|
|
Article: Innovation: the ticket to growth in a mature industry: one of the great joys of the coatings industry is that there is always an opportunity to build a better mousetrap.
- Article from:
- Coatings World
- Article date:
- September 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Rodman Publishing. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
The featured speaker at RPM's management meeting last October was Ram Charan, an educator, management consultant and lead co-author of the book, Every Business Is a Growth Business. One of his central themes was that there is no such thing as a mature business. Reflecting on Mr. Charan's comments, I was thinking that for most of my 40-plus year career, the coatings industry has always been considered "mature," at least statistically.
Yet, in this "mature" industry, RPM International was able to grow sales for 55 out of its 56 years in business and to grow operating income in 54 of those 56 years. In both cases, our growth rates over the years have usually ...