What Happens When Companies Move Operations Back to the U.S. (And Why Most Get It Wrong)
I’ve had three separate conversations recently with companies moving operations into the U.S.
Different industries. Different sizes.
Same pattern.
On paper, the strategy makes sense:
- Reduce risk
- Get closer to customers
- Improve control
But once execution starts, things get messy quickly.
The Assumption That Causes Problems
Most companies go into this thinking:
- “We’ll just replicate what we’re doing overseas”
- “We’ll figure it out as we go”
- “We can manage this remotely for a while”
That works… until it doesn’t.
Because operating in the U.S. is fundamentally different.
Where Things Start to Break
Across the conversations I’ve had, the issues show up in similar ways:
- No U.S.-based supply chain or operations leadership
- Underestimating labor structure, cost, and compliance
- No established domestic supplier network
- Trying to manage U.S. operations from overseas leadership
- Constant fire drills instead of structured execution
At first, these look like normal growing pains.
But they don’t stay small for long.
The Hiring Mistake I See Most Often
When companies do decide to hire, they usually go too junior.
They bring in someone who can:
- Run a site
- Manage a team
- Execute day-to-day operations
But that’s not the problem they need solved.
What they actually need is someone who can:
- Build the operation
- Design the network
- Establish processes from scratch
- Make decisions without a playbook
There’s a big difference between running something… and building it.
When Companies Get It Right
The companies that navigate this well tend to do a few things differently:
- They hire leadership early — not after things start breaking
- They define what success looks like in the first 6–12 months
- They treat the U.S. operation as a strategic build, not an extension
- They bring in someone who has done it before
That last point matters more than anything.
What I Look For in These Hires
When I’m evaluating candidates for this type of situation, I’m looking for:
- Experience building or standing up operations
- Ability to operate without structure early on
- Supplier and network development experience
- Comfort making decisions with incomplete information
- A track record of scaling, not just maintaining
This isn’t a plug-and-play role.
Final Thought
Most of these expansions don’t fail because the strategy is wrong.
They struggle because the leadership layer isn’t in place to execute it.
And by the time that gap becomes obvious, the cost of getting it wrong is already showing up in the business.
If you’re building or expanding operations in the U.S. and starting to feel these issues, it’s usually not a systems problem—it’s a leadership gap.
That’s typically the point where companies bring in someone who has actually built and scaled operations here before.
Anthony Allen
www.scmhire.com
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