Liberating Thoughts
Recently I've had some unanticipated time to step back from the daily war of window film to reflect on the last few years and the present irony of my situation.
I also recognize that on a blog, you share your thoughts that might otherwise have been hidden from public view.
From the perspective of time, it's a cathartic process.
Sometimes I feel like I am on a mission for truth.
Yeah, I know, pretty "self important" for someone submerged in a window film business; no?
There was freedom after spending three decades plus at 3M.
Trying not make too many waves and pretending to follow in lock step, the latest memo sent down from a new Frozen Chosen "charmer" who inexplicably received a promotion or lateral move.
There was (is?) an insular corporate culture.
No, not the innovation culture that you'd read about in Fortune Magazine, or some random article about power brands.
This was a culture of mediocrity and fear. Followers who act like "weather vanes", politics and gamesmanship, mixed in with a self-congratulatory belief in their own positive press.
I surf their web sites and read their brochures and mailers.
Their "loyal" dealers call me and share their anger. How else could I have predicted their demise?
I remember those slogans and words, like we all remember the words to "God Bless America."
Familiar catch phrases, logos and the surreal "perception over reality."
So after a year and some months post freedom, my mood has shifted, my past naturally becoming more distant.
It's now just sadness that I feel toward my former dealers. Sadness for their recent situation and collective frustration.
I'll admit that I take a personal interest in those dealers and associates that have "jumped ship! I help them get over their LOGOPHOBIA!
When I set up this extension of my persona, Advanced Film Solutions, I did so with a full intention to take on 3M Window Film dealers. (Sorry!)
Honesty, Facts, Credentials, Proof, Ethics, The Golden Rule of Business! That's our philosophy!
While I promote VISTA Security Film that passed the missile tests (that they failed), their response was that the test isn't important, is somehow rigged or just irrelevant.
While I and others highlighted the NFRC Credentials of Vista and more recently Huper Optik, they continue to make noise about angle testing that proves nothing more basic than glass works better when the Sun is at an angle?
They post videos of corroding films without identifying which competitive films are, and by failing to do that they imply that all other non metallic films corrode. Utter nonsense!
Their dealers talk baloney about their films being Windex safe, when there is absolutely no support that their scratch coating works better than any other window film brand.
Their dealers promote optical clarity, while they privately confide that they hope their customer's never notice the haze or iridescence. If/when, their customer states their objection, they hem and haw and act like they never "heard" of this happening before??
Their representative distributors (what choices they have made??!!) show their anger when a dealer moves toward a better value or performance window film, while simultaneously recruiting and coddling dealers that carry these same films on the weak hope that these competitive dealers will sell some of their film instead.
Yet- -"This Too Shall Pass"
Times have changed and they will continue to change.
I still cringe when I read a car forum or website that claims 3M car film is the very best, when insiders know they simply re-boxed a generic film brand. Talk about the placebo effect!
Consumers, people like you and me, will not spend money on a "name" or some "reputation" for innovation. Real people should truly want the "Real Deal!" That begins and ends with TRUTH!
Those are "my kind of people."
Let's just say this entire experience has been LIBERATING!
Mike Feldman
I also recognize that on a blog, you share your thoughts that might otherwise have been hidden from public view.
From the perspective of time, it's a cathartic process.
Sometimes I feel like I am on a mission for truth.
Yeah, I know, pretty "self important" for someone submerged in a window film business; no?
There was freedom after spending three decades plus at 3M.
Trying not make too many waves and pretending to follow in lock step, the latest memo sent down from a new Frozen Chosen "charmer" who inexplicably received a promotion or lateral move.
There was (is?) an insular corporate culture.
No, not the innovation culture that you'd read about in Fortune Magazine, or some random article about power brands.
This was a culture of mediocrity and fear. Followers who act like "weather vanes", politics and gamesmanship, mixed in with a self-congratulatory belief in their own positive press.
- When they called for Six Sigma; their "weather vanes" asked how high?
- They created meaningless metrics and Org charts, building their own language of nonsense-speak.
- They measured make believe numbers that were created from innuendo and rumor of what the rest of the "industry" was about.
- They personalized their dealers as either friends or enemies; good guys or bad guys.
Prestige Blues?? - They changed their distribution like a snake sheds skin while justifying each incredible change with somber words of justification that were just that. .empty words.
I surf their web sites and read their brochures and mailers.
Their "loyal" dealers call me and share their anger. How else could I have predicted their demise?
I remember those slogans and words, like we all remember the words to "God Bless America."
Familiar catch phrases, logos and the surreal "perception over reality."
So after a year and some months post freedom, my mood has shifted, my past naturally becoming more distant.
It's now just sadness that I feel toward my former dealers. Sadness for their recent situation and collective frustration.
I'll admit that I take a personal interest in those dealers and associates that have "jumped ship! I help them get over their LOGOPHOBIA!
When I set up this extension of my persona, Advanced Film Solutions, I did so with a full intention to take on 3M Window Film dealers. (Sorry!)
Honesty, Facts, Credentials, Proof, Ethics, The Golden Rule of Business! That's our philosophy!
While I promote VISTA Security Film that passed the missile tests (that they failed), their response was that the test isn't important, is somehow rigged or just irrelevant.
While I and others highlighted the NFRC Credentials of Vista and more recently Huper Optik, they continue to make noise about angle testing that proves nothing more basic than glass works better when the Sun is at an angle?
They post videos of corroding films without identifying which competitive films are, and by failing to do that they imply that all other non metallic films corrode. Utter nonsense!
Their dealers talk baloney about their films being Windex safe, when there is absolutely no support that their scratch coating works better than any other window film brand.
Their dealers promote optical clarity, while they privately confide that they hope their customer's never notice the haze or iridescence. If/when, their customer states their objection, they hem and haw and act like they never "heard" of this happening before??
Their representative distributors (what choices they have made??!!) show their anger when a dealer moves toward a better value or performance window film, while simultaneously recruiting and coddling dealers that carry these same films on the weak hope that these competitive dealers will sell some of their film instead.
Yet- -"This Too Shall Pass"
Times have changed and they will continue to change.
I still cringe when I read a car forum or website that claims 3M car film is the very best, when insiders know they simply re-boxed a generic film brand. Talk about the placebo effect!
Consumers, people like you and me, will not spend money on a "name" or some "reputation" for innovation. Real people should truly want the "Real Deal!" That begins and ends with TRUTH!
Those are "my kind of people."
Let's just say this entire experience has been LIBERATING!
Mike Feldman
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