Why are some people surprised Master Lock stayed in Milwaukee?
Beardsley: Well, they shouldn’t be surprised that Master Lock stays. Actually we are among a group of companies — A.O. Smith, Harley Davidson, Johnson Controls, Miller Brewing — that I think you’ll find share the attitudes, the approach to working in Milwaukee. Q: But there were companies that left. There was something about the urban center in old industrial cities that suggested, hey, there’s a better place for us to be. Beardsley: Well, no owner, no manager makes a decision to move a plant easily. It’s a very difficult decision to make. All the pain of the human factors is involved. There’s a terrific amount of capital investment. There’s risk associated with starting up a new plant. There’s interruption of customer service. So those decisions are not taken easily. But the reason for doing that, more often than not, is because a competitor has changed the rules of engagement, because a business is losing market share, and because there’s a long-term survivability issue involved. A
