Can being smaller be better?
“There are certainly some businesses and some projects that don’t work unless they’re huge, but in your case, I’m not sure that’s true. Big enough is big enough, biggest isn’t necessary.” This is a quote from a post on Seth Godin’s blog. He’s one of the most prolific and thought provoking business writers today.
This thought really hit home. Tiffin Parts isn’t the biggest heavy equipment parts supplier; although, other than the OEMs we do have the largest market share by far in the aftermarket for the primary brands we support. We have niches that we focus on, which we believe provides us with a competitive advantage.
What I think is really the differentiator for us though is that we are small enough to be responsive to our customers’ needs. Do you need a part reconfigured, do you need special packaging, do you need it tomorrow? Even something as basic as needing to talk to a knowledgeable person that can provide assistance…that’s what we strive to offer…superior service.
Because we are right-sized, we can do these things…if we were the biggest, large and bureaucratic, I’m not sure we easily could. We’re here to help you be successful!
What can we do to help?
Who comes first?
Who's on first?
Who’s most important when making a decision…your customers, your company, yourself? In business, is making a decision based solely on one’s own self interest ever the right decision? I think not! It’s what allowed the Financial industry to get the world economy in trouble. Incentives that encouraged individuals to make decisions that were high risk for their business, but low risk and high reward for themselves. Individual incentives were not appropriately aligned with that of their business. This isn’t exclusive to the Financial industry…it’s a problem throughout the world of business and government.
There’s an argument that decisions should be made for the greater good. I’m a firm believer in Transcendent Leadership, where decisions need to be made with a broader perspective. For instance, if our customers don’t succeed, how can we? We can’t, at least not long term. At Tiffin Parts, we’re here to help you be successful. If you’re successful, we will be too!
For more on this topic, Knowledge at Wharton published a great article from the World Economic Forum in 2007. Here’s a link: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1649
Photo: The great comedy team of Abbott and Costello doing their classic skit: “Who’s on first?”
Blue Angel Speaker
I had the honor of hearing John Foley, a former Blue Angel pilot, present at our parent company’s annual meeting. He shared the framework that the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angel flight demonstration team uses to achieve such high performance.
We’ve all heard about and practiced goal setting, planning and execution strategies (my words, not his), but how many of us have debriefed with our team after every project? The power of examining what was done right, what could have been done better and improving upon it is the key takeaway I had from John’s discussion.
Your input is critical to our being able to serve you better. Let us know your thoughts!
To learn more about the work John is doing, visit his website at: http://www.johnfoleyinc.com
The Market…
What a year we have all gone through in 2009. Most of us follow the “market” or the “economy” and many of us read industry journals…more and more online. Where have we been, what happened and where are we going? We may not have all of these answers for years to come.
I think what’s important is that we get a more focused view of the markets we serve. I just read the other day where many technology and ecommerce stocks had a great 2009. Certainly, the performance of those blue chips affects the perception of what’s happening in the broader market, but is it really a good indicator for the markets we serve? Likely not.
Our view is that the Construction and Agricultural Equipment markets have bottomed with Construction being off nearly 50% since 2006 and some segments off 80 to 90%. The important variable for our business is equipment utilization rates. We estimate that telehandlers for instance peaked at 90% in 2006 and 2007 and fell to 10% in 2009. Optimistically, we are looking for telehandler utilization levels to double in 2010. We think that forestry fared far better in 2009, but only because that segment dropped in prior years before the overall market. Agriculture held up fairly well in North America…people have to eat!
We would like to hear from you…what are you seeing in your markets?
Is there such a thing as Win-Win?
I think there is! Every business needs to operate profitably…even non-profits have to balance income and expenses to survive and prosper. I’ll be perfectly honest with you…we likely don’t have the lowest price on every item we sell. If you look long and hard enough you are bound to find a lower price somewhere. The quality may be lower, it may not be in stock, there may be higher freight costs to get it or perhaps it’s used. There are a lot of factors that affect price.
We surveyed our customers last year and asked them to rank the following factors in order of importance (listed as ranked): Availability, Quality, Price, Speed of Delivery and Technical Support. They gave us high ranks on all of these! One of the main reasons we gained market share in 2009 was that we had the items in stock that our customers needed.
Our mission is to supply our customers with high quality products and superior service at the best value. By living up to this commitment every day, we will continue to be the preferred supplier for our customers by helping them to be successful.
How do you help your customers succeed?
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