What do think, is Pentax "listening" to this list (to get an in-put from the aficionados?) Peter, Sweden
>Last month, the Pentax rep was at the Wolf multi-rep show in Dallas. She >enabled me to side-by-side compare the istD & DS and helped in my deciding >to go with the D. However, when I went back there this week to thank my >salesman and make sure that he got his commission (he wasn't there when I >actually bought it), he said that he's got two more customers waiting for a >D (back-ordered from Pentax) and still did not have any DSs to display or >sell. > >In my life as a consultant, I would try to explain to my client that this >type of behavior is quite fine if you are attempting to enter chapter 11 >(reorganization aspect of business bankruptcy) but a really poor way to >actually make money. Making a good product is only the beginning of being >successful. > >Maybe, this is based on the Pentax history of making a great product (SP) >that placed them sufficiently ahead of their competition, that the product >drove sales, and people would willingly wait to obtain it. (Probably lots of >people on this list weren't even alive when this was true.) The world >changed, but apparently the Pentax culture never really changed. > >We're all members of this list because of distinct affinities toward Pentax. >We are the core of their quality market, yet I doubt if any of us can >delineate concisely what Pentax is and what it is trying to become in five >years. Usually, when your key customers don't know these key attributes, >it's because you as a company don't know. If you don't know where you are >and where you're going, how do you choose what to do and where to invest >your money to get there? There is nothing wrong with a few mistakes on the >journey, but having an absence of direction decisiveness is a prescription >for disaster. > >So, I guess Pentax has a critical, but curable, disease, which, if they >don't take action will mean that we'll only be able to buy old inventory or >used equipment. > >Larry in Dallas > > >--- >Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. >Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). >Version: 6.0.805 / Virus Database: 547 - Release Date: 12/6/2004
