Lisa Habe, president of Cleveland's Interlake Stamping, echoes some of what Peplin says regarding growth strategies. "Identifying your strengths developed by satisfying current customers allows you to go out and market that unique expertise and experience to companies looking to manufacture similar products," Habe stresses. Interlake, a small- to medium-lot stamper that also has a plant in Florida, has grown by 15 percent in the last year. "As we target new customers, we find that smaller companies give us the best chance of success. They tend to be loyal and more flexible," Habe says. "Besides providing good product, fast turnaround and on-time delivery, it's the ability to form deep relationships with our customers that makes us successful. And, we find that smaller companies are typically more open to developing those types of intimate relationships. They allow us to provide more value-added engineering expertise. We can become invaluable to the customer, and become a real asset on his balance sheet."
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