How to kill a Business; Or Do alienate the Customer Base!

I'm very fortunate to be working for a fairly large company that has always refused unions and has never been publicly traded.  They have kept their focus where it belongs, on their core customers.  They did, however, take a chance on expanding into a new sub-market, and I was the guy lucky enough to be chosen by them to get that done.  Business is booming, I've traveled to all kinds of cool places supporting our customers, and I found out recently just how good their self-insured health coverage is.  Heh...I'm the one million dollar man now(one-sixth as awesome as Steve Austin), very little of that came out of my own pocket, and I'm still on this side of the astroturf.  Nothing wrong with seeking out an additional customer base, just as long as you don't forget your existing customer base and what made them choose you over your competitors.  I stopped using Squadron a few years ago when I saw their inventory dwindling down to nothing.  You can't keep an inventory-based business going when you're constantly telling your customers "We don't have that either, but we can get it."

Heh...that reminds me of this old Monty Python sketch.

Dodgy

So true. So sad. But there you have it. In Australia we had many companys that were Australian icons. But overseas investment and the need for big returns for shareholders killed them. I don't think we have any major Australian brands left.

 

Dodgy

So true. So sad. But there you have it. In Australia we had many companys that were Australian icons. But overseas investment and the need for big returns for shareholders killed them. I don't think we have any major Australian brands left.

We're also losing magazines here in the US. I used to subscribe to several, but let them expire because they seemed more like a chore to crack open.

So true. So sad. But there you have it. In Australia we had many companys that were Australian icons. But overseas investment and the need for big returns for shareholders killed them. I don't think we have any major Australian brands left.

I have worked for a number of companies that when I started, were owned by an LLC  with a great reputation for a brand that was backed by high quality and service. Then the day would come we would be told we were bought by and investment group, and then came in the career CEO who's job was to clean all the meat off the bone, as an engineer, I was usually the meat, and continue to sell a rotting carcus made and supported the cheapest way possible until the brand was no longer profitable, then they would liquidate it, write off the loss agaist income on other investments, and look for another victim to buy and exploit.

MJames70

If people were just reading them, and not actually buying anything for years, what was the point of the continuous tree killing then? Squadron made a lot of bad decisions, and failed to adapt to the internet until it was much too late. Thus, they are dead. 

 

ajlafleche

Those holding companies and investment buyers are only interested in the short sell. They are like the movie "Other People's Money." Come in, buy out sell off. Rarely, if ever, does the customer get a better product or service. Here in New England, the ubiquiutous Dunkin' Donuts was bought by an investment firm. It went from a coffee shop with a counter, proceain coffee mugs and donuts made fresh in the store. A palce to congregate. After the buy out, the counters were gone, donuts were made centrally and delivers maybe on a daily basis selection went down and drive through became #1 prority at the expense of the customer in the store with cash in hand. We hand a very good departemnt store, Lechmere Sales. It was taken over by Montgomery Ward. In very short order, it, too, was gone. Frindlly's Ice Cream was a familty owned business and dominated the ice cream and casual dining market. Multiple megacorp buyers reduced service, selection and increased prices. It's on the verge of disappearing from the market it owned.

 

 

Sally, I think this is the direction that ALL dunkin' donuts are headed, if they aren't already there.  Here in South East PA, that is how it's run...gone are the days of the little mustachioed man waking up because "it's time to make the donuts".  And maybe it's just my aging digestive system, but the quality has decreased as well....

Rob Gronovius

 

 

 

 

 

No! Not Friendly's!! Well, I left New England in January 2005 and haven't been back since, but Friendly's was a place I enjoyed in my hometown in Vermont, during my college years on Long Island, and Army service in Massachussetts and New Jersey.

 

The news this morning reported Friendly's was bought by yet another investment group, Amici Partners Group, LLC. They say they plan to keep the remaining 139 stores open. We'll see. 

I, too, in the past enjoyed/relied on Friendly's. It's the first place Judy and I shared a meal and when I worked in the Auburn Mall, it was the most convenient palce to get food or drink while at work.  

Greg

 

 

Cadet Chuck

I will miss the printed catalogs, too.  I always kept one in the "library", just to pass the time.  That was the limit of my involvement with them, for the past few years.

 

 

 

 

Me three.

 

I do get email flyers from several vendors, but it is not like the printed catalog.  Not much is in the email even after you select "show remote information."  I suggest they just immediately take us to a web site, that web page would have several pages of new items, with images and prices, so I don't need to be clicking on a bunch of links to their regular catalog pages.

In my industry, I think a lot of it has to do with a climate of growth through acquisition: buy the competition, consolidate/eliminate the redundencies, and keep playing the cards right so you are the last business standing.  What difference does the customer's opinion make if you are the only game in town?  Or if the customer's choice is between bad service and worse service?  As long as you are less bad than your competitor and the customer needs your service/product, there is no incentive to do more than the bare minimum.

I don't subscribe to this thought process, but it seems to increasingly be the norm.

If people were just reading them, and not actually buying anything for years, what was the point of the continuous tree killing then? Squadron made a lot of bad decisions, and failed to adapt to the internet until it was much too late. Thus, they are dead. 

Cadet Chuck

I will miss the printed catalogs, too.  I always kept one in the "library", just to pass the time.  That was the limit of my involvement with them, for the past few years.

 

Me three.

I will miss the printed catalogs, too.  I always kept one in the "library", just to pass the time.  That was the limit of my involvement with them, for the past few years.

The whole thing is unfortunate, however an investment firm that knows nothing about the modeling world doesn't care about anything.  Saying they are going to change Squadron into a "collectables" firm is absurd.  Like saying I'm going to turn a basketball factory into making soup bowls that look like basketballs.

Any smart general manager would have looked at the current market for plastic models online then made a decision.  Squadron could never compete with Scale Hobbyist as is.  Their prices have been sky high for years, and I would ony buy if they had something I couldn't get anywhere else.  Last thing I got there was the CMK 1/72 german u-boat interiors and I paid $180. for three of them years ago.

That said,  I will miss the printed mailings.  Sadly like many things they are  thing of the past.

Really, why are we up in arms over squadron? No one really used them anymore, they had no stock and everone knew it was coming for years. There is no surprise here. One poorly run company goes under, another will rise to take it's place. Free market at it's best. I feel sorry for those that will loose their $ but it was pretty foolish to let them have your money for months without delivery. That is why I use Pay Pal.

ajlafleche

...Frindlly's Ice Cream was a familty owned business and dominated the ice cream and casual dining market. Multiple megacorp buyers reduced service, selection and increased prices. It's on the verge of disappearing from the market it owned.

No! Not Friendly's!! Well, I left New England in January 2005 and haven't been back since, but Friendly's was a place I enjoyed in my hometown in Vermont, during my college years on Long Island, and Army service in Massachussetts and New Jersey.

Jef's video, if you can filter through rambling, says the board of directors of the investment group were trying to help, but the CEO they placed decided to go into a different direction with a different vision. That alienated customers, didn't attract new customers, and basically became a place you ordered stuff from and they in turn would order the items from someone else.

We all know that that is what killed other online modeling shops.

When I got into the auto body trade, I was told, do 20 good jobs, you might get 1 referral.  Do 1 bad job, and 20 went down the road you'll never see.

The same holds true in everything.

Now days, that road seems to be racking up a lot of miles.

Those holding companies and investment buyers are only interested in the short sell. They are like the movie "Other People's Money." Come in, buy out sell off. Rarely, if ever, does the customer get a better product or service. Here in New England, the ubiquiutous Dunkin' Donuts was bought by an investment firm. It went from a coffee shop with a counter, proceain coffee mugs and donuts made fresh in the store. A palce to congregate. After the buy out, the counters were gone, donuts were made centrally and delivers maybe on a daily basis selection went down and drive through became #1 prority at the expense of the customer in the store with cash in hand. We hand a very good departemnt store, Lechmere Sales. It was taken over by Montgomery Ward. In very short order, it, too, was gone. Frindlly's Ice Cream was a familty owned business and dominated the ice cream and casual dining market. Multiple megacorp buyers reduced service, selection and increased prices. It's on the verge of disappearing from the market it owned.