Do you react quickly to the changing marketplace or are you unable to move?
Stories about making it happen
Lee Iacocca, the rising young father of the Ford Mustang and the new president of Ford Motor Company, was faced with a severe challenge.
“After the oil embargo of 1973, sales of Ford cars plummeted by a staggering half a million units. Iacocca and his top product planner, Hal Sperlick, saw small cars as the wave of the future and scoured the company for a way to create one quickly and inexpensively. Their idea, code for this car, code named “Wolf” would use an enlarged version of Ford’s European Fiesta as its base and outfit it with a Honda engine.”
Honda, at that time, was only producing motorcycles, However, they had also developed this efficient vehicle engine. They were moving rapidly into the planning stages of producing small Honda cars for the world market. Iaccoca met with Honda executives in Japan, proposed this idea and made the deal. Honda engines would be produced to be fitted into the Wolf and perhaps later, other Ford cars. Everybody was happy. Honda would abandon their plans for full auto production. Ford would benefit from this new engine and move rapidly into the small car business.
Everyone was happy except the Ford family. They not only said no, they said Hell no.
One member of the family was to remark angrily,
"There would never be a foreign engine in a Ford car".
The idea fell flat. Honda embarked on full automobile production and became wildly successful. Lee Iacocca, a legend in the auto business, had stayed open and flexible to all ideas. He watched the horizon and grabbed at the shooting stars.
The Ford family remained stiff, unbending, unable to react to the needs of the market, to adapt their actions to meet the changing times
Here’s one close to the garden store world.
“My name is Matt Willis and I own a small garden store in the suburbs of Milwaukee Wisconsin. I always try to keep my eyes open to the newest products on the market for my gardeners. On the news one morning in 1972, there was the story of George Ballas, from Houston Texas. He had invented this crazy device to mow down weeds with a roll of nylon string. He called it a “Weed Eater”.
It just hit me that this was going to be big. I ran to the phone and called Mr. Ballas and asked him to ship me a pallet of these “Weed Eaters”. Twenty four hours after I got those gadgets, I was sold out. I ordered three pallets and the same thing happened. By the end of the summer, I had sold twenty pallets of those things. Nobody had them except me in the entire state of Wisconsin. All the hardware store guys thought I was stupid and that this “weed eater” idea would never fly.
I rode that horse until it fell. I sold pallet after pallet for the next two seasons until everyone else woke up and starting selling them. Man, I made a killing while they were standing there wringing their hands.”
Wait, Matt turned around and did it again!
“Miracle-Gro Company was making a fortune selling their Miracle-Gro liquid fertilizer. It became a household name for gardeners and we were selling boat loads of the stuff. But, they needed to invent a new special sprayer because the fertilizer was too thick for other sprayers. It worked but it was messy and took time.
Several years ago, they invented the “LiquaFeeder”, using pre-mixed liquid fertilizer instead of their old granular stuff that had to be mixed with water. You just open the bottle and screw in their premixed Miracle-Gro liquid fertilizer into this gun looking device, turn on the attached hose and feed your flowers. There was no mess. It was simple to use. The company launched the thing, spending millions of dollars to get it going. My garden center buddy in the same town refused to sell it. He said that it was dumb idea, it was going to fall flat; that it would never replace their “old fashion” sprayer and granular fertilizer.
I got a sample of the thing before it came out, tried it and I was hooked. I built a big display of these feeders and watched them walk right out the door. Now, when I drive down the street, all I see is these yuppie ladies pointing at their flowers and shooting with the “LiquaFeeder. And you know what; my buddy still refuses to carry it no matter how many of his customers ask for it. He tries to sell the “old fashion” and they head for the exit!
One more story…..
QwikTrip is a large fueling and convenience store chain located in nine of the plains states. It has about 10,000 employees and it is open every day, 24 hours a day
Just before Christmas of 2007, a severe ice storm hit a major city where sixty of their stores were located. Nearly all the power was knocked out and would eventually stay out for seven to ten days. The people of this city just sat in the dark or left their houses to find relatives or friends that had wood burning fireplaces. Stores were closed and dark. Nearly all the gas stations and convenience stores were shuttered unable to do anything but hope their power would come on. Despite the thousands of power linemen from all over the United States that arrived to fix the downed lines, the power stayed off.
Not QwikTrip. They sprung into action. Within 24 hours of the crisis, huge boxcar size diesel powered generators were being dropped into the QwikTrip parking lots. All sixty stores were up and running, fueling the long lines of desperate motorists and filling their shelves with food for the next meal. There is no doubt that QwikTrip made a fortune in those days.
Qwiktrip did not hesitate. They did not wring their hands. They did not sit there hoping it would end. They turned on a dime and made it happen.
Stories about making it happen
Lee Iacocca, the rising young father of the Ford Mustang and the new president of Ford Motor Company, was faced with a severe challenge.
“After the oil embargo of 1973, sales of Ford cars plummeted by a staggering half a million units. Iacocca and his top product planner, Hal Sperlick, saw small cars as the wave of the future and scoured the company for a way to create one quickly and inexpensively. Their idea, code for this car, code named “Wolf” would use an enlarged version of Ford’s European Fiesta as its base and outfit it with a Honda engine.”
Honda, at that time, was only producing motorcycles, However, they had also developed this efficient vehicle engine. They were moving rapidly into the planning stages of producing small Honda cars for the world market. Iaccoca met with Honda executives in Japan, proposed this idea and made the deal. Honda engines would be produced to be fitted into the Wolf and perhaps later, other Ford cars. Everybody was happy. Honda would abandon their plans for full auto production. Ford would benefit from this new engine and move rapidly into the small car business.
Everyone was happy except the Ford family. They not only said no, they said Hell no.
One member of the family was to remark angrily,
"There would never be a foreign engine in a Ford car".
The idea fell flat. Honda embarked on full automobile production and became wildly successful. Lee Iacocca, a legend in the auto business, had stayed open and flexible to all ideas. He watched the horizon and grabbed at the shooting stars.
The Ford family remained stiff, unbending, unable to react to the needs of the market, to adapt their actions to meet the changing times
Here’s one close to the garden store world.
“My name is Matt Willis and I own a small garden store in the suburbs of Milwaukee Wisconsin. I always try to keep my eyes open to the newest products on the market for my gardeners. On the news one morning in 1972, there was the story of George Ballas, from Houston Texas. He had invented this crazy device to mow down weeds with a roll of nylon string. He called it a “Weed Eater”.
It just hit me that this was going to be big. I ran to the phone and called Mr. Ballas and asked him to ship me a pallet of these “Weed Eaters”. Twenty four hours after I got those gadgets, I was sold out. I ordered three pallets and the same thing happened. By the end of the summer, I had sold twenty pallets of those things. Nobody had them except me in the entire state of Wisconsin. All the hardware store guys thought I was stupid and that this “weed eater” idea would never fly.
I rode that horse until it fell. I sold pallet after pallet for the next two seasons until everyone else woke up and starting selling them. Man, I made a killing while they were standing there wringing their hands.”
Wait, Matt turned around and did it again!
“Miracle-Gro Company was making a fortune selling their Miracle-Gro liquid fertilizer. It became a household name for gardeners and we were selling boat loads of the stuff. But, they needed to invent a new special sprayer because the fertilizer was too thick for other sprayers. It worked but it was messy and took time.
Several years ago, they invented the “LiquaFeeder”, using pre-mixed liquid fertilizer instead of their old granular stuff that had to be mixed with water. You just open the bottle and screw in their premixed Miracle-Gro liquid fertilizer into this gun looking device, turn on the attached hose and feed your flowers. There was no mess. It was simple to use. The company launched the thing, spending millions of dollars to get it going. My garden center buddy in the same town refused to sell it. He said that it was dumb idea, it was going to fall flat; that it would never replace their “old fashion” sprayer and granular fertilizer.
I got a sample of the thing before it came out, tried it and I was hooked. I built a big display of these feeders and watched them walk right out the door. Now, when I drive down the street, all I see is these yuppie ladies pointing at their flowers and shooting with the “LiquaFeeder. And you know what; my buddy still refuses to carry it no matter how many of his customers ask for it. He tries to sell the “old fashion” and they head for the exit!
One more story…..
QwikTrip is a large fueling and convenience store chain located in nine of the plains states. It has about 10,000 employees and it is open every day, 24 hours a day
Just before Christmas of 2007, a severe ice storm hit a major city where sixty of their stores were located. Nearly all the power was knocked out and would eventually stay out for seven to ten days. The people of this city just sat in the dark or left their houses to find relatives or friends that had wood burning fireplaces. Stores were closed and dark. Nearly all the gas stations and convenience stores were shuttered unable to do anything but hope their power would come on. Despite the thousands of power linemen from all over the United States that arrived to fix the downed lines, the power stayed off.
Not QwikTrip. They sprung into action. Within 24 hours of the crisis, huge boxcar size diesel powered generators were being dropped into the QwikTrip parking lots. All sixty stores were up and running, fueling the long lines of desperate motorists and filling their shelves with food for the next meal. There is no doubt that QwikTrip made a fortune in those days.
Qwiktrip did not hesitate. They did not wring their hands. They did not sit there hoping it would end. They turned on a dime and made it happen.
No comments:
Post a Comment