Guest Rant: Is Specialization the Dying Trend?

In an effort to practice what I preach, I've been away from the FreePromoTips World Headquarters spending some quality time with my family. This rant has been put together while we are on The Big Island of Hawaii. If you are interested, I've posted a few images on the FreePromoTips Facebook Page and have tried to stay away from sharing our more typical business oriented content.

Most of you are unaware that there is a brain behind my Rant's. That is my friend and industry colleague Glenda Stormes-Bice, MAS. Glenda cleans up the grammar and structure of what I write. We seem to be on the same page regarding most of topics I cover. She does help guide me should I get too far off track. Glenda is a great writer and with me lounging on amazing beaches and having a great time in Hawaii, it's appropriate to share this piece that she recently wrote for her own company. Enjoy!

Last month a cover for The Economist magazine featured a photo of Rodin's "The Thinker" sitting on a toilet with the caption "Will we ever invent anything this useful again?"

Having spent the past two months surfing through catalogs and going to shows big and small, I am thrilled to report that innovation in the industry is not dead. There are some great new products this year. But the industry has changed. There are not as many new products as there used to be. I don't think its invention fatigue; I think it's a tougher economy. The cost of invention is high and the risk/reward is uncertain. Everyone is more careful now.

The smartest (and my favorite) suppliers make up for this by creating improvements on products that are successful already, and also being more innovative on the most important part of any product...the DECORATION.