Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

It's Only Common Sense: United We Stand

Editor's Note: To listen to Dan's weekly column, as you've always done in the past, click here. For the written transcript, keep reading...Why do we think we have to beat each other’s brains out to win?

For as long as I've been in the North American PCB industry, the strategy of every board shop has been to beat all other shops for business. We've all gone at each other with as much vengeful force as we can muster to beat the other guy. We feel that if we can beat the other guy, we automatically win. The feeling is that for us to win, the other guy must lose.

Think about that kind of attitude: Talk to any board shop owner about someone who's doing a good job out there, someone whose company is growing, someone who has worked hard to make things work. Instead of praise, or at least acknowledgement of that company’s success, all you will hear are the reasons why that company is successful. And none of them have anything to do with the fact that it might simply be a good company doing a good job.

Instead, you will hear things like, "Well, he’s up to his eyeballs in debt;" or "His top line looks good, but what about his bottom line? I’ve competed against that guy and he is giving the stuff away...he’s killing the market with his pricing;" (like anyone in this industry really knows what their prices are) or "No wonder she’s offering such cheap prices--she’s nesting the parts, she’s putting lots of part numbers on one panel and that would never work for us;" or "They’re not really growing at all--they’re just buying companies and that’s why they’re growing so fast, it has nothing to with their business savvy, one of their shops is doing well;" and then there’s my personal favorite: "Of course he’s getting a lot of business; he’ll do anything that the customer wants him to do, whatever that is, he will do it."

Really, and the problem with that is…?

Think about it. Have you ever heard one board shop owner praise another? I cannot recall that ever happening. Look, I’m sure that at one time or another someone has said something nice about one of their competitors, but if we can’t remember that occasion it must be a rare occasion indeed. American board fabricators just don't trust or even like one another.

When was the last time you heard about board shops cooperating with each other? Why don’t we hear about four or five board shops getting together to buy four or five LDIs, for example? If they did, they would get a much better price. Why don’t they use this system just like farmers once used the Grange System?

Why don’t we ever hear about board shops getting together to develop new technology or pool resources to use the same offshore partner and get more competitive prices?

Why don’t we ever hear about five medium-sized board shops getting together and getting a large customer like IBM or Intel to buy all of their boards from them as one entity, instead of ignoring those big guys because they know that alone they can't handle the work, let alone convince such a large customer to give them a shot?

And please don't tell me that this is what IPC is for--it's not. I am told that even from the very beginning IPC was never an organization of just PCB shops. From the organization's inception, the vendors were there to sell us their wares and customers were there--not to be our partners--but to influence the organization so there would be more rules and regulations put upon shops to serve their needs. If those vendors could not sell us their products, IPC was a great place for them to get together with our customers, spec their products in (the same products we rejected as substandard when the vendors approached us in the first place), and cram those inferior products down our throats. IPC is not the answer. But I can't put all the blame on IPC because it doesn't belong there. If we did not have this dog-eat-dog mentality in our industry, IPC could work for us and be more of a forum for cooperation. My feeling about IPC and board houses is that, like everything else in life, you get out of it what you put into it. Unfortunately, most board shops haven't put much into it.

And now as we face total annihilation, as we come down from what was once over 1,500 board shops in North American to about 270, we still clap and cheer when we hear that one of our should-be brothers' shop has bitten the dust. I suppose those celebrating think that with another shop gone, they'll get more business. Really? How stupid is that?

Do you realize that Asia now has 90% of the PCB world market? Those companies, especially the Chinese, talk to each other and have an actual sense of cooperation. They even vote as a bloc. Did you know that? Did you know that they agree to a friendly rivalry among themselves, but, in the end, they are extremely loyal to one another as a national industry? Did you know that these board shops are united and highly protective of their national PCB industry and that is part of what has made them so successful?

Look, there are only a few of us left and, before long, there will only be two or three of us left. Isn’t it time we started getting protective of our North American in PCB industry? Isn’t it time we at least tried to play nice with one another? What’s that old adage we hear all the time in this country? "United we stand; divided we fall." And that’s only common sense.