Being No. 1

[#1]

Being No.1 isnt about being first in a given market. Its not even about being best. Its a about being the one people "choose". People choose to purchase products / services from businesses for various reasons. Some for cost, others for service, other for the sense of community. There are many companies which proport to be No.1, Very few are. Notable exceptions are:- Gilette Coca Cola Swann Morton (who?) Swann Morton develop surgical blades. They are based in Sheffield (oppostie Owlerton stadium / Casino) and own 70% of the market for surgical instruments in Europe. How? They took the "Toyota Way" principles and applied them to their business. They build 1.5m "knives / blades" a day - all using a "Just in Time" approach and "deliver" to their customers within 48 hours. Obviously some days are busier than others but they "react" to market demands in a robust and cohesive way, They are a small company which is agile and can adapt to the changing market dynamics in real time. What about Gilette & Coca Cola? Two HUGE companies which are No.1 in their respective field. Gilette even manage to charge you £9.99 for a holder and 2 blades just because its got David Beckham on the cover. But you still buy from them! Then Coke actually sells tap water in the US under the brand name "Dasani". OK - so it uses "Reverse Osmosis" (WTF is that?) and adds minerals (Lead?) so it can call it "purified" - but you can't knock its ability to "sell". Why are these guys No.1? They think different? Who in there right mind would have thought about "bottled tap water" (except Del Boy) and £9.99 razor blades. More importantly - once these guys thought of it. They Delivered! (Alright it was easy for Coke - all they needed was a tap!) We have a history of delivering. We forgot it for a while. But so too did Coke (Remember Cherry Cola or New Coke!) Gilette even used to own an oil field once...... If those guys can pick themselves up from a bad position (Coke in 1984 and Gilette in 1987) then so can we. Each and every Ticket, Call, Letter or Problem is a "touch point" with the customer. A position where we can "turn it around" and "make a difference". We've just got to "believe" and then "deliver". Our customers are easy to please. All they have is questions re: connectivity and service and I've never had an question in this place go unanswered for more than a couple of hours. Why? Because all of the answers are within these walls. We know our industry. We know our market. We know our customers. We know our competitors. We know we can be No. 1 in any area we chose to measure ourselves. What we measuring first? Me - I'd like to measure our ability to be counted. Anyone needs me for anything - ask! Dean