In this engaging interview, Stacey Weismiller, President and CEO of the American Manufacturing Futures Institute, shares insights on supply chain resilience, the future of manufacturing, and the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership. Discover how cities, manufacturing, and community building are interconnected in shaping a sustainable future.
Key topics
Supply chain resilience and innovation
The role of cities in manufacturing and smart city development
The importance of emotional intelligence in leadership and industrial policy
Chapters
00:00 The Passion for Soccer
04:14 Manufacturing and Advanced Technologies
10:07 Smart Cities and Emotional Intelligence
15:51 Supply Chains and Community Resilience
21:14 Urban Design and Food Systems
24:14 Craftsmanship and the Art of Making
27:16 Navigating the Journey to New York City
29:49 The Role of Community in Manufacturing
30:40 Joining the World Economic Forum
35:08 Building Ecosystems in Advanced Manufacturing
37:01 The American Manufacturing Futures Institute
40:47 Redefining Success in Manufacturing
45:53 The Power of Collaboration and Community
Resources
CoreSight Research - https://coresight.com
American Manufacturing Futures Institute - https://manufacturingfuturesinstitute.org
Richard Sennett, The Craftsman - https://www.amazon.com/dp/046502711X
World Economic Forum - Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution - https://www.weforum.org/center-for-the-fourth-industrial-revolution
City College of New York - https://www.cuny.edu
Philip Moore (00:00)
Welcome to Retaili$tic, the official podcast of Coresight Research for March 17, 2026. This week, our CEO Deborah Weinswig welcomes Stacey Weismiller, President and CEO of the American Manufacturing Futures Institute, to talk about the road ahead for supply chain resilience. But before we kick it off with Deborah and Stacey, here's a quick highlight of some of the research publishing for our members this week.
Learn about the newest breakthrough technology for retail in our summary report of the 10 hottest startups competing in the shark reef competition at the upcoming Shoptalk Spring Convention. We have a report detailing the impact of returns on retailer earnings and exploring new sizing standards to cut return rates. We have quarterly earnings roundup and two AI reports, the first on productivity gains and the second on the state of agentic AI in the US and China.
Visit coresight.com to check out our full catalog. Now, here's Deborah and Stacey.
Deborah Weinswig (01:02)
Stacey, thank you so much for joining us. So we just learned that you're from New Jersey. You're living where the new soccer stadium is being I was sharing to you my passion about soccer and playing in college, and you were telling me.
Stacey Weismiller (01:13)
that I'm obsessed with soccer.
Deborah Weinswig (01:15)
I love it. I can't believe this. is amazing. I actually volunteered at the 92 World I'm going to find it. I'll have to go off screen for a minute. still have the jacket. Was it 92? Anyways, I still have the jacket. I still have the jacket that I And it was like being around Europeans, right? I was, I remember it was like there Argentina game And.
Stacey Weismiller (01:28)
Ninety-four. Ninety-four, I think.
Deborah Weinswig (01:40)
I'm all five feet tall and I had all these people picking me up, which I was just like, what is going on? And played the sport, but I never like been around the sport, if you will. completely like transformed how I thought about And so tell me, how did you develop this love of soccer?
Stacey Weismiller (01:59)
growing up, I actually grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania, ⁓ and, you know, it's on a great lake. It is cold and it snows a lot. And I was a kid that had a lot of energy, probably too much if you ask my parents. And so soccer made sense early on in my life. And I will never forget, I actually one year a song to Santa Claus about how I wanted a pair of Adidas Sambas.
Deborah Weinswig (02:26)
No way.
Stacey Weismiller (02:28)
Yes, I still have it. My mom kept this because I was so obsessed with getting a pair of Adidas Sambas because I was obsessed with soccer and I could not wait to play soccer. And of course in Erie, in the winter you're playing in a gym basically.
Deborah Weinswig (02:41)
No,
but indoor, I will say I think I loved like the ball never stopped rolling, right? So to me, and I felt like I could have a bigger impact on the game. So I personally always really liked indoor. mean, outdoor is great, but then, you know, used to get like really like almost upset when I'd get rained on. Like it was just, I don't know what it was. I was like, I really didn't like it.
Stacey Weismiller (02:48)
yes.
Yes.
Deborah Weinswig (03:06)
And with the pandemic, all that kind of changed. Cause I was like, the fact that I just get to go outside is But I mean, you'd be out there in games. I mean, it's like 35 degrees. You're literally wet. remember I'd be standing there. You know, I played a lot, but there were times you're on the sidelines and I'm just like, this is, this is just like the worst thing I like in the world.
Stacey Weismiller (03:23)
Yeah, I have a
lot of very distinct memories of kind of like this kind of, like that March, April, where as a kid, it was like the first day where it wasn't snowing or below 30 degrees. And you're like, time to play soccer. And I would get outside, I would have, I could find in the house, like half of my dad's car, heart jacket, like long sleeves.
Deborah Weinswig (03:30)
once.
Stacey Weismiller (03:49)
and I would be kicking the ball against my house while also trying to avoid the snow pile that was still there. And then, you know, a week later you'd be like, ⁓ I don't feel good. Like, I wonder why, because I was outside for hours kicking that soccer ball around like piles of snow.
Deborah Weinswig (03:59)
I want want right, So
my best friend lived behind me and three houses over. And she was our goalie. I was a left striker, left forward. ⁓ And so we would train and we're both super disciplined. So we do like, I don't think we knew what it was called, fart lick training at the time, but like we would run a lot.
We would kick the ball around. My dad was our coach. So my dad was a rocket He knew that me being out there playing a team was really important, but he didn't know the first thing about soccer. So this is very funny. So he got these two guys from the seminary I think that way he was very protective. players. ⁓
Stacey Weismiller (04:33)
Mm-hmm.
Deborah Weinswig (04:45)
So that's how, and so my dad would just kind of be there, like making sure like everybody showed up and like if anybody was injured and this, that and the other. And then he had no, like he could not stand like the side of blood, like was definitely, you know, and so I remember one, actually there were two things. One, I remember one of the gals broke her nose and was, there was like a lot of blood. My father, I think we had to like have him sit down. And then the craziest was our like team captain, her name was Jennifer.
and her hip went out of its and none of the seminary guys were there. And so my father had, I think he like literally passed out afterwards. He had to pull it back into its socket. And so it was like, I was like, who would have thought that this sport, and I think it's gotten also since we played much more, think aggressive is the right word.
Stacey Weismiller (05:33)
Yeah,
it's more intense, absolutely. It's more intense.
Deborah Weinswig (05:36)
how old were you when you started?
Stacey Weismiller (05:37)
think or six.
Deborah Weinswig (05:39)
⁓ I was eight and that was still early. I actually, because it was so early for the sport, I played guys for a while. ⁓ And then my sophomore year, I think my high school put a team in place and that it was all happy days after that. But yeah, it was, it wasn't so like getting back. is so much more fun. I will say, Stacey, I was just in Hong Kong in December.
Stacey Weismiller (05:47)
Yeah.
Deborah Weinswig (06:03)
And I spent time at the Advanced Manufacturing Center, which was truly So they were taking finished garments that were at the end of their useful lives and taking the fabric back down in the past, it was cotton poly, That was a challenge. I mean, it's like one of those things.
I've known this industry, right? I've spent a lot of time in supply chain and manufacturing and seeing that, you realize anything is possible. And they were growing hydroponic cotton. That was also like an out-of-body And I will tell you what I learned from that is, well, they made sure I learned. They're please tell everybody to never make garments out of plastic bottles because they showed me what happened when you took the fiber back down. It was unusable.
Stacey Weismiller (06:44)
interesting.
Deborah Weinswig (06:47)
And so they said, right, like all these other fibers, we can use them again and again and again. It's truly like recyclable, sustainable, But they're like plastic bottles. They're like a plastic bottle can become a plastic bottle, can become a plastic bottle. But a plastic bottle that becomes a shirt that then goes back is garbage. And I I saw it and like you could like, they were like very much, it was all about education. So I wanna understand you have, I mean, your background is beyond.
Stacey Weismiller (07:03)
So interesting.
Deborah Weinswig (07:14)
amazing, but can you talk about your time at the US Center for Advanced Manufacturing? Because I mean, I don't even think I knew that we had that. And as somebody who spent a lot of career in supply chain, want to know everything.
Stacey Weismiller (07:24)
Yeah. So first off, I think that your lead in there, right around the conversation of education is extremely important. And all of these, podcasts, white papers, like whatever we're doing in the open, like education as the first kind of main driver is really critical. So take it back a little bit and I will, I'll kind of like in the plane of how I got here. ⁓ I'm from.
Erie, Pennsylvania. Originally, as I said, my family has worked in manufacturing. My father in manufacturing 40 odd years. when you grow up in a place like that, it is very much so the post-industrial where everyone I went to high school with, their dad or someone in their family worked at the factory, right? It was just common knowledge that that's your friend group was made up of, you know.
Their dad worked at the factory. think I had one friend whose dad was a CPA and we just thought that they were and we were astonished. ⁓ So that was very much so in my blood. And so I always say that this is what I know is a little bit of the nature versus nurture, right? I grew up around it. It's very much so part of who I am.
Deborah Weinswig (08:35)
Can I double click? What does Erie, Pennsylvania look like now versus when you grew up?
Stacey Weismiller (08:42)
too different, if I'm being honest, which is I think what's difficult because if you look at other cities like Pittsburgh, which I lived in Pittsburgh and a half years, yeah.
Deborah Weinswig (08:44)
Interesting.
Pittsburgh.
So as an analyst, used to go right. So like we had all the cities. I went to Pittsburgh twice a year for like 15 years. So, you you get to know Pittsburgh and I actually have a son at CMU and we have clients in Pittsburgh. So I'm in Pittsburgh now, like once a quarter time I'm there, first of all, it's a phenomenal city. It's got like great energy. It's like urban, right? It's interesting, like urban
because I think of the universities, right? Because of the density University of Pittsburgh and CMU, I mean, I remember hearing, this is like 2015. I remember hearing about like Uber, right? Like finding all this like amazing talent there. like, and I remember I'm like in Pittsburgh, right?
Stacey Weismiller (09:34)
Yes, right.
Yeah.
Deborah Weinswig (09:40)
And that 2015, and we were actually at the time, we were writing all of these startup ecosystem reports. And so we actually wrote one on Pittsburgh and we did Pittsburgh, Nashville, Mobile, Alabama, because all these cities, Indianapolis, these second and third tier cities, when you start to kind of peel that back, Cincinnati was one of them, you start to wonder.
Stacey Weismiller (09:58)
Right.
Deborah Weinswig (10:04)
What was it in the DNA in those cities versus others? And so going back to Erie, is there still a lot of manufacturing there?
Stacey Weismiller (10:10)
So not as much. And I think what I witnessed when I go there is that it was a factory town. So it was the home and headquarters for GE Transportation, which is where my family started working. I, ⁓ you know, as many factory towns, right, for every one job that is created through a manufacturing job, traditionally there's a multiplier of roughly three other jobs.
Deborah Weinswig (10:19)
Hmm.
Stacey Weismiller (10:38)
So the city itself is definitely kind of scattered with small contract manufacturers and people who are feeding the supply chain of one of those large multinationals. As that multinational diversified, ⁓ hit some hard times in the 2008 era, ⁓ definitely a loss of jobs. But what that did was definitely hurt more of the tier one, tier two supply chain, right? So as we talk about supply chain,
You'll hear a lot from me that I believe supply chains in cities are actually the same because their systems and they have the same kind of characteristics, right, about resilience. You know, we talk about cities, we talk about climate resilience. Well, supply chains are actually very similar in the fact that they also have to have a layer of resilience. ⁓ So I think
Deborah Weinswig (11:28)
How do you think about smart cities?
Stacey Weismiller (11:30)
I
Deborah Weinswig (11:31)
Right. That's a big topic, right? Like with Detroit and everything and just what's like in the background, I'm like, you're bringing up all these things. I'm like, some of them I can't like, but it's, if you think about this idea around, right, Detroit and what it went through. And now that it's kind of the poster child for smart cities, what do you think there's something about these manufacturing cities that lends themselves to being smart cities? Because if you think about it, that can drive investment into those cities.
Stacey Weismiller (11:58)
Sure.
Here's my general take on the words smart cities together. When I left, when I left Pittsburgh, I actually joined the New York City Economic Development Corporation in 2016. And I was part of our team that was called smart cities. I think today,
Deborah Weinswig (12:06)
Can't wait.
No way!
Stacey Weismiller (12:22)
Yes, so I think today what I look at is I would use the words cognitive cities or emotionally intelligence cities because book smart and then being street smart are very different, correct? I think we can agree on that. So why
Deborah Weinswig (12:39)
Very.
My mother's mother only complete, she was the last of 10 children. She only completed the eighth grade and she was the most street smart person you ever met and did incredible, like, and she worked right, like back when women didn't work at all and was like a real pioneer, but it was her street smarts that got her there,
not her education. And so I will say upfront and personal, very much understand it.
Stacey Weismiller (13:07)
Yeah. And I think that is what, me, as we take a look at manufacturing or the industrial corridors our cities, I would lean into that street smarts conversation because we need to be thinking more about my analogy is manufacturing can be the donut hole, but the donut all the things that make civic life really
having good schools, workforce housing, social services, good roads, walkability, access to food, access to education. So I struggle sometimes when we talk about smart cities and B2G, know, business to government and having all these sensors. When in reality for me, a smart city is one that works.
for our workforce and one that works for their families to create good lives and better lives. And a lot of times that's actually really good industrial policy lends itself. And it's not always around just building a manufacturing site. It's actually about the other things, including those social services that create smart cities.
Deborah Weinswig (14:25)
Isn't it really, I mean, it was amazing. So I spent a lot of time in Hangzhou and like you had this brain, right, in the city. And so, I mean, it'd be amazing, right? Like I'd go to the office in the morning and like one of the roads we took, are four lanes in each direction. And then in the evening there were six lanes in one direction and two in the other. And I'm like, what happened, right? Like what just happened? So like living it and seeing how...
pretty much everything you said, right? This focus on education, even kind of shopping, right? Like how to make things convenient for people and also fun and also, uplifting everybody financially as well, to me, like that to me has been the one of a smart city that I haven't seen as much as I would like. Well, I knew I liked you.
Stacey Weismiller (15:07)
Sure. Yeah.
I agree with you. Right. Yeah.
And I believe that, you know, if we just go back to basics of access and inclusivity, I really think we could actually solve a lot of our problems. ⁓
Deborah Weinswig (15:30)
I do too. was interesting. I was at this women in business event last night for YPO and we had, it was actually, was going because a friend of mine was like, I'm kind of the chair of this event. you come? I'm like, I didn't even read the details. So I show up and there is the DA for Queens judges. don't think I closed my mouth the whole time because it was fascinating to hear kind of like.
how they think about the city, how they think about services, how they, because I will be honest, it's a point of view I've never heard before. And when you start to hear about the emotion with which our kind of government cares about in a really non-political way, I have to say, I've been like on this inspirational, like kind of like, I feel like this magic carpet ride ever since. And I don't wanna like get off because I'm like, it's,
so wonderful to hear from these people. And actually one of them, I just totally identified with her on many And I just went up and I introduced myself afterwards and everything. run a lot of events at Courtside and she had heard of some of what we've done. And she's like, our courthouse needs about a billion dollars of investment. She's like, if you could host your events at our courthouse,
She said, right, like, we're gonna ask for money for security and then maybe just something extra. She's like, we could start physicality. And I was like, done, And that bridge on allowing people to be vulnerable in the city about what they need and how we can help I'd never experienced it before, right? And yes, I did experience it. Like, oh, we need wifi, we need laptops, stuff like that. And, you know, I'll do my best. But coming from the place that she did, it just started to change how I think everything.
Stacey Weismiller (17:06)
Yeah. And more of those conversations need to happen more often. today run an organization called the American Manufacturing Futures Institute. It's a 501C3. We focus on and industrial policy through the lens of three Ps, people, policy and place. And one of my board members spent 25 years in supply chain in the chemical industry.
And she is a leadership coach today and works with a lot of leaders in the supply chain space. And her thesis is around emotional intelligence. truly believes that if we focus on emotional intelligence, how we pipeline our leaders, how we discuss problems, how we actually go through the process of thinking through how to run businesses and work with people, we will get a lot more done. so that is big part of our work.
Deborah Weinswig (17:55)
I can't believe you just said that.
I just had a conversation one of the leaders at Shop Talk with Raquan about the, he and I kind of co-host the startup pitch. And he was talking about how important like emotional loyalty is, which was like an idea I hadn't heard about. And I mean, I just talked to him like an hour ago, so I wrote it down, like, see me all the way, I'm like taking notes. But it's like, you just wonder if people have changed in terms of how they...
Stacey Weismiller (18:11)
Hahaha
Deborah Weinswig (18:17)
ingest information and act on it.
Stacey Weismiller (18:19)
I agree. And I think a big part of this is we're shifting from an ecosystem that is fully quantitative to something that has to be far more qualitative. think we learned that during point in time like COVID, where we talked about things like supply chains, which were no longer just around our, triangle of cost quality time. We then had to build in these qualitative metrics, was resilience. What does that mean?
And for who, right? It means something different for everyone. It's supply chains are like people, right? We are all fickle in nature and we all require different things. We're all unique. We're all snowflakes in many ways. And so I think that's where the emotional intelligence is coming in because we have to think about things in a far different way. Like it's truly not a KPI anymore.
Deborah Weinswig (19:10)
I had been Hong Kong employee. My family stayed in the US. For about six years, I commuted to Hong Kong, which sounds crazy, but at the time it didn't, right? Like when everybody else is doing it, like doesn't, and also too, right? Like I'm terrible. I'm not good with downtime. Like I am not a beach vacation person. yeah, we're like meant to be.
Stacey Weismiller (19:21)
Yeah.
story of my life.
Deborah Weinswig (19:33)
So I, right, December 29th of 2019, I pack up a bunch of stuff. come back to the US assuming, I didn't know what exactly, but that I was gonna be here for a start to kind of look at things in a different way, right? When you're starting to kind of connect all of those dots. And you know, I don't sleep that much and...
I also, I grew up in a very philanthropic household. So once the pandemic was like in full steam, unique skills do I have and how can I give And I was can get stuff, right? Like can get like level two, a lot of my friends are doctors. I'm like, I can get level two gowns. I can get this, can get I also don't want to play God in any way, shape or form. I'm like, I'm a pleaser. I don't want to like upset anyone. worked this whole thing we created which was like the empowered cities.
Stacey Weismiller (20:07)
Mm-hmm.
sure.
Deborah Weinswig (20:22)
Right, so I'd on the phone like weekly or more with the seven mayors, hearing the challenges they're facing and trying to get And then, right, like leaning into, different folks who had planes who could help us. And then, working with like having stuff come into New York and how do we get it? And starting to think about these ecosystems I will say, I really learned for the first time about.
emotional intelligence there because those who were at the greatest were those who were, just say, either the elderly or people who were disabled, right? Because they could not, like they relied on people in many cases to come into their homes, bring them and those people might not have PPE.
Stacey Weismiller (20:57)
Absolutely. Right.
Deborah Weinswig (21:07)
And I was like, in a million years, I would not have connected those dots. It would not have been something I would have thought about. And so one of the areas that we really leaned into, because also when you look at the amount of Americans who in the census, check the box as disabled plus all those who don't, it's like 40 % of the population. It is a shocking number of people. And it can be you you have a permanent limp. can be, but you are by definition, right?
less able-bodied and I kept on trying to think of a, because I don't like the dis in front of anything is not good. So always try to find other ways to say it, although I'm not sure if everybody always liked that, but I, because everyone wants to check a box, but I will tell you, you about things that I are actually seem simple on paper, but I had to go through that to kind of really understand And sometimes I think you do a very good job.
Stacey Weismiller (21:42)
Of course.
Deborah Weinswig (21:55)
breaking down these very complex ecosystems and helping people root of it, which is very to do.
Stacey Weismiller (22:02)
Well, and it's easy to just associate a supply chain to, ⁓ it's the movement of goods. Let me get on Amazon or my local e-commerce dealer on my phone, my app, and have something delivered to my home. It's much more difficult and quite frankly stresses our brains to think about all the things that go on to get that one particular thing to your doorstep, right? don't talk about that often. And I think
really pulled the curtain back on what a supply chain really is, will say one of the things that really opened my eyes early was I did my graduate degree the City College of New York in urban design. And one of my projects was really around food systems, right? And it was around, and I learned these things very quickly, which was that like 98 %
Deborah Weinswig (22:48)
No! ⁓
You don't wanna know.
Stacey Weismiller (22:54)
No, 98 % of our fruit supply in New York City comes on truck over one bridge. you start having that and you're like, ⁓ my God. Like, so every time I buy fruit from my local West Side Market, it's like on the same truck as all the other pieces of fruit that are going to all the other West Side Markets. And if that truck doesn't get delivered to Hunt's Point and there's not a buyer, I'm like,
Deborah Weinswig (23:14)
Well, but you also
start to think about, I could spend like all day on this topic because a lot of thoughts on it, but you're also thinking about, like organic can't really touch inorganic, then it's not organic, but it's all touching each other. It's all like in that same truck and like, you know, the trucks are going over the potholes and oops, right, like this apple is going into the, so I think when you get to kind of the, so how,
Stacey Weismiller (23:27)
⁓ layers, layers and layers.
Deborah Weinswig (23:39)
What made you go to CUNY study that? Because that is, like I said, this is a topic I'm actually fascinated by.
Stacey Weismiller (23:45)
⁓
I have such an interesting story. So I did my undergraduate degree in architecture Penn State. And I will tell you again, I grew up in Erie. I grew up in this kind of hyper-focused, blue collar, post-industrial town. wanted to see cities. I wanted to see things that were working with building. That just blew my mind every time I would go to a city. I was that kid that like,
We would go to a baseball game in Cleveland and I would like watch my parents like drive around the turn of the highway, like looking and being like, this is so cool. I just loved that. And I think a lot of it again was that.
Deborah Weinswig (24:24)
same. I've always like, get a certain energy from big cities, And I just feel I don't know what it is. And I just feel much more alive. And for me personally, the city that's done that the most for me has been Shanghai. I remember I'd come back to New York and I live on that countryside and I looked down like Fifth Avenue and I'm like, there's no tall buildings, right? I I remember, I remember, I'm like, this is like eight million people.
Stacey Weismiller (24:25)
Yeah.
Yeah, coming from Shanghai.
Deborah Weinswig (24:50)
But this feels like much like a small town. And it's all about your perspective. And then you look at the number of cities now that have reached 25 million, and you start to think about their ecosystems. I think a lot about sanitation and hygiene and clean water just call it,
Stacey Weismiller (24:55)
Mm-hmm.
Deborah Weinswig (25:14)
I mean, it is climate change ultimately. Like some of the things that are changing some of these cities that they have literally no control over for the most part because of where we are. And that's like where my brain starts to hurt because going back to I'm a pleaser and I am very philanthropic and I'm like, And that's why I think it's so interesting what you do professionally because you figured out a way I think to kind of bring it all together and to like make it.
Stacey Weismiller (25:36)
Yeah.
I, well, I'm still trying to pull it all together, but things like this help to get that narrative out there because I, I, I went to city college, know, a big part of that was my fifth year in architecture school. I actually wrote my thesis. when you're in architecture school, you don't necessarily write a thesis. You do a project, right? So you pick a site, you go in, you pick a topic and you really try to solve a problem. And.
Deborah Weinswig (25:41)
Like, we all are.
Stacey Weismiller (26:00)
I became obsessed with this conversation of work versus labor and craftsmanship as well. ⁓ Mainly because this is kind of part of where I grew up, right? Which was people use their hands and I was intrigued to understand, you know, what does it mean to work a job or you're a laborer and what does it mean to truly have a craft that you feel connected to? And again, goes back to how I grew up, I'm sure.
Deborah Weinswig (26:07)
Bye bye.
Stacey Weismiller (26:27)
you know, if I had someone who was focused me as a psychology major, I'm sure they'd do a full capstone project on who I am and my brain. But was my thesis was why are we not having a conversation about making and the thoughtfulness behind this? So it actually evolved into this project that was more focused on food for a few reasons. Number one, food is this beautiful way to learn.
So I studied this book called The Craftsman by Richard Sennett. He was also an architect and a big part of his, I read it probably 10 times and a big part of his topic was, you know, it takes 10,000 hours, the 10,000 hours roll to be an expert. he talked, yeah, yes. ⁓ And so he spoke a lot about actually Julia Child and how she could filet a fish with her eyes closed.
Deborah Weinswig (26:56)
I'm writing this down.
I wrote that in blink or whatever. One of the Malcolm Gladwell pages.
Stacey Weismiller (27:18)
And so there was this interesting conversation between the art of making a chair, because my site was actually an old chair factory, to actually what it takes to build community and socialize those craft skills with others. And a big part of that was the art of food and the art of community. So for me, I just had this notion in my head of like, what is post-industrial America looking like today? And like, what are we actually doing to like bring out some of the
Deborah Weinswig (27:31)
Hmm.
Stacey Weismiller (27:46)
not necessarily nostalgia, but the beautiful things that built our country, right? Like if we could take an old factory that we used to make chairs at and we bring those same kind of ethos into like how we want to apprenticeships into the culinary schools or, you know, like the understandings of how to make things and feel connected to things. That was actually what launched me to go to City College. had a professor at Penn State who also went to City College and she at like at one time looked at me and was like, I think this is your path.
And she was just, for the first few years, I was like, I'm not really sure I love architecture. Like I don't love window mullions. Like liked the idea of the macro concept and I loved economic development. I loved what cities and people in the movement did for commerce and for people. you know, get to the fourth and fifth year and you're asking yourself, what do I want to do? And she very, yeah, she guided me and was like, I think you should do this. And I applied, actually got wait-listed and the day I graduated from college, I got in and it was.
Deborah Weinswig (28:34)
I'm not gonna do it if I like.
Stacey Weismiller (28:43)
A magical thing that happened where I got to go to New York City, this place that I wanted to be my teacher. So really this city was my teacher and I got to immerse myself in a place that I felt connected to. I also felt deeply disconnected from because I didn't understand, white collar nature of a city. I was very much so like, do people work? I don't understand this. And it was hard for me, but it was such an education that I will, you know,
I lived in a shoe box. would never go back. I would never, change my, you know, being so broke in the city, trying to make it. It was the best year of learning of my, of my whole life.
Deborah Weinswig (29:22)
It's funny to say that I was just talking to somebody yesterday. I was in DC and I was saying, when I graduated business school, which I was very blessed in Chicago to get a But it didn't cover housing and all that. so it took me about three years to pay down my... Because I don't like to be in debt. It's just my thing. And so I had...
Stacey Weismiller (29:45)
Get that too. I understand.
Deborah Weinswig (29:48)
So I'm like, can't believe I'm gonna share this, but anyways, I had two suits. I had a blue suit, skirt suit, and a black skirt suit. I had a pair of blue heels and a pair of black heels. And I had a few shirts and scarves, and for three years, mind you, I took great care of everything because that's all I had. And it's amazing when you kind of go through that. First of all, I wasn't like thinking my time shopping or I didn't have a lot of...
like things in my closet, I was like, oh, I'm gonna wear this or that, right? It was like blue or black. And...
Stacey Weismiller (30:19)
Yeah, you're like, my closet is this big, so
it holds three things.
Deborah Weinswig (30:24)
But I'll tell you, you start to kind of like focus in a very different way and you start to think about your environment and your surroundings in a very different way. And so I think that you're kind of how you got here and like kind of the, I think that the architecture road into CUNY, that's a fascinating part of your story.
Stacey Weismiller (30:35)
You do.
Yeah, and you know, for a few years, I struggled immensely to tell this story. Because when I graduated, still in a recession and my good blue collar parents were like, okay, time to come home. And I got a job at GE, which is how I launched my supply chain career to get into manufacturing. And I'll never forget, my dad was like, yeah, you have an interview and it was for a contractor job. And I was like, I can't wait to blow this job because I'm going back to New York. And that was not case. But
Deborah Weinswig (31:12)
Mm-hmm.
Stacey Weismiller (31:14)
It was truly one of the, it was both the most exciting and the hardest moments of my life to reckon with a lot of that. then I also just told myself, coming back. Like this is my place. And I spent five years trying to figure out how to get back until I finally, finally landed an interview at the NYCEDC. And I remember telling somebody there when I was interviewing, I was like, if you don't.
Deborah Weinswig (31:28)
Thank
Stacey Weismiller (31:41)
hire me for this job. I'm going to apply for every job you ever post until you hire me. ⁓
Deborah Weinswig (31:47)
⁓
How did you end up, because I saw that you were at the World Economic kind of one of made it. how did you end up there? Why did you want to be there? And on both sides, what do you think you learned and what do they think they gained from you?
Stacey Weismiller (32:01)
Yeah, so of 2022, the World Economic Forum had launched their center for the fourth industrial revolution. They have, think, 20 of them globally. And the one that they were building in the US was the US Center for Advanced Manufacturing. So I had a friend that was there, formerly was at EDC with me. We reached out, had a
know, a few words I put in my resume, because it was a lead for advanced manufacturing. And I'm thinking, okay, this is economic development at its finest, right. And it's focused on advanced manufacturing, they only have 10 pillars of what they focus on and advanced manufacturing was one of them. So for me, it was like, of course, right? like having the World Health Organization for advanced manufacturing. So I'm like, I need, I need to try this out. so they called me
I interviewed and I at the time wasn't really looking for a job. I was pretty happy with what I was doing. don't say no. We'll just say that. You don't say no. When the World Economic Forum calls you, you don't say no. And so I was there. I was one of two employees in the US. rest of our team is in Geneva. And my job was really to work on how to build better relationships across the US advanced manufacturing portfolio.
Because as we know, a lot of the manufacturing ecosystem here is still very scattered. It's still
Deborah Weinswig (33:18)
I think that the role played and probably continue to is I find also too people even in the same city sometimes don't know how to find each other.
Stacey Weismiller (33:27)
Oh, no, no, when we think about how we run in a global network of people in advanced manufacturing. Yet we people who work in the same industry, sometimes even the same company, who don't know that that other person is working alongside them. I think that comes from decades of this disinvestment where
a lot of times it's just put your head down and do what you're told to do versus building community. I'm a huge fan of building community and I think that's where like the manufacturing ecosystem needs to double down on trying to build community both inside and outside of their organization. So I absolutely saw that and the ones who do it and do it well absolutely the ones who you know are already
Deborah Weinswig (33:50)
Hmm.
Stacey Weismiller (34:14)
like ahead of the curve, like a Schneider Electric, that they're doing that really well. Some of the kind of mid tier startups that I've been working with in I four O space, like ones that are doing it well, you can see them rise to the top and the ones who are not struggling.
Deborah Weinswig (34:27)
Yeah, they're not. I mean, it's interesting. So at NRF this year, right, the big National Retail Federation big show in January, hosted our own event on Saturday, which we usually host something on Tuesday, but the event ended earlier and I'm like, people are going And so we did it Saturday, which was great because everyone I wanted to see a lot of the topics I want to talk about, I got to do that Saturday. so then when I showed up Sunday morning at like 8 a.m.
Stacey Weismiller (34:41)
Right.
Deborah Weinswig (34:51)
I was present in a different way. And so we really leaned in the same time with our clients, like our existing clients. And then there were a few people I had promised I would pop by. But because of that, first of all, going back to I was much more present. And what I saw, right, and I don't know if we hadn't done our event on Saturday, if I would is that a lot of our clients were starting to create these ecosystems, these platforms. like their whole booth other And they even to the point they put their logos,
Stacey Weismiller (34:54)
Mmm.
Mm.
Deborah Weinswig (35:19)
T-Mobile, the same thing. And then it was funny, we had a meeting with Intel and they've been like a cornerstone of our AI council since day one, which thank you. But they're like, ⁓ we had this meeting. And so I'm like literally running and I kid you not, right? I often wear running shoes at these things. I'm running trying to find them. And then get to, and they're like, no, no, they're up in this. And I'm like, my gosh. So they, they actually, were meeting one of the companies that was leveraging their technology, which was so much more interesting. And when you start to think about how they were all elevating
everyone else, think that was different because we talked to other tech companies who already engaging us for NRF 27. And I said, right, like if you are a plat, like anything you're doing for anyone else, first of all, right, like you're, you you, may be able to kind of like extract from rent, some rent from others to like be in your booths. That's, that's the economic piece of it. But B, you're going to change how people
think about you. And so I think this ecosystem idea, feel like we're still in the earlier state. Yeah, we're dating. But it's an and how so did the advanced manufacturing system ⁓ center come out of WEF? How did that?
Stacey Weismiller (36:16)
We're dating, we're in dating. We're dating. I agree.
Yes, there's a partnership
with the World Economic Forum and the state of Michigan. ⁓ And again, the World Economic Forum has, I think, 20 of those centers across the globe. I think for the World Economic Forum to double down a center in the US and specifically on advanced manufacturing says a lot about what they saw from an economic roadmap ⁓ in the US and rightfully so,
Deborah Weinswig (36:34)
⁓ that's cool.
Stacey Weismiller (36:53)
Rightfully so, 2022 was a defining moment of thinking out of COVID, coming into things like Chips Act, the IRA, investment of course, then choosing a place like Detroit, has been the backbone of manufacturing in the US for centuries at this point.
Deborah Weinswig (37:12)
We hosted, actually it was fascinating, in 2017, we were closely with Alibaba, it was called this gateway event. I got to spend time with the mayor, I was in Detroit just enough time to really start to understand the city, the opportunity, and I remember every time I talked to him, I'm like, I'd go to Detroit and build. And I don't know,
If what I've seen since, let's just put this way, is that a lot of those companies I talked to about they've since gone to build in and they've seen huge success in Pittsburgh. And so that's been interesting, but I think it goes back to, I wonder if it goes back to, right? Like the density university students and corporate.
I don't know if it's like the public to private, which was very big in like kind of like how we think about things in China, right? Like that academic to like kind of corporate. Yeah. And that, so I want to make sure, cause we're like, I can't believe how much like I've loved this conversation, but I want to make sure that we talk about kind of like what you're doing today with the American manufacturing futures Institute. And how can those of us on this call, how can we support
Stacey Weismiller (38:06)
Right. That pipeline.
Well, first, thank you. I appreciate, first off, conversations like this. think a big part of the AMFI roadmap is to change the narrative things like advanced manufacturing. One of my goals is to have a Super Bowl ad. Why are we not talking about manufacturing? Why are we not talking about manufacturing as a pipeline, a talent tool, but also economic development tool, right? ⁓
Deborah Weinswig (38:48)
So for 2027, got to get it.
I like it, but yeah, is like what we've got to do, right?
Stacey Weismiller (38:54)
I mean, for me, I think we have four core goals, right? goal is to really change the narrative. And many people are trying. I think it comes back to that herd mentality that we have to build a really good ecosystem. And I want us to really be leading the charge because it's not just about and up-skilling. It's like a whole package, right? It's a whole package of talking about people, policy and place. We need a narrative around all of that. We need a narrative that this is not.
conversation about tariffs. This is a conversation about who we are what we want for our future. Manufacturing can play a role there, don't need to have a conversation only about making sure our kids go and work in financial services. We can also figure out how manufacturing plays a role in our civic society. leads kind of into our second goal, which is to be, we want to be stewards.
So what does that mean? are, not, I'm not interested in the flag waving of like, what's cool today. What's not cool tomorrow. It's like, is a long-term strategy here that we can be thinking about that we are stewards to our people, our cities, these institutions, because if we do this where every four years we have a different stance, it's not going to work. I want us to be civic minded long haul stewards to understanding what this means. and really the,
part is the emotional intelligence part. So how are we truly engaging our future leaders, and bringing emotional intelligence into the game? My personal perspective is there's plenty of people out there in the world who are building technology, who understand how to implement technology. We need to be the organization who understands how we do that with people first and in emotional intelligence at the forefront of that conversation.
I am never going to tell you I'm building the best AI tool, but what I'd like to make sure I tell you is that I am very clear on how people play a role in that kind of technology advancement. It's huge, right? mean, someone has to do it.
Deborah Weinswig (40:48)
I
was about to say, not many people are talking about And what I find even almost more concerning is that companies will talk about ROI and cost savings. when they're not mentioning people, of course, it's oftentimes through headcount reduction. so I'm like, if that's what's happening, it's good to understand what rules. then, how do
Stacey Weismiller (41:11)
Sure.
Deborah Weinswig (41:14)
it was interesting. I spent a lot of time down in Bentonville, Arkansas, and Fayetteville and all that. And so I did something in Rogers, Arkansas, with kind of like the local government around, let's call it like upskilling. So like, as some people had found themselves unemployed, what was it that they could do so that they could be relevant in the workforce again? And I think that having that conversation and also
I understand, right, at the end of the day, right, these are publicly traded companies and they have to put their shareholders But I do think that their shareholders would appreciate if there was, know, if you're, if you have made a decision to kind of part ways with somebody you don't think they're going to be useful in the future, maybe you can kind of at least help them upscale to something else or can like repurpose them and train, right, like, and have your own or even going back to like, I think your idea of an ecosystem I What if like some of these companies pool resources?
Stacey Weismiller (42:04)
Absolutely.
Deborah Weinswig (42:11)
And they can all kind of like work together to upskill the workforce. So I think you bring up a topic that's not often discussed because it's difficult.
Stacey Weismiller (42:21)
It's difficult and we don't always have appropriate numbers to put up behind that, right? It's much easier to say cash on hand at the end of the quarter is X or, you know, efficiency improvements where, you know, this percentage, it's a very difficult conversation to say, I was actually able to place a person in a job that they care about because that is that qualitative conversation that I was having earlier. Now, a big part of what I would like AMFI to play a role in is how do we redefine those KPIs? Because
Yes, we do have publicly traded companies, but at the same time, I have a 401k. investor in many of those companies and I would love to see those kinds of returns come
Deborah Weinswig (42:57)
a very cool problem to solve because I think that, I was an analyst at Citi, we would publish this report every year in January and coordination around like CES.
So I was leading the global consumer team. worked very closely with the global tech team and I covered some of the tech companies. we would rank all of the retailers on like kind of five different, if you will, And so it was amazing when you rank something. People would be on earnings calls and they were talking about, like, that's City Report. So as a result, we're doing this. But it would be fascinating if they're... So I think that this ties in as another topic right now.
And we've definitely got to double click on is how do you measure the ROI from AI? Because there's a huge amount of spending and a lot of companies are having trouble.
Stacey Weismiller (43:44)
And job creation,
which is a different conversation we need to have because it's going to change. Those metrics are going to change.
Deborah Weinswig (43:51)
And I think that if you can, so right, so now we have ROI, job creation, or what are we doing in terms upscaling, whatever you want to call it. I'm sure there's a better way to put that, but kind of taking our employees who've been like displaced and like repotting Because to me, the human side of all of us should want to give a higher valuation to a company that does that. I like that.
Stacey Weismiller (44:14)
Absolutely.
Deborah Weinswig (44:17)
⁓ I'm now, I'm gonna be like thinking, thank you, I'm gonna be thinking about, I'm not gonna be able to sleep tonight, I'm gonna be thinking about this, like, but I will. so as you need kind of like help from our community, do you need donations? Do you need time? Do you need awareness?
Stacey Weismiller (44:19)
I'm going to be pushing on that as long as I'm here. Great. Well, send me a text. We can chat.
Yeah,
great question. So in 2026, we are just looking to raise a modest $300,000 to really just get ourselves off the ground. I have an amazing board so far. have four board members who I trust who are an amazing group of people who have supported me. The other thing I can say to this community is ⁓ my board member, Paula Bo, former chief manufacturing officer for the state of Connecticut, of applied technology at the University of New Haven.
We've just kicked off a newsletter. We're going to be launching a podcast. We can absolutely have you on. can be our first guest. Amazing. Good. So subscribe to that. I'm happy to send the link to everybody. ⁓ Great. You know, so I would say we're really looking to get off the ground and be able to build capacity so that we can those partnerships that we really want. I believe that we are a vehicle. There are a lot of organizations doing this across the world.
Deborah Weinswig (45:06)
Nice. I'm there. I'm there. Count me in.
Please, we'll put in the link for this too.
Stacey Weismiller (45:29)
I am not looking to duplicate anything. I'm looking to be a vehicle for change. So if you already have an organization that is pushing something in those areas of focus, as I mentioned, me know because I want to be a vehicle. And I do believe we are better together. I've tried to make a commitment that doing projects is not going to be in our, ⁓ you know, a day to day. I believe that we as an organization need to be partnering on everything. I do believe that, you know, there's a lot of opportunity for people to.
I would say just, you know, get on the train because we're at the station and there are seats for everybody.
Deborah Weinswig (46:04)
Stacey, will tell you, I run CoreSight the exact same And it is fundamental to our and it's very interesting. I would say we are in the minority just from what I've we'll have companies who look at us as a competitor. I'm like, we don't want to compete. We want to augment, to enhance. Let's figure out how we can work together. Yes. Cool.
Stacey Weismiller (46:18)
course.
Competing is exhausting. We did that as kids playing soccer. We don't need to do that any longer in our adult lives.
Deborah Weinswig (46:33)
I'm all about, I take the, I'm gonna assume that you're also like an extreme extrovert, like myself, like I get major energy from being with other people in like friendly fire, right? Like not like, you know, don't cross this line kind of thing. And so I really do believe that like you and I see the same future and because I've spent so much time in supply chain and understand some of the, I think ultimately, and this is where I think you do have.
Stacey Weismiller (46:41)
Yes.
Deborah Weinswig (47:03)
a big job ahead of you is I think that the awareness piece challenge and I don't want to let down play so everyone you should donate a lot because it has a huge opportunity to really do a lot of good. Yeah.
Stacey Weismiller (47:09)
Absolutely.
And ask hard questions, right?
I did a podcast with Tool at Ventures, Natan, the CEO, and he ended and he said, Stacey, just keep asking the hard questions that other people don't want to ask. And I think that is a key element here is like, we do not need to have cute conferences where we're sitting at the table talking about ideas. Like, let's ask hard questions and do things that are super relevant today. They're important, right?
Deborah Weinswig (47:28)
Yeah. Well.
because it's ⁓ relevant to this conversation and like relevant in so many ways, ⁓ I urge you to look at my LinkedIn post with Sarah Clark from American Eagle because first of all, she's our chief supply chain officer and she's amazing. But in there I'm like, what is it that makes you smile? And I'm like, I smile when I see her, cause I know she's gonna ask this impossible question that I don't know how to answer, but she's gonna make me better.
Stacey Weismiller (47:50)
Yes, I did see it.
Deborah Weinswig (48:10)
I will say, I think the two of you would be fast friends and care about a lot of the same things. And when you can surround yourself with those kind of people, I think we can do, we can be like, I've always believed that we can be like superhuman and in our existing bodies, but it's a matter of finding people who are not necessarily like-minded, but because we're all gonna have different ways that we see things, but.
Stacey Weismiller (48:31)
Yes, I love that.
Deborah Weinswig (48:36)
If we're interested in solving hard problems, is what my brother and I both like, give me the most difficult thing to do. And I love to, because for some reason I get energy from that. And I feel like you do too. Or you wouldn't be doing what you're doing. Because it's hard.
Stacey Weismiller (48:49)
Absolutely. Oh, no, no, I would not
be on this journey by any stretch of the imagination. yes.
Deborah Weinswig (48:55)
Well, I can't
wait to see more of you and have you at our events, because I do think you need to talk about this. And you need to put people on the spot, right? Like, I think you've got to also, I'm giving you full permission at our events to ask the hard questions, because I think when people become uncomfortable, they start to think differently. that's, think, unfortunately, I think that, because I think, like me, you're a pleaser, I think that that's the role you need to play.
Stacey Weismiller (49:03)
Yeah.
Deborah Weinswig (49:20)
It's not an easy journey, but I'll tell you myself, and I'm sure Sarah will be, and there'll be many others in our ecosystem that'll be right behind you to help you. And whatever you need, please ask it of the Corsi community. Please ask me personally, because I'm here to support you.
Stacey Weismiller (49:36)
I appreciate it so much. honestly, just thanks for having me. It's always great to meet new people who care about the same things in this world. So.
Deborah Weinswig (49:43)
Love this. Every minute of it. Thank you so much for joining us.
Stacey Weismiller (49:47)
Thank you.
Philip Moore (49:47)
Thanks Deborah, and thank you for joining us this week. Coresight Research serves our members with leadership communities, strategy consulting, technology assessment, data resources, seminars, conferences, proprietary research, and more. Visit us at coresight.com to learn about all the ways we can support your success. Have a wonderful week.