Photographer: Corey Olsen for Bloomberg Businessweek

9to5 Seating’s Made In America brand chair factory in Tennessee.

Darius Mir, chief executive officer, 9to5 Seating, which opened a factory in Union City, Tenn.
“We started in 1983, importing ergonomic office seating from Italy. By the mid-’90s we had a vertically integrated business based in Long Beach, Calif., where we manufactured chairs and sold to large retailers. In 2001 we lost a major part of our business to Chinese manufacturers. We decided if we can’t beat them, we’ll join them. Our factory in China did most of the heavier manufacturing, and California did assembly and distribution. Even during the recession, our business grew. Four years ago we decided to see what it would take to bring manufacturing back. We visited many locations to determine where we could reach more than 80 percent of our potential market within two days. We learned that the cost of labor can be insignificant if productivity goes up substantially. In one operation, we use high-tech equipment and four people to produce a higher-quality product than it would take about 12 people at our facility in China. To make a particular solid wire frame takes about 90 operations in China. We have equipment in Tennessee that can produce it in 48 seconds to perfection. Now we export quality components to the China factory to turn into chairs to sell in the Chinese domestic market as well as internationally. We just exported our first components from Union City to China, which they used for an order from Saudi Arabia. We are a team of 50 to 60 people, and we pay a higher-than-average wage. By the end of next year we should be well over 200. It all depends on how much business we can capture from mass merchandisers.” —As told to Karen Weise 

Photographer: Corey Olsen for Bloomberg Businessweek

Globalfoundries’ chipmaking facility in upstate New York.

Thomas Caulfield, general manager of a semiconductor wafer manufacturing facility in Malta, N.Y., operated by Globalfoundries, which is owned by Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund
“I’m very bullish. Only four companies in the world can make chips like this. If you can’t do what we do up here in Malta, then you don’t have a chance to do any kind of manufacturing in this country. The kinds of jobs we were losing were manual jobs, low wages. You have to do something that’s differentiated, that’s high-tech—not just ‘Screw this nut onto this bolt.’ Ten or 12 years ago the state of New York decided invegstments in advanced R&D were key. They created a center for nanotech engineering in Albany. Other companies invested. A whole ecosystem was created. It made upstate New York not as rural as it sounds. The state was losing a lot of great students to other states, because the opportunity wasn’t here. Now our facility has 3,000 people with an average salary of $92,000. The diversity of the workforce is my strategic weapon. We have some inexperienced people and some highly experienced. I have industrial diversity, people from all the major players. Lastly, cultural—we have team members in Malta from over 50 countries. Our investors have long-range sights. They’re not on the quarterly treadmill. I vote for the best candidate. It’s a private matter. But I think government can play such an important role in creating economic activity. It’s not about moving jobs from state to state. The competition is global. We think we’re a model for how to move the economy forward.” —As told to Peter Coy