Think There's No Money In Power Tools?

[Ken Massingale]

No complaint intended. Businesses are supposed to make money. From the Grizzly site:




President and founder of Grizzly, Shiraz Balolia, in a meeting with some of his managers and top executives. To his left is Don Osterloh, Vice President and to his right, Colleen Lahr, CFO. The doors, ceiling and picture frames are made of Koa from Hawaii. The conference table and chairs are made of Bubinga and Quilted Maple.



Smaller meetings take place in one of four conference rooms. The wood used in the table and chairs is Bubinga with Eastern Curly Maple. Inlays done by the President of Grizzly.

[BobSch]

I KNOW there's money in power tools...

Mine!

[bfrikken]

Ha, i was just looking at Grizzly's site the otehr day. It struck me as somewhat snooty when i saw those pics. Also there are some others showing the skyway between warehouse and HQ. And, there was one pic with all the Guitars made by their prez in display cases.

Reminded me of a marketing instructor I had. He asked the class a key question and opened up Discussion. Went something like this, "If you were decididng on what fleet vehicles to buy for your sales force, and BMW came to you and said I'll be able to match the price you get on those Chevy Cavaliers or at least come close would you do it?" Needless to say, most of the class thought the BMW was the way to go, talking about resale, maintenance, blah blah... And the instructor said, ok, so you are a customer and your sales person comes driving up in a new Cavalier or a new BMW, what is your impression? Oh, and now what car of the two do you want to buy for your fleet?

[radhak]

nice anecdote, bfrikken.

but when it comes to buying a product, i'd rather that the manufacturer be wildly successful than not. a weather-beaten tin-shed corporate office of a tablesaw maker would not build any confidence - 'why are they not able to sell?...'

Yes, i would still reach for the Ryobi / Skil at HomeDepot while staring wistfully at the Makita/Jet etc, but only if Ryobi or Skil could show me that they sold so much (and so well) that their boardroom was rich enough to comment on...

-radhak