In December 2023, IMEC Board of Directors welcomed Pedro DeJesus, Head of International Business and Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary at Tampico Beverages, Inc. Pedro not only provides the Board with insight into Illinois’ beverage manufacturing industry, but his story once again shows that Illinois manufacturing is filled with all types of industry backgrounds.

Meet Jim Nelson, President and CEO of Parr Instrument Company and one of IMEC’s newest Board members. In a recent virtual interview, Nelson shared insights into his career before and after joining Parr, which has been manufacturing chemical reactors, pressure vessels, calorimeters, combustion vessels, and related equipment for lab use since 1899.

Meet Caitlin Simhauser, the President and Managing Owner of Ronk Electrical Industries and one of IMEC’s newest Board members. In a recent virtual interview, Simhauser shared insights about herself and her company, which has been manufacturing electrical products and equipment since 1950.

This article first appeared in Industry Week.

If we have a lost cost in our business of $100,000, $500,000 or $1,000,000 would you know about it? Should you know about it? Would you take action to reduce the lost cost?

What is the actual cost of turnover for your business?
Unfortunately, well over 90% of companies do not capture this true cost or know how to calculate it specifically for their company. To get a total annual cost, one must look at the cost per person multiplied by the number of employees lost in a year.

IMEC’s Board of Directors is comprised of professionals across various industries, including food manufacturing, medical device manufacturing, advertising, law, academia, and now aerospace.

As one of the newest members to the board, Dr. David Carroll, Co-Founder and President of CU Aerospace in Champaign, IL, sat down with IMEC to discuss how CU Aerospace was formed and why it is a gamechanger in the aerospace industry.

We can hire some employees with credentials in hand. You hire engineers with an engineering degree or an accountant with an accounting degree. The degrees these employees hold give you the evidence that these people have followed a specific training protocol and have achieved a certain level of proficiency. Unfortunately, not all people are ready or able to pursue a degree or formal education program. Many of these people are on your shop floor or in your office. However, just because they don’t have a degree doesn’t mean they don’t want a career with your company. By providing an opportunity for everyone in your company to build a career, you are addressing some of the inequity which resides in the workplace, while improving engagement and retention of your valued employees.

This article is written by Mark Allen Roberts, CEO and Founder of OTB Solutions.

To say 2021 has been a rollercoaster ride of incredible highs and scary lows is an understatement. We have experienced market disruptions, uncertainty, new pandemic variants, and constraints none of us could have forecasted. In response to these changes CEOs and business owners adapted. A recent McKinsey study indicates more than 60% of CEOs restructured their organization in response to the pandemic.

Many organizations are experiencing the full force of change. This new speed of change is creating a shift in what employee’s value and what they are looking for in an organization. And because of this, organizations are now reflecting more on their culture and considering ways to enhance employee engagement and retention. Now is the ideal time for organizations to reflect on their legacy learning approaches and ask themselves: “will our existing learning approaches to enhance employee engagement, leadership development, change management, and problem solving help us transform our culture to best meet the future demands of our customers and stakeholders?” Perhaps, if the focus is on developing the team and not just the individual learner.

Written by Travis Epp and Lise Stewart of EisnerAmper.

Corporate social responsibility (“CSR”) and its flipside—environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) practices—stand to be some of the most defining criteria for businesses since the introduction of quality standards. Any business seeking investors, wishing to sell, wanting to attract young and talented team members, or looking to improve its standing in the eyes of customers will need to pay close attention to the array of practices that make up this way of doing business.