It’s 2002 and I think the five biggest snowboard companies, in alphabetical order, are Burton, Gen X, K2, Rossignol, and Salomon. Gen X is owned by Huffy and Salomon is part of Adidas, so maybe I should change the alphabetical listing. But the point, and I hope this helps me think of a subtitle, is that through normal industry evolution we’ve arrived at a place where the companies that have the More…
Archive for 2002
Wherever You Go, There You’ll Be. I Can’t Think of a Subtitle
Tuesday, November 19th, 2002Reality Check; Input From the Outside World
Thursday, October 31st, 2002Sometimes I get accused of being too much of a pessimist. Maybe sometimes I am. On the other hand, maybe the correct question is whether or not my occasionally pessimistic outlook is justified . I’d prefer to think I’m just taking a hard look at real business issues. For a change, I’m going to let somebody else raise the tough issues and, incidentally, write half my column for me. Can’t beat that. I received More…
Hype, Technology And Trade Shows; Not Enough of Some, too Much of the Other.
Wednesday, October 30th, 2002Slowing growth, or a decline in year over year sales if that’s what your company is experiencing, was inevitable in skateboarding. Sure, we would rather it didn’t happen. But since we all knew it was going to happen, it might as well be sooner rather than later so it’s less painful. What I didn’t see in San Diego, happily, was what I saw at the Vegas snowboard industry show in More…
You Did What !!?? Starting a New Snowboard Brand
Wednesday, October 30th, 2002Your first reaction is that they must be crazy. Starting a new brand when the snowboard market is dominated by five companies fighting to take market share from each other, pushing distribution to every corner of the retail world and, to some extent, using price as a weapon in the battle doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense. You can’t meet their prices. You can’t afford their ad budget. You can’t pay big More…
Resort Retention and Occam’s Razor; Keeping it simple makes a lot of sense.
Wednesday, October 23rd, 2002William of Occam was a Fourteenth century logician and Franciscan friar born in the English village of Ockham and, yes, somehow I’m going to get this back to snowboarding without claiming that he invented the first one. He’s the author of what’s become known as Occam’s Razor. It states, in its original form, "Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily." It’s been massaged and interpreted to mean that when you have multiple More…
The End of the Beginning; Observations from Glitter Gulch
Friday, August 30th, 2002“Now, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” Overall, Vegas showed signs of being the end of the beginning of the snowboard industry’s consolidation process. Which is convenient, since I’ve always wanted to use that quote. The first person who identifies the person being quoted by calling or e-mailing me, the approximate date of the quote, More…
Tackling The Snowboard Industry Buy/Sell Cycle Are We Trying to Fix the Wrong Problem?
Wednesday, August 28th, 2002The buy/sell cycle seems to be on everybody’s mind these days. The brands are concerned because the decline of in season orders means they have to take more inventory risk. Retailers, on the other hand, are thrilled to be able to get quality product in season at discounts, though are perhaps concerned that it’s tougher to hold their margins due to oversupply. Everyone should be concerned; because if we follow this pattern More…
Money: That’s What I Want. Sources of Capital for a Growing Business
Wednesday, August 28th, 2002If your only business is snowboarding, you need money for three reasons. First, your business should grow at least as fast as the industry, and that growth translates into more cash tied up in the business. Second, extreme seasonality and the extended dating customers are demanding requires more working capital. Finally, tough competitive conditions are probably reducing margins, leaving less cash flow for each unit of product. Adequate working capital is never enough More…
Getting In Deep Trouble; Why Companies Get There, and What it Takes To Recover
Wednesday, August 28th, 2002It doesn’t matter if you’re a retailer, distributor or manufacturer. It doesn’t even matter if you’re in the snowboard business. In every industry, companies get in trouble for the same basic reasons, and require the same things to recover All businesses in trouble share two characteristics: denial and perseverance in the face of inescapable change. It’s easy to believe in what worked in the past, and hard to step outside our comfort zone More…
Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde; The Dilemma of the Skateboard Factory Owner
Monday, August 5th, 2002“Blanks are killing the industry.” “Yeah, but they give the skater a good deal.” “But pros are what builds the industry, and we can’t support pros on blank margins.” “The problem is that we have too many pros to support.” Etc., etc., etc. In this highly emotional debate, there’s some truth to everybody’s position. A lot of people seem to feel very strongly both ways from time to time, and it’s an unfortunate source More…
