Have you adjusted your sourcing or manufacturing strategy due to recent geopolitical developments? Are you reshoring or nearshoring to mitigate international risks? How are tariffs, sanctions, or trade restrictions affecting your operations or customer relationships?

How are you preparing for ransomware or operational disruptions? Is your leadership team involved in cyber readiness or incident response planning? Are you seeing insurance, legal, or customer requirements evolve around cyber resilience?

Many member companies modified or significantly changed their compensation and benefit structures during the pandemic. Have those changes remained a part of your company's current policies? What benefits, new, non-traditional or long-standing, have been most effective in recruitment? What about successful retention efforts? Are there specific actions or policies you've enacted to attract, retain and develop the next generation of manufacturing talent? How do you incentivize your production workers and align them with overall business objectives? How do you honor and reward tenured employees outside of just compensation? What types of ongoing training do you utilize for various departments to ensure employees are continuing to grow and learn; for example, integrating AI and/or automation within your teams? Have you already chosen the name of the robot who will be replacing you?

With AI adoption accelerating, governments are rolling out regulations (e.g., EU AI Act, U.S. NIST framework), and companies are facing ethical dilemmas about AI use. AI governance is important for risk, compliance, and trust, even in small companies. Do you have an internal AI usage policy or governance structure? Have you made one person or a specific committee accountable to AI practices? Do you use any digital tools to track compliance with your AI practices? Have you had concerns around data privacy, misinformation, or bias with AI tools? How do you encourage AI innovation while managing risk and compliance? As AI LLM’s change or new models release, do you update your procedures and how do you track those?

How are rising ESG expectations from investors, customers, and regulators shaping your strategic priorities? What progress has your organization made in tracking and reporting sustainability metrics, including carbon emissions? What are the key barriers—organizational, operational, or cultural—to advancing ESG initiatives? Which ESG reporting frameworks (e.g., GRI, SASB, IFRS, TCFD, Ceres) do you align with, and how are they influencing decision-making? What role do digital tools and data analytics play in your ESG compliance and performance monitoring? Is resource efficiency—such as waste, scrap, or energy reduction—embedded in your operations or treated as a periodic initiative? How do you incorporate stakeholder feedback, particularly from local communities, into your sustainability strategy? Are circular economy practices, such as equipment buyback or repurposing, part of your long-term planning?