Insanity:
doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
The only certainty in life is change, and change is afoot yet again in La Chaux-de-Fonds. And I am beginning to wonder if maybe, just maybe Girard-Perregaux is actually cursed.
There, I said it.
In the past ten years there have been so many blunders, so much time and money poured down the sinkhole. Updating, repairing, promoting... and just when you start to think that things are stabilizing and improving, the music starts and chairs start getting yanked. It seems inevitable that every few years the tree is shaken again and more people fall out. Reorganization happens, yet another leader is brought in, lay-offs and redundancies. And as we are now into the third such cycle that I have seen in my brief tenure covering these things, it just starts to bum me out. This is a brand with so much potential, so much promise - so many possibilities. And in the end, they always seem to end up pretty much in the same place. In essence, all of the personnel changes seem to succeed only in halting progress, stymieing momentum and setting the brand back even further than it was before it made the changes.
As we often say in the US, if they could just get out of their own way, they might really do something great.
But I have to believe, keep faith - maybe this time...
Well said James. I think this could be said about many brands.
ReplyDeleteI think that one of the greatest challenges that a brand like GP has is the residual value of their watches. Many would argue that this is a challenge that is out of the hands of the brands, however I disagree. An abundance of any brands watches on the gray market at steep discounts directly effects the residual value of those pieces and most of the gray market is supplied by the brands either directly or indirectly. This is usually done because they have remaining stock that they can't sell through their Authorized channels.
Simply because a brand has the capability to manufacture a certain number of pieces doesn't mean that they should reach that number. My suggestion would be to slow down the supply and help drive up demand. Of course other actions would need to be taken, however this would be a step in the right direction.
Just my humble thoughts...