John Bassett - Making It in America: A 12-Point Plan for Growing Your Business and Keeping Jobs at Home

I had never been inclined to turn away from struggle before. I wasnt about to turn away now.

I walked into the noisy finishing room at our sprawling factory in Galax, Virginia, and right away the conveyor belt stopped. Inside a furniture factory, silence is almost never a happy sound.

Uh-oh, I thought. Whats the problem here?

All the workers were turning from their stations and were now walking toward me.

Was there a safety issue I hadnt heard about? Did somebody get hurt? Was there a problem with one of our machines? It had to be something fairly important. Wed worked hard to cut our downtime. In my long experience on factory floors, people dont usually stop working when the boss comes in.

Finishers do the messiest work in a furniture factory. The job requires speed, care, and genuine artistry. That conveyor runs fast, and if the stain is uneven or the lacquers applied wrong, youve just spoiled the underlying craftsmanship. A sloppy finishing job is the first thing a dissatisfied customer will notice and complain about.

As the finishers crowded around me, I saw that no one was frowning. Nobody looked mad. Then a lady named Helen stepped up to speak for the group.

John, she said, staring straight at me in her brown-stained coveralls. We have something to tell you.

Okay. What is it?

We see what youre going through, Helen said. We see what youre trying to accomplish for us, and we want you to know one thing. You tell us what you need, and were gonna do it for you. You tell us what you want, well get it done.

I heard her loud and clear. We were still struggling to save this factory and the seven hundred men and women it employed. Few people thought wed be able to do it. We were the furniture industrys stubborn underdogs, hanging tough in southwest Virginia after most of our large competitors had shifted their production to new facilities overseas. Before Helen spoke, Id been talking a good game but wasnt honestly sure we could achieve this long-shot American miracle. The moment she made that promise, I knew our competitors were the ones at a distinct disadvantage. We were absolutely going to survive.

I hugged the women, shook hands with the men, and said to them all, Thank you. I know that. We can always count on each other.

After all wed been through togetherthe reorganizations and the speed-ups, the sideways glances from the rest of the industry, the illegal dumping from low-wage foreign countries, all the new technology wed implemented, the terrible sadness of watching neighboring factories close and good people get tossed from their jobsI felt hugely grateful for the support I was getting from the floor. I knew Helen and the others werent just blowing smoke or buttering me up. We were genuine partners here, the kinds of partners who were ready to take on the world togetherand I meant that literally. I knew the employees had as much at stake as I did. Their whole futures were on the line.

Okay, I said finally. I have my first request.

What is it? they asked, as several of them stepped closer to hear.

Get your butts back to work! I said. Lets get this line running! We gotta move some furniture!

They laughed and clapped and quickly returned to the production line, moving freshly finished pieces of Vaughan-Bassett furniture out the factory door. As I headed to my desk upstairs to absorb what had just occurred, the workers were back at their stations and the finishing room was humming again.

M y name is John D. Bassett III. Some call me JB3. Im a third-generation Virginia furniture man. With my sons Doug and Wyatt, I run the largest wood bedroom furniture manufacturing plant in the United States. Which is kind of like running the busiest Chick-fil-A on Marsthere arent too many others. But one, I keep discovering, can be a very powerful number. Ive been described as driven, demanding, dedicated, profane, charming, iconoclastic, generous, and stubborn. Especially stubborn. Over the past three decades, our little company has been at the center of one of the epic battles of modern capitalism. We have weathered globalism, ever-changing technology, a crippling fiscal crisis, and profound industrial change. We stayed in America as virtually all our competitors rushed for the exits, shifting their production to high-volume factories in low-wage locations overseas. We were under enormous pressure to join the panicking stampede. But we refused to budge. We stuck with our people insteadtheir talent, their dedication, our history together, and the uncompromising quality of American workmanship. Its never been easy, but I am extremely glad we did.

Its the awesome power of one.

Our big bet on America has caused quite a stir in our industry and beyond. Some people are still shaking their heads at us. They cant imagine why we didnt just roll with the tide. But to many, our company has come to symbolize the strong fighting spirit that still burns inside the American worker, despite all the forces busily trying to snuff that spirit out. People say were a much-needed antidote to all the defeatist talk they keep hearing. The way I see it, we are living, breathing proof that dedicated management and loyal employees, working together as a team in this great country of ours, can hold their own against anyone anywhere and achieve just about anything!