Run like a business
This is my second attempt at stating my view in the opinion page, without being to offensive.
I feel like most of the country realizes that there needs to be some changes made, this idea is basically why President Trump was elected. His promise of making America great again has begun to create a lot of concern, fear, and anger, along with hope, excitement, and the feeling of a positive outlook on the future of the country.
Of course it depends on the way you look at the changes being made, and how they involve your daily routine.
If I was running a cabinet shop, and I had several orders to fill. The ideal way to get the orders filled in a reasonable time frame, is to coordinate the entire shop and all its components. They must be in good working order, in proper sequence to be efficient, to turn out a quality product.
Then comes the variables, like when the foreman of the saw shop tells you that he needs to shut down for some un-scheduled maintenance of the saw blades. In order to keep the quality of your product acceptable, you do what is needed. This may delay the delivery of that product, but it will ensure the quality of that product.
Then comes the time I decide to sell this cabinet shop. I would like to get top dollar for it. Me, being the one selling, would show all the positive qualities of the product and the efficiency of the shop and all its components. I would try to show the potential for profit to get that top dollar.
On the other hand, If you were looking to buy my cabinet shop, you would look at all the positives, I the seller was showing, but you would be foolish to not examine the faults. Like maintenance records, injury reports, profit and loss statements and overall history of the entire business.
You might consider the things you could change in the process, or the outdated tools that could increase the quality, or the bottom line profits. You might even bring in new employees. All this must be considered before you buy. This time you invest in researching the past is important in making a decision to buy or not.
Then you buy the cabinet shop, and the first thing that needs to be done, is an inventory of the shop. You evaluate the equipment, stock, orders coming in , going out, and the performance records of the employees. Then you start to make the necessary changes you think are needed to produce the results you can accept as the new business owner.
The changes that you make, might not be welcomed by all the employees in the shop. As the new owner of the shop, you know the changes you want to make. You did the research, before you invested your money.
So now you make the necessary changes, and you fire some employees and hire some new ones. You might change some procedures to optimize the overall way the shop runs for maximum efficiency. Overall, it is still the same shop, and only time can tell if it is going to work better or not. But, all the shops components still have to work together to make it work.
There are a couple of ideas I am trying to get across with this scenario.
Our country has not been doing the best it can, just seems that it is time to retool the shop, restructure the process, and bring in some new minds to make the future better. We might have to close the doors for a short time during the up grade, but they will open back up.
Sure there will be some risks involved, challenges to overcome, and it is going to take some time to evaluate the results of the changes. Everyone is not going to like all the changes at first, but we must start somewhere.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel, but we will never make it to the end of the tunnel if we sit idle in the middle.
Tim Salisbury, Kelseyville
Brownism at work
The $10 billion bullet train is now seven years behind schedule and $10 billion in debt — and $100 billion more debt to come.
Brent Pomeroy, Lakeport
