Marketing!
What Ten Tec needs to do to create a much sought-after, beloved,
insanely expensive (okay -- even more insanely expensive) "instant
classic" Orion is go out of business!
This company failure can be easily orchestrated without a casualty.
Here's how in three month increments:
1. Stage a "downsizing". Annouce via press releases that offshore
economic pressures necessitate a cutback in staff. However, don't
actually "furlough" anyone. In fact, secretly increase work hours
dramatically and build Orions like crazy. Don't even think about
firmware upgrades and such nonsense, just build boxes by the ton.
You're in rural Tennessee, for pity's sake. No one will notice --or tell.
2. Announce a distressing fall in third-quarter profits, blaming unfair
foreign competition and Asian "slave labor" practices.
3. Shut down the plant. Sell the surplus Orion units to as many
distributors as possible -- just a handful to each.
4. Go home and rest for one year, living off the overtime earnings just
generated.
Within a few months of factory closure, the Orion will join the ranks of
the fabled rigs of yore that command prices several times their original
price and worth. As the Orion stock depletes, the demand will become
more and more frantic with prices skyrocketing. A legend will be born
about "the best radio ever built" and Ten Tec -- the now mythical
"little company that tried" -- will become a sentimental, fondly
remembered cult favorite within the ham community.
After one year, stage a "former employee buyout" of the old Ten Tec
plant, tooling and capital assets. This will generate tremendous
sympathetic interest in the
"new" Ten Tec and it can then resume business as usual.
Simple.
73,
Craig
W3CRR
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