Bob Marino
Member
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2007
- Messages
- 3,263
Just spent some time ruminating about who and what are most responsible for Festool's success in the good ol' USA. (Is this what a 56 y/o man does at midnight? 
;D )
I will leave out the most obvious of people, starting with David McGibbon and his brother (sorry, forgot his name) for being the first importers of Festool (called Festo then), Festool USA's 6' 9" CEO, Christian Oltzscher, for establishing, developing and leading Festool's superb group of Managers and staff, the later on-line reviewers - (Brice Burrell, Gary Katz, Mark Spagnuolo, Per Swenson) and Festool's early line up of dealers (called ISA's - Independent Sales Agents back then) and of coarse THE TOOLS, which at the end of the day AND UP UNTIL THIS DAY speak for themselves.
Soooooooooooo, (drum roll please) my list of nominations would be.........
The early on-line reviewers - John Lucas, C John Hebert, Phil Bumbalough, Jim Becker, Jack Loganbill - all of which had an on-line and/or web-site presence that got the early buzz out. These were the "pioneer" reviewers, expaining to lots of folks what these expensive, German made, green and black, unheard of tools could do. Not many ww magazines were doin' what these guys did.
The decision to allow ISA's to stock and sell the tools directly, instead of continuing to have Festool control shipping really helped get the tools into the customers' hand quicker. ISA's stocking the tools were now called Festool "dealers.
Another decision was the maintaining of a "set pricing policy" basically enabling dealers to compete on service rather than price.
Realizing the obvious - that Festool's manuals were not up to the Festool tool quality standards, "biting the bullet" and enlisting Jerry Work and Rick Christopherson to write the finest manuals available; manuals worthy of the tools. Not to mention Jerry's tutorials.
Tom Silva and the gang of This Old House (TOH) seeing, trying and using the tools on the show. Other shows soon followed step.
And perhaps a special thanks for Matt Schenker, who had the vision, dedication and through tireless (and many times thankless) hours of sweat for creating the FOG. It's a place that Festool Corporate, Festool dealers, users and potential users all benefitted and could share information, ask questions, solve problems and sometimes even chat. Thousands of members and still growing. Pretty nice job!
Thanks all.
Bob
;D )I will leave out the most obvious of people, starting with David McGibbon and his brother (sorry, forgot his name) for being the first importers of Festool (called Festo then), Festool USA's 6' 9" CEO, Christian Oltzscher, for establishing, developing and leading Festool's superb group of Managers and staff, the later on-line reviewers - (Brice Burrell, Gary Katz, Mark Spagnuolo, Per Swenson) and Festool's early line up of dealers (called ISA's - Independent Sales Agents back then) and of coarse THE TOOLS, which at the end of the day AND UP UNTIL THIS DAY speak for themselves.
Soooooooooooo, (drum roll please) my list of nominations would be.........
The early on-line reviewers - John Lucas, C John Hebert, Phil Bumbalough, Jim Becker, Jack Loganbill - all of which had an on-line and/or web-site presence that got the early buzz out. These were the "pioneer" reviewers, expaining to lots of folks what these expensive, German made, green and black, unheard of tools could do. Not many ww magazines were doin' what these guys did.
The decision to allow ISA's to stock and sell the tools directly, instead of continuing to have Festool control shipping really helped get the tools into the customers' hand quicker. ISA's stocking the tools were now called Festool "dealers.
Another decision was the maintaining of a "set pricing policy" basically enabling dealers to compete on service rather than price.
Realizing the obvious - that Festool's manuals were not up to the Festool tool quality standards, "biting the bullet" and enlisting Jerry Work and Rick Christopherson to write the finest manuals available; manuals worthy of the tools. Not to mention Jerry's tutorials.
Tom Silva and the gang of This Old House (TOH) seeing, trying and using the tools on the show. Other shows soon followed step.
And perhaps a special thanks for Matt Schenker, who had the vision, dedication and through tireless (and many times thankless) hours of sweat for creating the FOG. It's a place that Festool Corporate, Festool dealers, users and potential users all benefitted and could share information, ask questions, solve problems and sometimes even chat. Thousands of members and still growing. Pretty nice job!
Thanks all.
Bob
