Obstacles Are Opportunities

Throughout the past week we had one of our distributors—ES Korea—visiting Seven Cycles.  ES Korea sells more Sevens than any other distributor.  They visit us a couple times each year to work with us on business development.  Not to put too fine a point on it, but they’re amazing.  I could write a long list reasons they’re amazing; today I’ll post just one.

The tougher the world gets, the smarter, more thoughtful, and harder they work.  And the more closely they partner with Seven.  Rather than shutting down—psychologically—or looking for reasons that life’s tough, they step up and out of their space of expertise.

By way of example, if one considers the US economy to be in a spot of difficulty, the South Korean economy is in free-fall. The South Korean Won has been devalued—relative to the US dollar—by more than 40% in the past six months.  This is a crazy change, and it makes it very difficult to sell high-end products—Sevens, for example—in South Korea right now.

In this type of economic free-fall—we’ve seen it before in other countries with which we work—there are only a few strategic stances a company can take:

• Give up and find another business
• Hunker down and wait out the turmoil
• Take some big, “bet the company” risks—a Hail Mary or two—and keep your fingers crossed
• Get creative and forge a new path

Which direction did our distributor choose?

Some of our distributors and retailers are hunkering down and hoping to weather their respective economic storms—and maybe the ecological storms, too.  It’s a reasonable response, and it’s a smarter response than some of which I can think.

However, ES Korea is completely committed to selling Sevens in South Korea, as they’ve done every year for over a decade.  Not only selling more Sevens each year, but building the market for the long-term and representing the brand completely.  So, hunkering down will not do.  Given that they’re “amazing”, they chose the creative and new path—they always do.

The creative plan is to grow the brand when the won is down 40%, and the Korean economic outlook indicates that it won’t get much better over the next twelve months?  Good luck.  Well, apparently ES Korea doesn’t believe in luck. Neither does Seven; I believe you make your own luck, but that’s another story.

Path Through the Storm

We’ve met with ES Korea many times; typically for two to three very intense days at a time.  This time our meeting was four full days.  And, as always, I thought we would run out of topics and content to discuss, ideas to ponder, and challenges to make manageable.

Well, also as always, we ran out of time—not content.  We had too many great ideas and projects on which to work. We’ll have to save some for their next trip.

Ideation & Trust

ES Korea is up for any idea.  They’re willing to really seriously explore any concept Seven puts on the table. They trust 100% that whatever we’re suggesting or positing is not at odds with their business; Seven’s direction is not at odds with their business success.  We can’t be successful without them being successful—they know it because we know it, and show it.

Conversely, any idea they offer, Seven is willing to explore, challenge, and find ways to make work.  We know their interests are fundamentally aligned with Seven’s.  And, in the rare instances that our visions are not aligned, we can find a common ground, and come up with a better plan, by looking from different perspectives.

We, “seek first to understand”, as Stephen Covey suggests.

The Four C’s, Plus One

Because of this collaborative, creative, committed, and challenging relationship—mixed with their economic crisis—we came up with some creative solutions and some very cool projects that will help them grow in 2009.  Seven will be introducing some of these projects to our domestic retailers over the next few months.  Stay tuned!

So, ES Korea has done something very rare; they’ve taken a 40% currency devaluation and worked with Seven to find ways to negate what many people seem to view as an insurmountable obstacle.  And, they set a course for growth in 2009.  Even better, when the currency rights itself, they will be a lot stronger in the market.  It’s starting off to be a great 2009 season—even with a foot of snow outside my window.