If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! How many times have I heard myself thinking that or telling a client something to the same effect. Your product is more than acceptable, your distribution system is working, your customers really like your program, yadda, yadda, etc. Leave it!
And yet here I sit no more than five yards from a group of guys who I actually am paying real money to demolish and rebuild what has been a perfectly good bathroom. And, when they’re done with this, they’ll move to the other bathroom and then to the kitchen.
Neither this second bath nor the kitchen is broken. Yeah, they are 20 years old, some of the appliances rattle a bit, the tile is slightly ugly and the cabinets are dated. But they ain’t broke!
There are at least two important conclusions that can be reached here:
What does my present distress have to do with the heavy-duty business? On the one hand, not a hell of a lot; on the other hand, quite a bit. Because, in the first case, somebody other than me has decided that it truly is broken-and needs to be fixed.
In the second case, the same thing may well be underway in the heavy-duty arena. From the inside, the heavy-duty distribution system seems to be working just fine, not at all broken. But from the outside, viewed by both suppliers and customers, things may not be nearly as un-broken as they might look from within.
From the supplier’s perspective, legitimate questions can be raised about the value, viability and cost-effectiveness of today’s distribution channels (which look a lot like yesterday’s). Just how much distribution coverage does the marketplace need today? What role does it truly need to play and what is fair compensation for these services?
