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CORRECTION: All Business is Global, Says Newell Rubbermaid Executive

Posted on: Monday, 20 March 2006, 15:00 CST

By Rick Cundiff, Ocala Star-Banner, Fla.

Mar. 17--The story slugged OA-RUBBERMAID-GLOBAL-20060317 filed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News for Mar. 17 contained an error in the headline. An executive of Newell Rubbermaid, not the CEO, spoke in Ocala, Fla.

Please delete the old version and use the new, corrected version below.

All business is global, says Newell Rubbermaid executive

By Rick Cundiff

Ocala Star-Banner, Fla.

Mar. 17--OCALA, Fla. -- Local businesses, whether they know it or not, are competing in a global workplace for employees, a Newell Rubbermaid executive told a seminar of human resources professionals Thursday.

That means businesses must consider not only buying and selling resources and products overseas, but also must consider outsourcing some work and competing worldwide for skilled employees, said Timothy Jahnke, president of Newell Rubbermaid's Home and Family Products group.

"Some of the people in this room will be working in the next five years for companies in India or China," he said.

In areas such as Ocala, with nearly full employment and a high annual rate of new job creation, the tight labor market creates pressure to raise wages, Jahnke said.

"As an employer, you don't want wages increasing," he said. That gives some companies little choice but to outsource some low-skill jobs, Jahnke said.

"If you can't find employees and you don't want to limit your business, you've got to look at other ways of getting things done," he said. "If your competition is doing these things ... you're at a disadvantage." But some products and processes don't lend themselves to outsourcing, he noted, citing the example of a Newell Rubbermaid plant in Ohio that produces Calphalon cookware.

The plant has highly experienced workers producing a high-quality product that is too heavy to profitably be shipped from overseas, he noted.

"The quality of the work is outstanding and the quality of the product is outstanding," he said.

CLM Workforce board chairman Michael Biskie agreed that some products can be made more cost-efficiently within the United States. Biskie is human resources director for Williston-based Monterey Boats.

"Not every company, not every employee can move out of the United States," he said. "Some products just make more sense to manufacture in the United States." For non-manufacturing businesses, getting involved in high schools and colleges to mentor and recruit young people can help increase the number of possible employees, Jahnke said.

Jahnke, who began his career in 1983 working for ClosetMaid in Ocala, went to work for what was then The Newell Companies in 1986.

After the company bought Rubbermaid in 1999, it changed its name to Newell Rubbermaid. The company's other brands include pens by Waterman, Parker and Paper Mate, Sharpie markers, Calphalon cookware, Anchor Hocking glassware and Little Tikes toys.

Newell Rubbermaid had nearly 50,000 employees five years ago, Jahnke said.

The company now has about 28,000 and expects to reduce that to about 20,000 in the next five years, he said.

Jahnke told the group of about 140 people Thursday that such job cuts, while sometimes painful for companies and their workers are sometimes necessary for a business to survive.

"It's tough ... he said. "But if you don't do those things, you're not going to survive. Three years ago, Newell Rubbermaid was losing money, and had to take dramatic action. In many of our industries we were the last ones making products in the United States."

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Copyright (c) 2006, Ocala Star-Banner, Fla.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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NWL,

Source: Ocala Star-Banner

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