Victoria Hayes / Chief Strategy Officer
Perspectives from a life in leadership.
The latest essay
Suppliers to vehicle makers build plants against volumes their customers estimate but never promise. The electric-vehicle slowdown showed what that habit costs. A supplier's board should approve the shortfall terms before it approves the building.
Read the essaySuppliers to vehicle makers build plants against volumes their customers estimate but never promise. The electric-vehicle slowdown showed what that habit costs. A supplier's board should approve the shortfall terms before it approves the building.
The 2025 tariff changes pushed many suppliers to announce plant moves from Mexico to the United States. A plant lasts twenty years; a tariff schedule may not last two. Prove where your content comes from first, and move capacity only where several trade regimes point the same way.
Suppliers with combustion-engine product lines often choose to run them for cash rather than sell them. The run-off case usually assumes costs will fall as fast as volume, which they rarely do, and a better owner is usually available while the business still has a future.