A friend recently asked, “Is your website done?” I replied, “No, not yet.” If you ask me five years from now, I will give the exact same answer.
That is the way of the post-COVID world; the workplace itself changes, and certainly the digital world is known for its propensity—even need, one might say—to change, to grow, to redefine.
So, you will probably never see a “finished product” of digital services here. What will you find?
If you look at our logo, part of it is the tagline, “The Story of Making Tomorrow.” And that’s what this site aspires to be, the story of both making the tomorrow that we all want, and with equal validity, the story of making things tomorrow.
To deliver on that lofty central goal, we will look at the present and what I call the near future, no more than a few years ahead. Even professional business planners warn clients not to venture five years or more in forecasting anything, like revenue, product mix, or a suddenly exciting market for flying cars (in the July 1924 Popular Science, guest writer Eddie Rickenbacker’s headline was, “Flying Autos in 20 Years;” the Aerocar debuted in 1949 but can you imagine a bunch of flying cars landing on a cul de sac in Levittown at 5:15 p.m. every day? It was a question that, I think, escaped its inventor.)
Some of the ways we look into the future will help us with our daily direction. For example, why did Trumpf invest in two software security firms? Furthermore, how does Trumpf’s venture capital arm work? You can find your answers by searching Trumpf in our menu’s search bar, or by clicking on the appropriate pictogram(s) on the home page (in this case, “software” and “futures” will show the respective stories).
This beginning would not be possible without help. First, I want to thank my salesperson Giuliana Benedetto, who lives in the lovely Italian coastal city called Bari. Giuliana covers a lot of Europe for me. She can be reached at giuliana@fifthwavemfg.com. Trust her judgment. She has more than two decades in our industry.
Evan Kuh is our Associate Editor, and doubtless if you are a site regular you will be reading many of Evan’s words. He is very enthusiastic about our industry, a trait I noticed first when I explained to him that one of the limiting factors in laser cutting was G forces. He lives in California, in the East Bay across from San Francisco. You will find him a very intelligent and friendly resource and he can be reached at evan@fifthwavemfg.com.
Chris Kuehl covers all things economic in his column, “What is the Meaning of This?” He will explain the meaning of many things that affect today’s increasingly technology-driven manufacturing world. Chris is a very clear communicator, one of the funniest people I know, and a brilliant economist. He may be the only one so equipped.
I will have some surprise guest columnists too, but I’ll leave those a surprise. That takes care of our little company. But there are many people to thank who are not in our company:
- Nick Ostrowski, Amada’s marketing maven, jazz savant, and the most well-read person I’ve ever met, thank you for supporting this enterprise before it even started; I will consistently try to live up to your trust;
- The teams at the Canadian Tooling and Machining Association as well as Turkish Machinery, thank you both for your support, encouragement, and a willingness to continue partnerships that have been forged over the last decade;
- Bystronic’s Frank Arteaga and Salvagnini’s Kathy Conrad-Etheridge, who cared about the process and said, “No, this isn’t good enough” to the first iteration of this website. I deeply appreciate your candor and assistance in recalibrating my sights;
- Sevda Kayhan Yilmaz, my good friend who runs Kayahan Hidrolik in Konya, Turkey and helps lead Turkish Machinery, a trade group based in Ankara. She is a standout woman whose company leadership is not unique but it is rare (yet it shows the modern side of Turkish business). Sevda, you have done untold number of favors small and large to assist me in pursuing this dream and you always have my appreciation;
- Dr. Jeffrey Ahrstrom, thank you very much for your action on my behalf–you are a verb, my friend;
- Rick Hargrove, thank you for providing wise counsel and getting me into yet another industry segment. I look forward to a fine dinner with you and your wife, followed by five-pin bowling; and
- Thank you to everyone who took part in Zoom meetings to assess the site and get things prepared for the story of tomorrow. The beautiful logo was designed in Pakistan, the pictograms were done in Istanbul, I regularly Skype with Giuliana in Bari, and our Media Kit was done by my high school classmate Sue Englund. That’s the story of today!
To our readers, I would ask that you please get in touch if you would like to see more or less of something, discuss a specific topic, tell us about a new technology, or to find out what we can do for you. I’m available at dave@fifthwavemfg.com, or +1 815-668-3050. I look forward to speaking with you soon.