Amid widespread business concerns and confusion over tariffs and what costs companies can expect to pay, experts at Sensors Converge 2025 on Thursday offered some basic advice.
Primarily they advised: Plan for contingencies. And bring in the whole team. Roesmary Coates, founder and executive director of the Reshoring Institute, said the whole team perspective is essential.
“The number one thing is to get together a cross-functional team to talk about the tariffs. It isn’t just your trade compliance people, but you need purchasing in the mix to tell you how much more expensive parts are going to cost. You also need sales in the mix to tell you whether or not your clients are going to accept a higher price. You need finance to understand the impact to the business. You need a lot of different skills and ideas because the environment’s uncertain.”
She also said to plan for what happens at the end of the current Trump administration in three years. “Where are you going to manufacture? Have multiple plans.”
She commented during a Thursday panel discussion with three other experts on the topic: “Tariffs, trade wars and the CHIPS Act: Confronting uncertainty in U.S. electronics policy.”
Andy Do, CEO of Embedded Works, an electronics distributor, said companies need to be prepared to pivot, perhaps finding other suppliers for needed widgets. He also urged companies to work with their customers, even to suggest splitting the added cost of tariffs with a vendor. “They want the business as much as we want the business,” he said.
Jimmy Ting, president of Great World Customs Service, even urged asking customs officials for ways to legally avoid or limit the tariffs because they will be in place long term. “Tariffs are here to stay,” he said. “Be prepared for that.” Even if certain classes of tariffs are eventually struck down in the courts, he said President Trump is bound to find alternatives as he continues to push companies to manufacture domestically to avoid tariffs.
Both short and long-term planning are needed, urged Sanjay Kumar, vice president of semiconductor and electronics for Kearney. He even suggested companies look ahead 10 to 15 years to understand the geopolitics in a given region of the world where suppliers could be located. Also, he said companies need to be prepared for more drastic actions for redesigning products when necessary components or chips are not available. Workarounds during the Covid era meant some carmakers disabled some accessories in cars to preserve the supporting chips for other purposes, for example.
Coates said the realities of higher tariffs are beginning to sink in, even if some rates could eventually be lowered.
On a personal level, she said he only just fully realized the impact when recently buying a new Audi vehicle in a certain color scheme going for $46,000 . The car dealer said he didn’t have it in stock but would look, and noticed online that the exact model she wanted was being held in bonded storage at the Port of Oakland for $58,000—higher because of tariffs.
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