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Coming into 2015, the U.S. adhesives industry looks to continue its recent trend of lower-than-normal volume growth. Historically, adhesives and sealants have been growing about 1½ times of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the U.S.

Business development can be defined several ways. To some people, it is a sales function. Others might see it as a marketing function, and yet others think it involves work with mergers and acquisitions.

As a supplier, imagine knowing that almost any material was bondable. How much more productive would your work be if you could focus on such factors as environmental resistance, structural strength or cure speed?

The outlook for the U.S. adhesives and sealants industry at the mid-point of 2014 has slightly improved over 2013. After growing just 1.9% in 2013, most economists are predicting the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) will grow 3% for 2014.

Green, bio-based, renewable, eco-friendly—no matter which label we attach, the current marketing buzz is about environmentally conscious products.

In the rapidly evolving field of B2B Internet marketing, I have worked with dozens of small- and medium-sized manufacturers and distributors on their strategies for being “found” online by the right people: buyers, engineers and users of their products.

On a daily basis, television, newspaper, and radio fill their programming with “experts” who are all too eager to prognosticate where the stock market will be in 12 months, how quickly the sea will rise in the next 100 years, or who will win the Super Bowl and why.

2013 can only be characterized as the first year in the recent past where all was quiet on the front lines of the adhesives and sealants industry—especially as compared to the significant volatility the industry has been experiencing since the beginning of the 2008 recession.

Most manufacturers are currently or have been involved in some form of lean process. Your company may be well down the path or just starting out, or your customers or suppliers may be going lean. The Lean Enterprise Institute characterizes lean as “creating more value for customers with fewer resources.”

Current government austerity policies in the U.S. and Europe appear to be lowering GDP through reduced government spending and increased taxes. At the same time, central banks in developed countries around the world continue efforts to boost economic growth with unprecedented accommodative monetary policies.