Twenty Years of "Never Finished"

A little over two decades ago, I stood at the load end of a huge zinc barrel plating line at America’s Best Quality Coatings and suggested to then Products Finishing (PF) editor Matthew Little that his magazine could benefit from a leadership column offering firsthand advice on leading a finishing business. A few months later, “Never Finished” was born. They ran every other month for the first couple of years and then monthly after gaining traction with the PF audience. This month marks 20 years since its start, which is more than 200 columns. For this edition, and in honor of those 20 years, I reflect on my 20 favorite “Never Finished” columns:

I’ll never forget my first column (January 2005) on the importance of optimizing one’s finishing processes and operations before trying to fill them with more work from more customers, which would only make a dysfunctional finishing operation more dysfunctional.

Lean manufacturing legend Dr. Joseph A. DeFeo, CEO of the Juran Institute, once referenced my February 2008 column, a checklist on what constitutes a world-class finishing operation, during his keynote at a large finishing conference. He invited me to stand and be recognized. I’m embarrassed to admit I had skipped his keynote to meet a customer for lunch. So much for those 15 minutes of fame.

Over the years I’ve also written dozens of columns on the topic of sales and business development. Two made the list of favorites; one called “The Moscow Rules” (January 2010) in which, following a visit to The International Spy Museum in Washington D.C., I wrote a column about how this list of rules for Cold War spies applied to the craft of selling. I’ve referenced “How to Fail at a Trade Show” (February 2011) that included faux pas such as falling asleep, eating or reading in the booth over and over and still use it when preparing our business development team for shows.

A pensive offering on “Acceleration” (November 2014) in business strategy left the PF editor at the time wondering if I was going through some huge life transformation. A few weeks after I submitted the draft we announced the successful sale of our business, a life-altering event for me.

Even more eerie, a column inspired by chef and TV personality Anthony Bourdain (July 2018) was drafted on a plane one evening. The following morning I woke to a news bulletin on my phone that Bourdain had taken his own life the day before.

Less weird but still on the restaurant topic, my customer mantra “we’re here for you” was inspired by a restaurateur who kept his establishment open during a raging snowstorm solely for two customers — my wife and me — while proudly proclaiming these words. I told the whole story in October 2011.

Some pieces were on topics that were quite serious. In October 2020, influenced by the racial tensions across the U.S. that year, I wrote a deeply personal column “On Race and Manufacturing.”

Several articles on rules of thumb that are helpful in business have run over the years: leaders get the behaviors they exhibit, expect and tolerate (April 2021); the three keys to a winning culture are people, respect and freedom (September 2015); to get a message through to anyone we must send it seven times, seven different ways (June 2023); and for anyone wondering how to score a meeting with the CEO of any business, we get access to the people we dress, act and speak like (April 2021).

Other leadership lessons have peppered the pages of PF during our 20-year run. For example, to improve communication, focus on communicating less and rely more on systems and processes that negate the need for communication (May 2014). And, when will great performance ever be good enough for a finishing operation driven by continuous improvement? Never, as articulated in October 2017.

Also on the topic of leadership, the importance of being “at cause” (controlling our own destiny) rather than “at effect” (at the whims or effects of events around us) was the subject of my January 2011 contribution. Motivated by a scene in the film “Good Will Hunting,” a column on placing team members in roles where they can excel ran in January 2024, and another submission on why I never refer to my teammates as “my,” followed by their title, appeared in September 2022.

As Donald Trump entered the 2016 presidential race, I reflected on a term paper I wrote about him in 1988 and how it led to a lesson I learned from a Marquette University philosophy professor (“Does Money Trump Freedom,” November 2015). 

I authored a column on Predictive Analytics (March 2012), a concept not original to me but one that laid the bedrock of the use of modern-day artificial intelligence.

Finally, in April 2013, I provided a tribute I had written to the incredible value that you — “The Finisher” — provide to mankind.

Twenty columns in 20 years. My initial list of favorites totaled 52, which I pared down to reach 20. Perhaps if I’m fortunate enough to grace these pages for another 20 years (it’s possible, we’re “Never Finished” after all) a few that didn’t make this list will make my group of 40.

In the meantime, thanks to Gardner Business Media, PF and all the amazing people who comprise both, for entrusting your readers to me all these years, and to the same readers for affording me the honor.