A Culture of Convenience

Now that I'm back on the job market (you can read the full announcement here, if you didn't see it already), I've been doing quite a bit of thinking about the type of company I want to work with. That has led to an analysis of what types of companies even exist today.

Lloyd Dobler, in Say Anything, said, "I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that."

My own variation now, is I don't want to work in an unstable industry. I realize in today's market, that's a near-impossibility; but I think there are some warning signs I've learned.

My second-to-last job was with a window and door distributor. The company distributed luxury products, and -- when the recession hit, harder and faster than anyone expected -- business dried up. In fact, they really haven't even fully recovered. People's priorities changed, and suddenly, buying a world-class luxury window wasn't nearly as important as it was in 2005.

The company had experienced meteoric growth, prior to that. And, to be sure, they were absolutely identified as experts in their field ... the salespeople and support personnel were among the most knowledgeable in the industry.

But, all they sold were windows and doors (eventually the product line opened up a little bit), and -- when a recession hits -- people are looking at one-stop shopping more than anything.

Think about it: If you wanted to make a sandwich, but you had to go to a bakery to buy the roll; a deli to buy the coldcuts; a farmstand for the produce/veggies; and a grocery store for the condiments ... or, you could go to a WalMart and get everything (albeit the roll, coldcuts and veggies were *guaranteed* to not be as fresh or tasty if you'd purchased them separately), which would you do? Most of us, I submit, would head to WalMart (or, quite possibly, Subway, instead), sacrificing quality for convenience.

So, now we head to my most recent position, with an educational technology distributor (again, with the distributors!). Unlike the previous company, this company had a value-add built in to the product offering. Since the technology was so new (and was being sold to school districts, nearly exclusively), the company offered a world-renowned professional development program, to help instruct teachers on the use of the equipment (initially; this eventually increased into become trusted partners with teachers with a goal of improving the quality of teaching, in general).

Sounds good, right? We have the one-stop shop. The district doesn't need to purchase the equipment from one company and then seek out training elsewhere. We've appeased that culture of convenience (and, best of all, the training really was the best around, and the pricing on the hardware was certainly competitive).

One catch. As a distributor, you're almost always at the mercy of the manufacturer and the vendor controls the pricing. So - if for example - you're accustomed to selling Equipment Piece A for $100 to the marketplace, and you're paying $75 for it to the vendor; and the manufacturer decides to raise the price to $85, you have a choice to make: Do you pass that increase on to the customer (up to $110) and risk them going elsewhere (even if they love your training program -- and, worse yet -- since we already discussed above with the sandwich metaphor, maybe they take *all* their business with them!); or do you eat the increase and see your profit margin suffer?

Tough choice. And, suddenly, things are unstable.

As a jobseeker, this is the type of industry I'm now leery of. Knowing consumers are so interested in the one-stop shop mentality; that culture of convenience that's been bred into us; it's imperative for companies to be able to satisfy that desire. But, it's equally important for a company to control its own destiny. Do any such companies exist? I'm not entirely sure. Look at Apple - certainly they're a consumer favorite; but do they really control their own destiny? Could any of their suppliers suddenly raise the rates on their materials? Or, is Apple so much the 800-lb gorilla that no vendor would dare do that?

Are there any companies that are truly "stable" today?