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What business are we really in?

Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, January 16, 2012

It's funny how people can pop into your Ray Raymind. The other day, out of the blue, I found myself thinking about Nat Ancell (co-founder of Ethan Allan) and a bus ride I took with him more than 30 years ago.
     After finishing college in New England, I landed an assignment with Ethan Allen as a script writer for what it then called Talking Books, which were training aids for gallery employees.
     To do our research for the books, the writers took a bus each day from the company's newly relocated headquarters in Danbury, Conn., to the New York Public Library.
     One day, Nat rode in with us and I was fortunate enough to sit next to him.
     He was in an expansive mood that morning and as the rookie, I wanted to make a good impression and peppered him with a series of what I hoped were intelligent and esoteric questions about the complexities of the furniture business.
     When I finally came up for air, he gazed at me for what seemed like an eternity, then said, "You're asking me about furniture. That's really not what it is about. What we do is to sell dreams; actually, we use our furniture to facilitate our customer's dream for a beautiful home, because that's what she wants. The furniture is a means to that end. Our goal is to help her realize that dream."
     Fast forward some three decades and you could make a compelling case that since we are living in a totally different world, Nat's mission statement has become as dated as the big hair styles popular during the time of our bus ride.
     But judging by what I've seen on the selling floors of plenty of furniture stores, I wonder if the nightmare of the extended recession has made us forget what business we ought to be in - the dream merchant business.
     I'll be the first to admit that since that bus ride more than 30 years ago, just about everything has changed.
But the one thing that hasn't is the customer's dream of a beautiful home.
     So, with a new year in front of you, it may be a good time to ask yourself what business you are really in.

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