There are a few large companies in the area, however, quite a few of them have continued to shutdown over the last few months. Sappi (paper mill)...shutdown...a hulk of a building just left vacant being one of the latest. What/why couldn't a plant in Michigan be one of the ones left open even in tough economic times? Plants that close and people that get cut during tough times tend to be on the 'bottom' for a reason...hmmm. More thoughts on that later....
Back to SPX for a minute...I have become intrigued by this company after reading earlier this year that the original Sealed Power plant in Muskegon Heights was being torn down. Doesn't seem like something that big, right? A aged plant...no production left....tear it down before it becomes more of an eyesore than it already is...done! BUT...it caught my interest...
I remember not too many years ago when SPX under new leadership announced they were moving their headquarters...not much about it just remember seeing the then CEO on the news and how it just made sense...more memories tapped that continued to peak my interest...what was this? why? who was this guy? why DID SPX leave? Just more interest...
I started to do some homework on the web (it really is amazing what is out there!) to find out what I could. Go to www.spx.com and you find a Fortune 500 conglomerate that has barely a hint of its history in Muskegon, MI. They do cite it in the 'History', but it can be easily viewed as a long past memory. Then as we were driving around town last weekend we were on the north side of Muskegon Lake going through some neighborhoods that Kim knows and I saw something for the first time...a large, out of place, copper colored window building on the south side of the lake. It looked (and looks) like a old time fort sitting out on the waters edge from afar...trust me, go look. I asked Kim 'What is that across the lake?' 'Oh, that's the SPX Building.' Kind of matter of fact, but I was more interested. We drove over that way and there is a somewhat recent hotel addition on this area of redevelopment that was opened, closed and now reopened right next door. We then drove over to the SPX building at my request...the parkway leading in is brown, desolate and on the verge of being overgrown. In the parking lot of the building, I could hardly believe that at one point this was the headquarters of a Fortune 500 company...it was smaller than imagined from afar, literally only about 30 parking spaces. Actually kind of daunting in a small way. Take a look at Hinman properties who currently has this property listed to see what I'm talking about.
Well, from here I continue my interest...again, why aren't they still here? Doing some homework, it is found that during 2001, SPX bought a company named United Dominion and summarily left Muskegon behind. By that time they had in all earnest no longer been closely affiliated with the prior Sealed Power by any stretch of the imagination. The plant remained part of the group (I believe...I need to verify date of sale to Dana in the 10k's and eventually to the current owner Mahle) at this time, but no longer a strategic business.
The CEO I referenced earlier was John Blystone...a high flyer in GE circles. Mr. Blystone obviously came to town with a mission...to remake a stodgy old automotive supply business that had started to slow...already a Fortune 500 company let us not forget! Mr. Blystone implemented the buzz system of the 80s & 90s...EVA. I know a lot about it, have studied it and even promoted it, however am having second thoughts about its eventual impacts as a tool that may ignore all the 'stakeholders' involved in a business...not just the shareholders. It can be found in the trail of 10k's (again I have read through quite a few of the 18 yrs of history available, but not all) that Mr. Blystone came to Muskegon on a 5 year mission...to get in, drop the old, create the new and leave. While I am not suggesting that it wasn't the right thing to do facing the facts at the time, I am interested in why an industry that prosopered and was the leader in Michigan was 'kicked to the curb' well in advance of the eventual near collapse of GM & Chrysler.
A few questions come to my mind:
- Was the businesses fate (the old Sealed Power) sealed long before Blystone came along?
- What were the cost factors? The easy one is to pick on the wage rate...ok, what was it? Tax base? Unions? Poorly trained management? Old facilities? (obviously)
- Why was it so easy (with the simple 'kiss' of $15 million reorg charge to earnings) for SPX to leave?
- How could we attract businesses back to make Muskegon and moreover Michigan their headquarters??
I'm sure I'll come up with more questions, but honestly I'm too tired. There are some tough questions that we need to ask ourselves about our area & state right now. Just look at Muskegon...I am and there are more companies to analyze...not in the way Michael Moore would, but through trying to understand exactly why companies would choose to leave here. It is a great place to live...bring up a family, BUT (and this is a big but) it requires decent jobs to support that. Don't mistake my interest in this as any 'right' to anything...just a hard look at why potential employers have left our area. More to come!!!
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