Some upcoming ideas, venues, and an unusual no . . .
a multi-use nightclub facility
a group of investors are opening a new concept in nightclubs. the facility will be theme oriented with revolving themes on days of the week. the location has a mixed population from teens to senior citizens. theme nights will consist of a big band, 70-80's music, Latino, dance, and rap. each theme will be offered on different days of the week. in addition on weekend afternoons they will accommodate the under 21 age group by locking up the alcoholic beverages and serve soft drinks until 8:00 pm. they will then close and re-open at 9:00 for the theme of the night. the demographics of the area suggests a possible clientele of about 2 million in the relative age groups. after a success in this area; the concept will either be franchised, or additional directly owned clubs placed in various metropolitan areas.
placing a hybrid car within a manufacturers performance reputation
with the advent of the gas price boom all the auto manufacturers have migrated to the hybrid car with toyota already far in the lead. the quandary is to place such a car in the product mix without have to place "tounge-in-cheek" for a manufacturer whose reputation has always been for performance cars. One must convince the public that the engineering is still necessary to supply a superior product with hybrid or full electric power. a unique marketing challenge without any prior precept.
top employee rentention without additional pressures on tight cash flow
a machine manufacturer is having to compete not only with selling their machines but with competitors trying to 'steal' their top employees. WE advised them to structure an employee stock plan that would award stock options, at favorable prices, to any employee with the company more than a given amount of years. While fulfilling the statutes to align themselves legally it was constructed so certain employees would 'earn' more shares by virtue of their accomplishments with the company. this precluded the possibility of key employees jumping ship merely for larger salaries.
a $20 million printer wanting to step up and become a web printinf facility
this family owned printer was passed through three generations before we became acquainted with the owners. having a modern facility with very little debt the current principle, a grandson of the founder, wanted to step the business up-a-notch and install a web printing press. his father called us and ask for a practical study on all the ramifications. while the business would handle the debt for the press and expansion of the factory they needed to realize the massive costs involved in just buying & warehousing the paper necessary to keep the machine running. we calculated that they would need about 3 times the cost of the press just to handle the extra receivables and payments for paper necessary to keep it operational. this was one project where recommending not to accomplish their goals was the correct answer. they are still operating a profitable business to be passed to the next generation.