Tag: Success

Be A Progress Pig

Written on by frain-sales

Maybe you’ve heard the idiom, Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.  It’s essentially a caution against greed – biting off more than you can chew.

But, a little greed is good, right?  Where would we be today without people aiming at bigger, faster, better, stronger, warmer, colder, cooler, etc.  It pushes innovation.

Of course, there’s failure in trying new things, but success doesn’t come without risk and overcoming the fear of failure.  But that certainly doesn’t mean you can’t mitigate risk, while stretching for new heights or creating new products to increase sales, market share, etc.

Frain provides a means for companies to mitigate risk within packaging and processing machinery.  While offering machinery faster than original equipment manufacturers, we provide equipment rental and leasing options that can decrease the financial impact over time or altogether should plans change.  And, they do.

By and large, the majority of new product launches and innovations fail.  But, don’t beat yourself up.  You don’t have to bite off more than you can chew or get slaughtered over one project.

Get to market faster with used equipment and mitigate risk via rental.  Swing more and faster than your opponent and land more success (and failure) more often.  Be a pig at the table of progress.

Vision, People, Risk

Written on by Rich Frain

Steve Jobs, co-founded Apple and was the visionary behind the Mac, I-Phone, I-Pad and other products. Jobs didn’t bring much in the way of tech skills to the table. What he did bring, and what made Apple such a successful company was vision, people and the willingness to take risks to validate them.

Steve Jobs was primarily an idea man. He envisioned the Mac, I-Phone etc. These seem pretty straightforward now. But until Jobs had the idea, “Hey, let’s make a phone that is smart enough to…” we were all happy with our dumb phones. We couldn’t even envision the next step. It’s why Jobs didn’t believe in market studies. Had Apple gone out and asked people what they thought of the idea of an I-Phone people would not have been able to even understand the question. The only way to bring something as revolutionary as the I-Phone to market is to bring it to market.

In order to do this, he had to have good people who could implement his vision. All sorts of people starting with Jonny Ives who designed the look and feel but also the engineers who developed the technology, programmers, manufacturing specialists and so on.

Either the visionary or the team, by themselves, are like one hand clapping. It just doesn’t happen.

The other thing Jobs needed to do was risk. He had a product that he was sure was going to be successful. What if nobody else shared his vision once they saw it? It ain’t cheap to bring a new product to market and the risks of failure are high.

Steve Jobs could have played it safe. He could have waited for someone else to build the first smartphone. Had he done that, the I-Phone would be just another smartphone instead of the iconic symbol it is today.

Got a great idea? Got a great team to help you implement it? You have to take the risk. It’s the only way humankind keeps moving forward. We can’t stand still. Work to manage the risk, but take it.

Our Customers Don’t Want Machines

Written on by frain-sales

Today, more and more people are tapping the Uber or Lyft app on their smartphones.  They’re not doing this because they want a car.  They’re doing it because they’re taking a trip – and need a vehicle to get from point A to point B.

Similarly, Frain customers don’t ultimately want a machine, even though some are amazing to watch during product cycling.  Instead, want to reach their business goals, their point B.  Our customers want to produce new or incremental revenue as quickly, reliably, and inexpensively as possible.

In September, Frain Integration hosted the Uber Revolution Packaging Summit, an event sponsored by the Contract Packaging Association.  One big take away from this event was that yesterday’s owned assets are being replaced by shared assets today. Keynote speaker, Ron Sasine of Hudson Windsor pointed out that, “Yesterday’s way of doing things seemed to work pretty well if you owned assets, but today’s market devalues asset ownership in favor of service providers.”

Endless variety and sense of urgency pushes for Uber-esque elements within today’s CPG supply chain.  For example, an Uber-style of packaging machinery supply will not only provide equipment when needed, as needed, for as long as it’s needed, it will:

  • reduce capital costs
  • decrease downtime
  • boost production
  • increase speed to market
  • supply services to facilitate success

Frain’s business model has evolved to match this approach.  Our ready-to-deploy inventory, which is the largest in North America, helps customers get to point B quickly and reliably.  We allow our customers to borrow (rent) and return individual machines or complete packaging lines as needed and re-deploy to the next customer tapping onto our site and requesting our help to get their business to its next destination.

Success Follows Failure

Written on by John Henry

Ever get something just right on the first try? I do occasionally and am always very pleasantly surprised whenever it happens. More often I try something new and it doesn’t work. I try a second time and maybe it sort of works. It may take three tries before I really get it right.

We can play it safe. If we really don’t want to fail, we just don’t ever try anything new. Where’s the fun in that? Babe Ruth said that he liked to hit home runs. He hit a lot of them, setting a record that stood for almost half a century. But he also struck out a lot more than most players. He realized that he wasn’t going to hit home runs unless he really tried. More tries mean more successes but also mean more failures.

We see this a lot in CPG (consumer packaged goods) manufacturing. Companies try new products and they fail. Over 80% of them by some reports.

Think of it as a failure funnel. Five go in, one comes out. But that one only comes out if five go in.

It’s trite to say that we must do everything possible to make successful products. Of course. Nobody ever sets out to make an unsuccessful product. As importantly, if failure is going to happen, it must occur as quickly and painlessly as possible.

Here are three things you need to do:

  1. Get into production as quickly as possible. Being first can go a long way to success
  2. Minimize the costs of the trial. Use existing lines if possible, rent production machinery or contract manufacture if need be. At this point, the goal is to find out if the product can be profitable, not so much to actually make a profit.
  3. Success or failure will generally be fast. Recognize it when it occurs. On the one hand, don’t let wishful thinking “maybe it just needs a little more time…” get in the way of killing a failure. When it is a success, capitalize on it. Improve manufacturing, reduce cost and price to drive up volume and profit.

There’s no success without failure and there is certainly no success without trying. Fail frequently enough and success is guaranteed.