Saturday, December 25, 2004

Value of a goal

Being that I am from Utah, and doing business in Utah, I have watched with interest the Franklin Covey company. They have certainly had a rough couple of years. Many have rumored that they would file bankruptcy this year. Which would be a shame. Sometimes I think a company just takes a few wrong turns. As I have read the FC message boards often people are criticle of the business and its decisions. I would venture to say that many of those people would have taken the same road. One of the most notable bad decisions (at least in my book) was its early rejection to hand held pda's. I think the company both feared this new technology and its possible ramifications to their product, but also were convinced that this would be a short lived phase. This was a grave decision. All though I have not done all the homework on this, I belive that they had first shot from Palm to take their product worldwide, and FC walk away from it.

I have never recieved any formal training from the FC group, some think its God's gift to business, others think its drivel. However, I think they core goals of this company are good ones, and I think the management, though maybe a bit misguided, has the customer in mind. I think FC is a little greedy right now. You can only do that for so long before it bits you in the backside (and that goes for any business.) I wonder in retrospect if Steven Covey would have made the decision to merge with Hyrum Smith.

I do think that it is very valuable that Franklin Covey has been able to stay to its core values (or habits.) This is admirable. But apparently not profitable.

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