Simon Hill is CEO of Wazoku, which activates human intelligence and builds systems that turn innovation into measurable value.
Writing for Forbes Business Council, Hill zeroed in a lack of intelligence, specifically a "discovery gap," which contributes to an eroding US industrial base.
Hill commented on a recent Pentagon meeting with executives of GM and Ford about producing weapons and military supplies:
"In my view, the Pentagon was calling Detroit because Detroit has phone numbers it recognizes. The rest of the manufacturing base is, for practical purposes, invisible to it ...
Many [small manufacturers] are multigenerational and hold decades of process knowledge that exists nowhere except inside the firm. They make the components and subassemblies that many finished products in the economy depend on. In fact, small manufacturing firms account for 98% of U.S. manufacturers and employ 4.8 million workers.
Many of these firms are also largely off the map."
Hill followed up the Forbes article on this problem with a LinkedIn post suggesting a solution: Nterprisers.