Competitive Strategy - Technology research

Small Business Summit discusses role of innovation, technology Myers, Sharon . McClatchy - Tribune Business News ; Washington [Washington]23 May 2013.

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ABSTRACT  

Lexington Mayor Newell Clark was the keynote speaker during the lunch session and addressed the need for

business owners, government leaders, educators and business development entities to work together to identify

the needs of small businesses and provide them with what they need to bring more businesses to Davidson

County. According to its webpage, Manufacturing Solutions Center's goal is to help manufacturers increase sales,

improve quality and improve efficiency to create or retain jobs.

FULL TEXT  

May 23--Various speakers addressed topics that business owners could use to help increase their development,

including the use of technology, marketing research, innovation and partnerships with others.

Lexington Mayor Newell Clark was the keynote speaker during the lunch session and addressed the need for

business owners, government leaders, educators and business development entities to work together to identify

the needs of small businesses and provide them with what they need to bring more businesses to Davidson

County.

"People ask me all the time, 'Why don't we have a Chick-fil-A?' The company is interested in coming here, but they

need an owner-operator to run it. That is where we need a resource to connect those dots," he said.

Clark said this is one of the reasons the Lexington Business Consortium was created. The consortium combines

community development with business development. It includes the Lexington Area Chamber of Commerce,

ElectriCities of North Carolina, Davidson County Economic Development Commission, the City of Lexington and

Davidson County Community College.

Each of these branches focuses on individual topics to aid bringing new businesses to the county as well as

assisting existing businesses. The areas they are concentrating on are education, marketing, industrial recruitment

and retail recruitment.

"Government does not create jobs, but they can create the environment for businesses to thrive," Clark said.

He stressed the importance of finding a balance between recruiting new businesses while at the same time

protecting the interest of businesses that are already here.

"We have a lot of assets and a lot of potential," Clark said. "We need to concentrate on three things, where we have

been, where are we now and where are we going. We have been historic, we are now progressive, and we are going

to be innovative."

The summit was broken down into sessions to address different approaches to developing small businesses.

Dan St. Louis, director of the Manufacturing Solutions Center in Catawba County, spoke about the changes that

have taken place in manufacturing over the years.

"It's not just hosiery or furniture manufacturing anymore," he said. "Nothing else has stayed the same, so why

would we think manufacturing wouldn't change?"

He pointed to the fact that automation was the reason many manufacturers reduced their workforce, but there is

still opportunity to develop new and better industries.

According to its webpage, Manufacturing Solutions Center's goal is to help manufacturers increase sales, improve

quality and improve efficiency to create or retain jobs. It uses research and development to improve and enhance

product; test products for quality; and assist creating prototypes for new industries, as well as other hands-on

marketing techniques. One of its recent successful endeavors was helping Coors create the color-changing cans

for its beer.

"We want to help bring jobs into the area. Someone has to have an idea, someone has to make it, and someone has

to sell it," St. Louis said.

Carol Strohecker, director of the Center for Innovative Design, spoke about the use of new technology to reach out

to businesses. CID is a multi-campus research center based in Winston-Salem within the University of North

Carolina system.

It uses advanced digital technologies to create economic transformation for local communities. Some of these

technologies include three-dimensional printing and scanning. This style of printing uses plaster or plastics to

create a 3-D prototype of anything that can be created on a computer screen.

"3-D printing can be used in the pre-manufacturing process to test a prototype before moving into manufacturing.

The software can be directly applied from the research to manufacturing," Strohecker said.

Another similar technology is using a 3-D scanner to scan objects and make adjustments to existing products

without having to start from scratch.

"Maybe a company wants something that is already on the market, but they want it bigger or smaller or fatter or

thinner, you can use the 3-D scanner and make those adjustments to fit the needs of the business," she said.

The last new technology she discussed was the use of stop-motion image capturing. It is the process of attaching

data points, usually ping-pong balls, to create a 3-D image from real life. These images can then be translated into

a computer program, which can be used an various different ways.

"It's not just for the movie industry," Strohecker said. "It is not just cartoons, it is serious technology."

She said one of its customers was a field biologist who used the stop-motion technology to study movement of

bats.

Strohecker finished her comments by saying the use of new technologies is a win-win between students and new

business opportunities.

"Everything starts with a new idea and then it gets translated to intellectual property," she said. "New products

become new companies, and new companies create new jobs.

Sharon Myers can be reached at 249-3981, ext, 228 or at [email protected].

Credit: The Dispatch, Lexington, N.C.

DETAILS

Subject: Manufacturing; Associations; Small business; Product development; Manufacturers;

Technological change

Publication title: McClatchy - Tribune Business News; Washington

Publication year: 2013

Publication date: May 23, 2013

Publisher: Tribune Content Agency LLC

Place of publication: Washington

Country of publication: United States, Washington

Publication subject: Business And Economics

Source type: Wire Feeds

Language of publication: English

Document type: News

ProQuest document ID: 1354431032

Document URL: https://ashworth.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1354

431032?accountid=45844

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Last updated: 2017-11-20

Database: ABI/INFORM Collection

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