jeff | Jeff Harbaugh

Hard Truths about the Action Sports Business; Use Them to Make Lemonade from Lemons

As I said in the last issue of Boardsport Source, the way companies choose to compete in the action sports industry and, I suppose, in most industries, is largely responsible for the maturing and consolidation of fast growth industries. Ask the skate and snow people. People way smarter than I have acknowledged that surf’s time will come. […]

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Look! New Brands. That’s Great! Or These People Are Crazy. Or Both.

Branding

Probably both. It’s not like brands haven’t been coming and going for years beyond count in skateboarding. Historically, there have been two categories of new brands. The first was the truly new company started by some skaters who wanted in on a burgeoning industry that just happened to be something they loved. The second were the new brands

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The Basis of Competition; How Do We Sell More Stuff?

Strategy

It’s funny how the fundamentals of business never change. Three years ago at the Surf Industry Conference in Cabo, I facilitated a panel of people from the skateboard industry because skate was going off and the surf guys thought skate was going to have them for lunch or something. Then skate sales plummeted though, happily, they are

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Small Brands Are Cool! How Can They Stay That Way?

Branding, General Management

Actually, the question is not how small brands can stay cool. It’s how they can stay at all. As in stay here- alive, in existence, solvent. Not toast. I have been so encouraged by the number of small brands I’ve seen in snowboarding recently. I love them. There was a bunch at the SIA show in Vegas. There were some of

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Living in the Past- Or Not; The New Old Skateboarding

Industry Evolution, Skateboarding

I can’t be the only one it’s occurred to that skateboarding seems to have dodged its historical cycle of disappearing and being reborn every ten years. I think that’s a good thing, though shrinking to nothing and more or less starting over had the advantage of letting everything be fresh and rediscovered. True, sales fell from

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A Living, Breathing Thing; Cash Flow Management

Financial Management

That’s actually the way he put it to me. Many years ago, the CEO of a company that had been in deep financial trouble and had clawed its way out said, apparently in frustration with my failure to understand his concept, “You don’t understand, the cash flow is a living, breathing thing.” Now I know he

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Self Help for Core Retailers; The Coastline Model

Surfing

Hi, I’m back. This was just too interesting not to inflict myself on. And I imagine O’Brien couldn’t find anybody else willing to touch it. From the last issue of TransWorld Biz, you may remember that our hero, Sean Kennedy of New Zealand, had started a company called Coastline owned by, so far, 42 core surf shops

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“Hey Look! Real Retailer Numbers!” What’s to Learn From Them?

Financial Management, Retail

For a while now, I’ve been carrying around in my back pocket the National Sporting Goods Association’s 2004-2005 Cost of Doing Business Survey. I have no idea why they call it that since it obviously doesn’t contain any numbers from either 2004 or 2005. Well, never mind. They do it every other year and collect

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“Jeff, This is a Hard Business!” Why Is That and What Can You Do About It?

General Management

That unsolicited quote is from the President of a snowboard brand that you all know and that’s been around for a while. It would generally be considered successful. I consider it successful. It’s not the first time I’ve heard the comment. I’ve responded by agreeing and by explaining why it was true. Over the years I’ve had some suggestions

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Company Stores and Retail Consolidation; What’s a Core Store to Do?

Industry Evolution, Retail

At the Surf Industry Conference last May, I was the last one to ask a question of a panel of very successful specialty retailers. I acknowledged that I was sure they would all continue to be successful, though I doubted they were representative of most retailers out there. And then I asked them, “So what happens in

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