to reimagine, he says.
Rigsby relates the example of a Marriott business group he addressed recently. Business travel, which traditionally made up the bulk of the group’s business, has been slow to recover, so Marriott needed to shift focus to families and leisure travelers. To appeal to those groups, one property chose to turn a large, unused outdoor space into a movie viewing area.
Disruption is here to stay, whether it comes in the form of a pandemic that won’t seem to quit or new challenges that are bound to arise. Through it all, businesses and leaders can grow their influence in the areas Rigsby’s father championed: kindness, non-judgment, follow-through, service and dependability.
“We are going to be with uncertainty for some time. We are not going to be able to control some variables, but the one thing we can control is our ability to change behaviors, to grow our influence, to do everything we can as a business to develop … by making an impact, by being the kind of person that literally transforms our environment,” Rigsby says.
Hear from more featured speakers
Following Rigsby’s keynote, Oshkosh Corp. President and CEO John Pfeifer will highlight some of the manufacturer’s recent successes and share his thoughts on what makes manufacturing so vital to Northeast Wisconsin.
This year, Oshkosh Defense won the contract to produce next-generation vehicles for the U.S. Postal Service. It will manufacture both zero-emission battery electric vehicles and fuel-efficient low-emission internal combustion engine vehicles, and the competitively awarded contract allows for the delivery of between 50,000 and 165,000 vehicles over a period of 10 years.
Pierce Manufacturing and Oshkosh Airport Products also debuted the Volterra platform of electric vehicles for the fire and emergency market. The first Volterra pumper truck is already in service in Madison, and Striker Volterra airport rescue and firefighting vehicles are expected to be showcased at airports across the country.
In addition to Pfeifer, four breakout session speakers will take the main stage at the KI Convention Center. At 10 a.m., First Business Bank, presenting sponsor of Manufacturing First, will offer “Tackle Your Talent Shortage with Work-based Learning” presented by Stephanie Borowski of GPS Education Partners.
Rick Hearden, president of the Northeast Wisconsin Market for First Business Bank, says the bank chose to give its time to GPS Education Partners, a nonprofit that offers work-based learning programs, because it recognizes the importance of partnering with manufacturers to help solve the industry’s most pressing problems, including talent needs.
“The labor shortage is not going to go away, and this is one opportunity for manufacturers to learn about programs that may allow them to access more employees in the future,” Hearden says.
At 11 a.m., Rob Macklin, an attorney with Davis|Kuelthau, s.c., will present “Toes in the Water: Entering New Markets without Drowning.” The
session will explore what it takes to enter international markets, highlighting the benefits as well as what any business should know before diving into exporting and setting up operations overseas.
“The growing consumer ability in places all over the world … is going insane,” Macklin says, highlighting the growing economies of countries in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. “It seems like there’s a great opportunity for a lot of the manufacturing base to break into some of these markets. It’s something that if you don’t know that you can do it, you don’t even think about it.”
Dean Stewart, executive director of the Center for Exceptional Leadership in the Schneider School of Business & Economics at St. Norbert College, will deliver his presentation, “Creating a Winning Culture Based on Innovation, Ownership and Accountability,” at noon.
Stewart’s presentation will highlight the benefits of design thinking and the importance of engaging people from every level within an organization, from production workers to engineers to leaders.
“We sometimes think the next great idea is in a handful of people or that it’s up to the senior leaders of the organization, but at the end of the day, it’s about, how do we collectively empower our teams?” says Stewart, who recently completed an MIT program devoted to the philosophy of design thinking.
Finally, at 1 p.m., Joe Girard, a senior business developer with an emphasis in manufacturing from Wipfli, will present a panel discussion on “Building Resilience in Manufacturing Supply Chains.” The panelists include Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry CEO Sachin Shivaram; Dane Dorn, manager of supply chain and continuous improvement for CMD Corp.; and Steve Ford, who recently retired as an executive from Lapham Hickey Steel.
Girard says we can expect to see continued shortages and pricing pressures for products and areas including lumber, steel, plastic products and freight.
As companies continue to navigate challenges, he’d provide this advice: “Create a road map that prepares you to improve your business connectivity between you, your suppliers and your customers to speed the flow of correct and/or useful information. When done properly, you can solve immediate business issues, and as you evolve through additional technologies, they will only serve to build off of what you have already implemented.”
