Carolyn Lee on building the manufacturing pipeline

Thought leaders sit down with WorkingNation Overheard at the Milken Institute Global Conference 2022
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In order to be part of the manufacturing sector, people need a better understanding of the industry, according to Carolyn Lee, president and executive director, The Manufacturing Institute.

WorkingNation sat down with Lee at the Milken Institute Global Conference 2022 in Beverly Hills.

“Manufacturing jobs are great-paying jobs and modern manufacturing is an exciting field to be in,” says Lee.

“But we have two problems that we’re facing. We don’t have enough people who are aware of the opportunity. The other challenge is that people who are looking for jobs today don’t necessarily have the skills we need. So, we first have to attract them and then we need to train them to make sure they’re able to access these upwardly mobile manufacturing careers.”

She says the coming together of stakeholders can strengthen the talent pipeline. “The strongest opportunity we’ve seen for success is partnership between the local business community, the education community – community colleges, as well as K-12.”

“And then, of course, your business, uh, enablers, right? The workforce boards, the economic development entities, the local chambers, and manufacturing associations to come together and build a cooperative, a partnership.”

Learn more about The Manufacturing Institute.

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.