Category Archives: International

U.S. Furniture Survivor Goes Global

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March 9, 2015

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Ashley Blog Graphic

When Ron Wanek started a furniture company in Arcadia, Wisconsin in 1970, his chances of becoming an industry giant looked remote, writes The Wall Street Journal (Mar. 6, 2015). Since then, most of the Carolina and Virginia manufacturers have been crushed by Asian competition. Wanek ’s Ashley Furniture Industries is now by far the biggest U.S.-based maker and retailer of furniture, with $4 billion in sales last year  (twice as much as La-Z-Boy and Ethan Allen combined). Continue reading →

Jobs and the Clever Robot

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March 2, 2015

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Robot at work“From steam engines to robotic welders and ATMs,” writes The Wall Street Journal (Feb. 25, 2015), “technology has long displaced humans—always creating new, often higher-skill jobs in its wake.” But recent advances—everything from driverless cars to computers that can read human facial expressions—have pushed experts to look anew at the changes automation will bring to the labor force. They wonder if automation technology is near a tipping point, when machines finally master traits that have kept human workers irreplaceable. Continue reading →

Valentine’s Day and the Rose Supply Chain

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February 15, 2015

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http://mashable.com/2012/07/06/fake-pinterest-pins/#gallery/top-10-pinterest-hoaxes-debunked/50bdeb6cb589e4346e00050b

Rose Art from mashable.com

 

Valentine’s Day is the one day when a red rose is worth 2-3 times more than any other time of the year. The process of getting the roses to market is fraught with risk, middlemen, crazy expense and bad weather. Americans will buy 200,000,000 this Valentine’s Day. It’s a logistical challenge getting these millions of roses to bloom and arrive at the same time.
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