Stories
Stories
Make or Break
BLOOM: Build it and good things will come.
Photo by Ken Blaze
Ron Bloom (MBA ’85) has been an investment banker, a special assistant to the president of the United Steelworkers, and cochairman of President Obama’s task force over-seeing the Chrysler and GM bailouts. Now he’s gotten an even more formidable turnaround assignment from the White House: reverse the decline of American manufacturing. As the New York Times (September 9, 2010) noted, Bloom’s tools, “apart from his persuasiveness,” are effectively limited to tax credits and subsidies for new industries, primarily in green technology. The goal, according to the Times, is “to invigorate private-sector initiatives in these industries, then in a host of supplier companies, and eventually throughout manufacturing.”
Commented Bloom, “I am deeply afraid that if you lose the ability to make things, all the intellectual activity involved in innovation and design will over time erode as well.” Bloom acknowledged that initial efforts will be modest but “huge” compared with previous administrations that viewed the decline of manufacturing as the inevitable result of globalization and a shift to a service-oriented economy. “We have been insufficiently committed to manufacturing for a long time,” Bloom said. “We are not going to fix it in an afternoon.”
Post a Comment
Related Stories
-
- 12 Feb 2022
- Forbes
Industrialist Rahul Bajaj Dies at 83
Re: Rahul Bajaj (MBA 1964) -
- 03 Oct 2019
- Skydeck
Skydeck Live: Galactic Returns
Re: Laetitia de Cayeux (MBA 2004) -
- 01 Jun 2018
- HBS Alumni Bulletin
Digging Deep
Re: Susan Pieper (MBA 1992); By: Julia Hanna -
- 11 May 2018
- CBS News; Forbes
Nigerian Tech Startup has Local—and Global—Impact
Re: Seni Sulyman (MBA 2014)
Stories Featuring Ron Bloom
-
- 20 Oct 2011
- Alumni Stories
New Business Ideas for the U.S. Postal Service
Re: Ron Bloom (MBA 1985) -
- 17 Mar 2011
- Alumni Stories
Make or Break for the USA?
Re: Jim McNerney (MBA 1975); Ron Bloom (MBA 1985); By: Garry Emmons -
- 09 Dec 2009
- Alumni Stories
Meet the White House Manufacturing Czar
Re: Ron Bloom (MBA 1985)
More Stories Featuring Ron Bloom
