Being a Public Manufacturing Company Can Be Hazardous to Your Investment Health

Just five of the nearly two dozen companies I highlighted in my new book, American Manufacturing: 22 Tales of Integrity, Ingenuity, and the Modest Heroes Who Built a Nation are publicly traded. Why?

I think there’s a very good reason for that. I focused on not just cool stories (though that was a big part of my selection criteria), but on manufacturers that have a track record of innovation and business success, most of them over multiple generations.

Over the past half century, though, being a public company has made those qualities increasingly difficult to achieve.

I’ve covered numerous times in the past how latter-day finance measures have militated against proper investment in manufacturing. None other than the legendary Clayton Christensen called this out in his book How Will You Measure Your Life?, specifically pointing to the role Return on Net Assets (RONA) had on sending manufacturing offshore. (Read more about that in my article about it here.)