Hunter or prey? Can you survive in the furniture jungle?
You know you’re swimming in uncharted waters when good news can also be bad news.
Let me explain. If you are reading this at work, and if your company is still making, distributing, buying or selling furniture, that’s good news, because on paper, at least, you’ve survived an extremely long and prolonged downturn.
So, how can that good news also bad news? Easy. Survival is only half of your battle. Moving forward, you’ve got to find a way to get back on course, move forward and begin the task of mapping at a pathway to profitability.
In a sense, those of us still standing are on an island populated with—you guessed it—other survivors.
And guess what? With food (aka) business being scarce at this time,the odds are pretty good that its lunch time for one or more of other survivors.
The question is simple: Will yours be the lunch that they eat?
These are the types of questions we are going to wrestle with at our 13th annual Furniture/Today Leadership Conference, set for Dec.2-4 at the Ritz Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, Fla.
Our theme this year, Thriving In A Survivor’s World, will throw open the door for lively discussions about a host of related topics that will include the new consumer, new ways to reach her, new store formats, social networking, the changing role of the Internet and much more.
Shoot me an email at rallegrezza@reedbusiness.com if you would like to learn more about the event or how you might possibly could become involved as a presenter.
Stay tuned!
ray allegrezza commented:
Tom, thanks for your kind words. Lisa, I can't promise, but if we all get stuck, we can rent a car and I will drive you home!
Matt. I understand your comment, but when we do an exit survey each year, this is where the group says it wants to be. The other thing to realize is that we negotiate very favorable rates with the Ritz due to the volume of people we bring and the fact that we have become a regular at their properties. Thank you all for the comments. I hope to see each of yor there!
Ray
Tom Erdman commented:
Ray,
As someone whose spent some time with you recently, I can vouch for your desire to help our industry become successful and relevant. We'd love to help in any way.
Thanks,
Tom Erdman
matt commented:
Is dropping money on the Ritz really appropriate in these economic times?
Lisa S. commented:
Ray, if you can promise me I can get home from FL (twice now I haven't flown back into my final destination airport), I may consider attending. That hotel is fantastic!
