veteran leadership brings the company into its 90th year - Music Inc ...

PERSPECTIVE I BY DAVID ZIVAN
THE FULL MEASURE
Going all the way, pretty baby — see what I can see.
— SLICKEE BOYS
I’ve thought it over, and I have decided; this is my favorite issue of the year.
It’s a lot of travel and phone calls, and thousands of emails, but we are always
the bearers of good news. Hello, our staffers say. We asked around, and your
peers have voted you tops in the business this year. You gave it your best
effort, all year long, and people noticed. They like you. They really like you.
Those calls are not hard to make.
But that’s not why this issue is my favorite. The
reason is that, more than at any other time in the
year, my mind gets blown. Talking with leaders
whose companies are excelling is like auditing
a crash course in How to Thrive in the Music
Products Industry. And as you might imagine, a
lot of these folks’ insights apply not only in the
workplace, but in everyday life.
“When it comes to service,” said Rick Young,
a senior vice president at Yamaha, “we take a
very broad view. Everybody in the company is
empowered to help [dealers] get what they need.”
Does that happen all the time? I doubt it. Nothing’s
perfect. But it sounds like the right way to
approach any customer interaction.
I’m not sure how I would have reacted to someone
telling me my company is known as the nice
guys. But it didn’t phase Brian Chung of Kawai one bit. He didn’t even seem
surprised. “I’m … thrilled to receive an accolade that … puts the fairness
and the respect we have for our dealers right up there” with product selection,
he said. Nice, indeed.
Best lesson of all, this year? For me, it was something I heard from two
big-time retailers that I visited myself. Both pointed out that calling yourself
full line and really executing that are different. And both acknowledged the
challenge of carrying enough inventory in your shop to provide the kind of
experience that trumps e-tailing and competition of all sorts.
Jerry, Paul, David, Richard, and Sammy Ash all separately mentioned the
importance of carrying a wide selection of gear. That approach might literally
be in their DNA — each of them also noted that founder Sam Ash had
put the policy into place 90 years ago. “That has been a trait since we were
founded,” David said. “It’s tough. But we make it a point to have the most
extensive inventory in whatever locations we have to satisfy customers.”
Jon Haber of Alto Music (his business card names him the “Grand Poobah”)
pointed out that his company does band instrument rental under the same
roof as their big-ticket pro audio department. Most important, he said, is
that “none of these things are afterthoughts.”
So commitment and excellence go hand in hand? Somebody alert the media. MI