But odds are excellent that manufactured housing operations, and interests like your business, are impacted daily – either directly, or indirectly – by the top 6 mega-corporations shown in the infographic below.
There are also many possible takeaways for the forward-thinking manufactured housing professional to be found in this Top 10 list.
3 Time Frames: Top 10 Corps. – 100 Years Ago, 50 Years Ago & Nov 2017
To reflect how rapidly change can occur, the market cap at the opening bell for Amazon today was $562.34B, per Nasdaq. That nearly $20 billion more than it was when this chart below was created.
But look back 100 years, to 1917. Not one of those then-giant companies are in the top ten today.
From 1967 – 50 years ago, and within the lifetime of thousands in the manufactured housing industry today – once giant Kodak is no more. The dominant retail player 5 decades ago was Sears, which has long since been supplanted, first by Walmart, and more recently, by Amazon.
As MHProNews noted in a pre-dawn report this morning, the top 2 publicly-traded giants in manufactured housing in 2000 – plus Palm Harbor Homes, others – melted away, filed bankruptcy, reorganized, etc. Today’s dominant players in manufactured housing look to be just as unstoppable as many believed the old-2000 era Fleetwood and Champion Homes were then.
Today, the Fleetwood and Palm Harbor brands are subsidiaries of Cavco, and the Champion brand was reconstituted as a privately-owned firm.
Given the fact that manufactured housing’s #1 Clayton Homes and #2 Cavco Industries – per their own data – are growing at a slower pace than the industry at large, are there already possible warning signs that some in MHVille are overlooking? Are there vulnerabilities that these 2 largest HUD Code firms have that other competitors could exploit?
To answer that, what does this top 10 corporations chart tell you is the answer for such questions?
Impact of the “Tech Lords”
Apple and Microsoft are known by virtually everyone, and interacts/impacts with virtually daily.
Alphabet is “now the parent company of Google and several former Google subsidiaries,” says Wikipedia. So, it’s used by – and their search results and ads impact – the manufactured housing industry in a big ways.
Google and a former Amazon exec (see linked article below) are dabbling in prefab housing.
Inside MH – Not Every Democrat, Not Every Republican – Politically Incorrect, Factually Accurate
Will the tech giants dive into factory-built housing more deeply? If so, shouldn’t we expect a big, disruptive market impact?
Microsoft may be diving into prefab homes soon too.
Bill Gates’ Subsidiary Belmont Plans Smart City of Future, What Role Will Factory Built Homes Play?
The same could happen with Facebook, which along side Google, are huge vehicles for marketing today. Any chance these moves influenced Warren Buffett’s deeper buy into Apple, while selling off IBM?
Dive, Survive, or Thrive?
For mom-and-pop to even mid-sized manufactured housing operations to survive and thrive in this era of mega-corporations requires a strategy that based upon reality. Wishful thinking and head-in-the-sand behavior simply won’t work.
If you are an independent, or provide products and services to independents, never forget this graphic below by the left-of-center media outlet, the Atlantic.
Political Impact of the Mega-Corps, Which Also Impacts the MH Industry
The political reality behind these top corporations are worth noting.
JP Morgan’s well-known leader is Jaime Dimon, a Democratic supporter who recently pushed the tax reform plan in a big, public way.
Why Democratic Leaning Jaime Dimon, of JP Morgan, Calls Americans to Support Tax Reform
Johnson and Johnson CEO, Alex Gorsky, has served as part of the Trump Administration’s American Manufacturing Council.
That said, the bulk of these giants tilt left. Their leadership tends to favor Democratic candidates in their politics.
Warren Buffett has sizable stakes in Wells Fargo, and as previously reported, a growing stake in Apple.
All 6 of the top mega-corporations have a pro-Democratic tilt.
So, when Democratic senators or congressional reps are trash-talking about ‘soaking the rich,’ are they really, truly going to go after those who are the core of their donor-base in recent election cycles? Isn’t that ‘soak the rich’ just political spin, designed to make the masses feel good, while the truth is quite different?
Money, power, and politics have always mixed in America.
But as award-winning Marty Lavin has observed, pay more attention to what people do than what they say, and follow the money.
When you follow that money, much of it leads back to these top 10 mega corporations, which touch our industry and consumers in a myriad of ways, day-by-day.
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