Aaron J. Crowley

Stone Industry Consultant

Reports of record-low temperatures were all over the news recently and it makes me wonder what it’s like to wet polish when it’s 30 degrees below zero outside.  Surely there are some fabricators in the Midwest and Northeast who could tell us! 

But while the world outside appears to be freezing, there are signs everywhere that the counter top climate is thawing and even warming up! With home prices appreciating, the stock market soaring, and new homes being built, there seems to be evidence that the market for stone counter tops may be returning to prosperity.

If that is in fact true, it is a welcome development and a deserved one for those fabricators who have literally ground out a living in the stone business over the last five years. It is also a development that carries some risks for leaders who might feel those old (perhaps forgotten) sensations of self-confidence and invincibility creeping back into their thinking.

The risk lies in the belief that past successes ensure future victories.

The Japanese call this Senshoubyou (sin-SHOW-b’yoo) or “victory disease”.

Military history is full of famous warriors who experienced great successes in early campaigns only to suffer catastrophic defeats later on because their strategies did not evolve with the changing battlefields or new enemies.

Napoleon marauded all over Europe crushing anyone who opposed him. Then he attacked Russia with 600,000 troops assuming a continuation of his campaign.  Only 10,000 troops returned to France.

The Japanese themselves had crushed the Chinese, the Russians, and the Germans in wars preceding World War II. Proudly assuming a similar outcome, they attacked the Americans at Pearl Harbor. We all know how that ended.

Now for most of us, the painful lessons of the recent past are too fresh to blindly march forward with pompous over-confidence. But we might easily fall into the trap of believing that the same strategies that made us successful before the crash will serve us just as well in this new emerging market.  

If we breathe a sigh of relief that the economy is showing signs of normalcy and assume that we can just settle into habits of old and succeed, the blinking light of history is flashing a warning.  

While the market might be improving, it is an entirely different marketplace.  

The companies we used to dismiss as no threat to our customer base might have spent the last 5 years preparing, planning, and plotting to make a move on our clients!  

Speaking of clients, they are different too.  Five years ago, very few clients had ever heard of Angie’s List, but today very few haven’t.  That means clients are wiser and more wary of contractors in general and aren’t satisfied with generalities about their project or sales presentations that don’t inform.

None of this is to say that previously profitable strategies are now obsolete, but to say that our pride must be checked, previous tactics must be reconsidered, and our businesses must be flexible enough to adapt.

In other words we must inoculate ourselves from Senshoubyou!

So be encouraged! The sun is peeking through the clouds and shining bright, making it a great time to shed the parka and buy a new pair of sunglasses so we can make up for a long winter and soak up every ray of profit!

 

Aaron Crowley is a stone shop owner, author, speaker, and consultant to mid-size stone companies. Contact him at aaron@fabricatorsfriend.com