‘Ready to Spring Back’: Manufacturers Look to the Future

The next generation of Connecticut manufacturing leaders are bringing fresh perspectives, new ideas, and a willingness to listen, learn, and adapt as they navigate the sector’s significant challenges.

“It’s being able to see what is coming at you and just react quickly,” says Brittany Isherwood, president of Farmington-based Burke Aerospace. 

Isherwood was one of three manufacturing executives who joined CONNSTEP president and CEO Beatriz Gutierrez to share their leadership experiences at the Oct. 29 Made in Connecticut: 2021 Manufacturing Summit in Trumbull. 

Bead Industries’ CEO Jill Mayer and Marietta Lee, COO, general counsel, and corporate secretary of The Lee Company, emphasized respect for the original visions of their family-owned companies and an appetite for change.

“It’s a struggle to keep the culture of the small family business as we grow and advance technologically,” Lee said of The Lee Company, which has sites in Essex and Westbrook. “We’ve got to stay current, we’ve got to be developing new products, we’ve got to be automating, we have to be keeping up with the industry.”

“You want to honor the legacy,” said Mayer, the fifth generation of her family to lead Milford-based Bead Industries.

“It’s also about painting the vision. There is a lot of credibility when you have a family company that has been around for a long time and historically you’ve done what you said you were going to do.

Read the rest of the article here.