Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia is set to suspend production at the West Point plant for two weeks starting March 30, the Korean-owned auto maker announced Tuesday. The west Georgia factory that churns out 340,000 vehicles annually shut down production for two days last week, but employees returned to work Monday. The planned two-week closure will include […]
Interview: Slovak Ambassador Explores Partnerships in Cars, Workforce and Beyond
When it comes to knocking on doors in the South’s industrial hubs, it helps to know something about making cars. By that measure, Slovakia, the central European nation of nearly 6 million people, has credibility to spare. Flush with investment from German, French and Korean automakers like Volkswagen (Audi, Porsche), Groupe PSA and Kia, the country […]
Macon Symposium on Trade and Investment: Complexities Growing, but Balance Still Favors Global Engagement
The picture may be murkier these days, but company and industry representatives at a Macon trade and investment symposium still believe that in 2020, Georgia has more to gain than to lose in engaging with the global economy. During the Jan. 16 forum at Wesleyan College organized by the law offices of Christopher N. Smith and […]
Books 2019: Building a Healthy Organization to Recruit and Retain Workers
Book: The Advantage Author: Patrick Lencioni Review by: Nick Masino, President and CEO, Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce I’m a big fan of Patrick Lencioni’s business fables —The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, The Five Temptations of a CEO and Death by Meeting. I’ve also had the great fortune seeing him speak live at Lead2Lead and […]
Former Chevy Exec: How Foreign Language Accelerates Global Careers
Tim Mahoney had one dream while in college: to become a pilot like a good friend’s father, who lived a romantic life traveling the world for Pan Am and experiencing the world through the windshield of a jet. But Mr. Mahoney’s vision didn’t pan out, in more ways that one. As a rising junior he […]
Kubota Latest North Georgia Investment: An $85M Engineering Center
Japanese heavy equipment manufacturer Kubota North America Corp. is spending $85 million to build an engineering and design center on about 300 acres adjacent to its factories in Gainesville. It’s the latest expansion plan announced by the Osaka, Japan-based maker of tractors, mowers, utility vehicles and industrial equipment, which employs about 3,000 people already in Georgia. […]
Commentary: Fixing the Labor Policies Behind France’s Yellow Vest Protests
Editor’s note: This guest commentary was written by Charles R. Hankla, an associate professor of political science at Georgia State University who received his doctorate in 2005 from Emory University and holds degrees from Georgetown University and the London School of Economics. The piece is set to appear as a Farsi translation in an Iranian magazine but is published in […]
Jamaica’s Prime Minister Aims to Lure Georgia Trade Office Amid New Era of Growth
In the map of Georgia’s trade offices around the world, Jamaica’s prime minister has noticed a glaring omission: the Caribbean. During a visit to Atlanta and North Georgia over Easter weekend, Prime Minister Andrew Holness laid the groundwork for conversations he hopes to change that calculation for the state. After speaking at an awards ceremony […]
Metro Chamber Annual Meeting: Workforce Key to City’s Global Growth, Local Prosperity
If there’s one word beyond all the sloganeering that defined the Metro Atlanta Chamber’s annual meeting Thursday, it might be “mirror.” Representatives of a range of companies, from BlackRock to Pandora, intimated on stage that they located in Atlanta partly because it’s an emerging tech hub, but mostly because they could see their culture and […]
