In this economic environment it is natural for companies to begin question themselves, what they do, how they do it, etc.

For example, it has long been hard for Electrotap to be competitive from a price-point perspective. Our expenses are higher than others in the same market, owing to the fact that we build better sensors, and a better interface, with better materials and we do it all in the U.S.A. rather than outsourcing the work to Asia.

Now we have competitors dropping their prices even further. What is Electrotap to do? Do we start moving our manufacturing overseas to compete? The reality for a small company serving a niche market is that competing on price alone is the road to nowhere. There will always someone willing to cut-corners and engage in less than ideal ethical contexts to undercut prices.

We could try something else altogether, and start acting like a much bigger company. For example we could claim something outrageous about our ‘award-winning’ support (of course we would need to make up the award) and open a phone center to handle calls. And brag about it a lot even if it wasn’t 100% true. There are a couple of problems here though (besides the disingenuous parts of it). The big companies are all failing, so obviously it is foolish to think that acting like them is going to help. A call center? Where? In India? And how is it that Electrotap has been successful over the past 5 years — by keeping costs and commitments to minimum while being dedicated to environmentally sound practices and devoted to the highest quality.

It seems, in fact, that the right thing to do is to remain true to who we are as a company. To not be distracted by all of the noise around us. And to remain firmly attached to the principles that we’ve stood on.

So now we have just one other little problem to solve. How to make this blog post not sound like the first page of one of those magazines in the seat back of an airline.