Huh... I thought they were...

Guess what Sparky, you're not the only one trying to come up with a revolutionary new business strategy. As we like to say "Somewhere out there, there is a bullet with your organization's name on it." Far more eloquantly Gary Hamel says:

Amen.

I have often been told that back in the day..(my parents' day) the title "Made in Japan" denoted trinkets and 'poor quality' products. Today, after decades of relentless continuous improvement..er.. Kaizen.. Made in Japan is a benchmark to strive towards.

On a more 'local' level (my apologies to our global clients) I remember as a child going to my local Kmart, or Canadian Tire to shop for sporting equipment. Of all the brands that stick out in my mind, there was NORCO bikes. For my whole life, NORCO bikes were garbage, bottom of the line bikes, and biking accessories. All of a sudden, switch to a couple of years ago, NORCO brass has decided that enough is enough. Decades of experience has allowed NORCO to become master bike builders, and has developed rock solid vendor agreements. Literally overnight, they went from the laughing stock of the industry to THE bike to ride.

Imagine if one of your competitors had a change of heart like NORCO. Some low-level, generic manufacturer decided to say 'to heck with it we're darn good at what we do, and we're going to be the best!'

Whoops.. probably not on your radar. I'm willing to bet that Amazon, Starbucks, Samsung, and Nissan were on nobody's radar...

Hint of the day: GET BETTER RADAR!