Hi Gordon,

Thanks for sharing those real world lessons! I agree, there's a lot going on in the real world.... Most business is still conducted there. :)

And if the internet bubble (and crash) has taught us anything, it's that the rules for business online have NOT changed, the fundamentals are still the same.... The dot-coms that still survive are the ones who knew that all along. The ones who believed that there really was a "new economy" where profits didn't matter any more are the companies which fizzled....

Your story reminded me of a true story I was told once.... Whenever I meet someone who is in business in some capacity, I like to talk to them to find out about how things work for them. One of the people I've spoken to in the past is a man who has been involved for most of his life in import and export.... He's originally from Hong Kong, but he now lives in Australia....

Anyway, here's a story he told me from the days he was still living and working in Hong Kong. He told me he had imported a new style of lady's pantyhose.... These looked different than other pantyhose, as they were shimmery and shiny, and were apparently all the rage in European fashion at that time. Even though they looked different, however, the wholesale price for them was the same....

He managed to get several stores interested in trying to sell them. After about a week, most of the stores returned the stock to him, telling him "they are just not selling"....

All but ONE store. This store asked for a repeat order. Then, soon after, another repeat order, and another one, with each repeat order bigger than the last!

He wondered, WHY is this store selling so much of these, while the other stores couldn't move it off the shelves? So he decided to go to the store to find out....

Well, most stores were selling the product at something like $5 a pair, and couldn't move it. When he went to the store that was selling BIG, he saw what they did....

They had a sign, something like "New from Paris, high fashion, $79 a pair."

At a higher price, selling it as a high quality fashion product, it was flying out of the store, and they couldn't get enough of it!

I thought I'd tell that story, since the story of the craftswoman selling the beads you told, Gordon, seems to be the same principle.... Part of it is that part of how people judge quality is by the PRICE.... So if we have a high quality product, we might sell more of it with a higher price than a lower one!

I also believe, as I think you have said, Gordon, that quality doesn't go out of style.... So it seems that focusing on quality is a good way to go. :)

I have another quick quote to share.... It's from Henry Ford.

Before he started the Ford Motor Company, he had some dealings with a group of businessmen who he wasn't fond of. Here's what he said about them and how they did business....

"The most surprising feature of business as it was conducted [by them] was the large attention given to finance and the small attention to service. That seemed to me to be reversing the natural process which is that the money should come as the result of work and not before the work. The money influence - the pressure to make a profit on an investment - and its consequent neglect of or skimping of work and hence of service showed itself to me in many ways. It seemed to be at the bottom of most troubles."

[Quoted from "The Entrepreneur: Twenty-One Golden Rules for the Global Business Manager," by William E. Heinecke with Jonathan Marsh, p. 184.]

Service is part of the overall quality.... So quality seems to be a big component.... If we produce something of quality, I think people will appreciate it and value it more.... :)

- Dien Rice