As chairman of The Timken Co., Ward “Tim” Timken Jr. has a dual role: He plots the vision for the $5.7 billion global manufacturer and its 25,000 employees, and he also meets with elected officials to ensure the company’s voice is heard on proposed regulations that might affect not just Timken but any manufacturer.
The current economic meltdown hasn’t helped his cause on either front.
“In part, the private sector has itself to blame,” Timken says.
He cites Wall Street greed, exploitation of a relaxed regulatory environment and a hunger to live beyond our means as reasons why much of the American public today views business as part of the problem.
“The challenge before business leaders is to make a compelling case for their ability and determination to develop solutions to the problems we face,” he says.
Timken shared his views on the role executives should take in public policy matters as well as his thoughts on manufacturing’s future at a recent Smart Business Live luncheon. Here are some excerpts.
Remain optimistic. Many of us have seen declining sales, shrinking profits and tight credit markets. Industries across the region have been forced to reduce employee benefits and let some good workers go. Despite the trouble, I remain optimistic about the future.
It is inevitable in a free market system that individual enterprises come and go, yet the market endures. It is precisely this flexibility and agility that gives our economy its legendary ability to bounce back stronger than ever. In this cycle of renewal, we continually redeploy our resources to newer and better uses, expanding our ability to create greater prosperity for all.
Know the effects of public policy. Public policy changes threaten a structural transformation. If we were only talking about opinion polls and statistical trends, we might not worry too much. We might console ourselves by saying that, like our sales orders, public trust in business would bounce back once the economy began growing again.
Unfortunately, these changes in public sentiment are accompanied by changes in public policy that are structurally transforming our economy and making it more difficult for the market to demonstrate its trademark resiliency.
In early 2008, when trust in U.S. business was at its highest ever … anyone who would have predicted then that within a year the federal government would nationalize General Motors and take a major ownership in the country’s largest banks would have been dismissed as a crackpot. Yet, that is the reality we face today. Not since the Great Depression has the government intervened so dramatically and decisively in the economic life of the nation.