Welcome

Here comes a brand new Blog. We’ll cover lifestyle, creative ideas, pragmatic philosophy and personal reinvention. Hang on and enjoy the ride!

Gene-altering project may help ski numbers

Most of us who depend on the tourist trade and on skier or rider visits know that, for the past ten years, the number of mountain resort's visits during winter has been flat with no foreseeable rebound in sight.

This lackluster trend may soon reverted if Dr. Eugene Ettick, a Swiss professor of genetic engineering succeeds in cloning skiers and snowboarders.

Dr. Ettick's initial survey conducted in 1992 at the University of Geneva has shown that out of 100 people who admit they ski or ride, only eleven percent have the genetic making and behavior that will hook them to the sport. Out of that small percentage, three quarters are male.

The same study also showed that up to ninety-five percent of these same "hard-core" practitioners may continue -- if given the opportunity -- to ski or ride well into their 70's.

A few months later, Dr. Ettick and his team of researchers began to collect DNA from hard-core snow enthusiasts and compared it to a control population.

Initially, this study was both difficult and frustrating as skiers did not cooperate with the research team as they felt that the scope of the study was trivial and even some type of a hoax. Thanks to rather lax privacy laws in Europe, the research team undertook to "get" the material data without really asking. They just took advantage of the late winter season when mostly die-hard skiers can be found on the slopes and when clothing layers get much thinner. Stealing a tiny sample of the subject's fleshy DNA in overcrowded trams, gondolas or jammed ski lines at major alpine resorts then became a lot easier.

A rough estimate of the subject's age and sex was simply assessed by data collectors as they "pricked" the skiers' fleshier body regions.

While this approach sometime occasioned complaints from female customers who reported that "perverts" were harassing them in crowded situations, enough data was collected to paint a representative picture of what avid skiers' DNA looked like.

For instance, the early samples showed that the majority of subjects exhibited over-achieving attitudes, a propensity for independent thinking and greater-than-normal tolerance for risk.

From this information, the Geneva-based group started to "enhance" some of the DNA collected and proceeded to "dial" certain traits up or down, like need for speed or fear factor.

With the invaluable help of one of Dr. Ettick's associates whose spouse is a high ranking physician in a Basel sperm bank owned by Novartis, some modified DNA was introduced into several sets of vials, half of which were inseminated between 1995 and 1997.

While the tracking of babies born as the result of that work proved to be arduous, ninety-five percent of the subjects identified were noticed to have a propensity of sliding before they could even walk. Since that time, half of them had literally coerced their parents to take them skiing, but the most widely observed behavior was the extraordinary toddlers' enthusiasm and skills on playground slides.

Today, not only has the Swiss Ski Federation started to become a significant contributor to Dr. Ettick's research in an effort to enhance its talent pool, but so have its bobsled, luge and skeleton counterparts.

It must be noted however that kids whose genes have been "skierezed" are also showing mischievous behaviors; like laying banana peels on sidewalks, recklessly driving their big wheels into street traffic, jumping off their high-chairs when dinner is not served fast enough, ingesting far too much liquid and generally being loud and obnoxious.

On a more positive note, the same kids began to stay away from TV, Nintendo and other computer games; even Barney's suddenly lost most of its appeal.

Many of them also exhibited above-average skills at playing "connect the dots" on a piece of paper which -- some child psychologists assert -- shows an innate attraction for interconnected mountain resorts!

From a gender standpoint, the "gap" has now disappeared, (a more powerful tool than Title 9!) which has prompted some visionary lift operators to suggest a "dosage" that would create more female skiers than males. This should boost resorts visitations by prompting boys to look for girls on the slopes. The most aggressive expert even suggested that by striking the right "unbalance" between sexes, ski area visitations could see a geometric progression...

Towards the end of the 90's Dr. Ettick extended the same study to a Colorado university that started to gather its data at A-Basin but ended up at nearby Snowbird because its crowded and steamy tram sped up sample collection. A handful of Parkites have reported being "pinched" inside the Snowbird tram on several occasions during May of 1997 and 1998.

Thanks to the sophistication of U.S. genetic research, samples that were processed here in the past months have shown great promises.

Among others, the U.S. research group has determined that certain behaviors such as "rope crossing" could be eradicated from a skier or rider's internal programming, even though the ACLU has strongly objected to that.

In addition, a person biological clock could be slightly altered or even remotely controlled so the urge of sliding could be programmed to kick in November or April when ski resorts are slow.

Real estate developers are also jumping in and have asked the scientists to program impulse buying of condos or timeshares at their resorts.

This promising new technology is not without its danger. Because a Colorado school is behind the program, some fear that there is an obvious temptation to steer the new crop of destination skiers into picking the Centenial state instead of Utah, California or Canada, for example.

At present, Governor Levitt who knows of the situation has vaguely spoken of launching a similar program at the U of U or at Utah Valley Community College. He has also hinted that he might combine the project with Pons and Fleishman's cold fusion work of several years ago to attract venture capital investors.

Until now, and because of so-called ethical concerns attached to gene modifications in general, the study has assumed a very low profile. This may change soon however as a "Save our Canyons" sticker-bearing member claimed he was "stabbed" two years ago in Snowbird and suffered a mild infection in the right buttock.

At press time, this individual is considering bringing legal action against the U.S. research team...

Growing the winter sports industry

The winter sports industry is more fragmented and divided than it needs to be, and this may be one of the reasons why we fail to attract more participation into our wonderful world of winter recreation. There are indeed many facets to the snow industry that don't always work in concert.

The most critical entities are the ski areas that make their lift equipment and other infrastructure available to our visiting guests; ski or mountain areas are joined under the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA).

Lodging operations are obvious participants, and the final pieces of the puzzle are the various suppliers of winter sports equipment and apparel, all grouped in what is called Snow Industries America (SIA).

While both NSAA and SIA tried to merge back in the late 80's and attempted to launch some common promotional programs, their respective leaderships could not surrender full control, and soon that temporary alliance was followed by a bitter divorce.

For the past ten years, all winter sport industry players have sensed a lack of growth as the number of skier days have hovered around the 50 million mark without showing any significant growth.

Stop-and-Go Programs
With a constantly growing supply of goods, infrastructure and services, it becomes quite obvious that we will soon suffer if we fail to attract more participants.

The "Ski it to Believe it" promotion of earlier this decade was a timid two-season attempt that was abandoned too soon because no measurable results could be seen out of the effort.

Last May, Les Otten, American Skiing Company's chief and owner of The Canyons, was urging all segments of the winter sports industry to raise a $57 million war chest for a three-year marketing campaign. This laudable effort was abandoned a few months later because of "bad snow conditions". These kinds of stop-and-go actions won't do much to pull skiing and snowboarding out of their stagnation.

Something consistent and sustained needs to be done, but none of the segments of the industry appear to have a clear idea as to what the right prescription should be. While we are very much dependent on snow, capricious snow conditions are not necessarily the sole reasons behind the lack of expansion of winter recreation.

In reality, skiing may be suffering more from a clear lack of promotion by its own industry and from a number of other hurdles ranging from its cost to its complexity and inherent risk. The logical question is what set of actions are more likely to spark a renewed interest for winter sports?

Nurturing Feeder Ski Areas
In looking closely, there are many avenues that could be thoroughly explored. One of them is a closer partnership between large destination resorts and small family ski areas scattered throughout the nation. These are the critical feeder markets for tomorrow's destination skiers and snowboarders. Through strong co-op programs, large ski areas could make available lifts, grooming, snowmaking and other equipment -- still in good operating condition -- to these smaller mountain areas. Likewise, mountain operations and private ski rental shops could donate older equipment to the same feeder markets in an effort to make this first snow experience as affordable as possible.

Other support programs at these same local areas could revolve around children and young families in an effort to make snow sports a weekend pastime that most people can afford. It is quite obvious that we must enroll kids' participation into the sport if we want to see sustained results in the future. Donated equipment, ski-swaps or lease programs could all be orchestrated to making winter sports extremely affordable to parents who normally would never consider letting their kids play in the snow...

Of course, feeder markets and programs aimed at developing local skiers will only work best in the snowbelt or in those metro areas with skilifts within reasonable driving distance, but how can we enlist Sunbelt states' participation?

Tapping into Low Occupancy Periods
Ski areas and lodging must do a much better job in maximizing low occupancy periods. Offering promotions during the early part of December or April should attract people to the slopes. Even if the snow isn't plentiful yet or has already passed its prime, new skiers or riders should still be able to learn the rudiments of the sport.

All segments of the industry could pitch in: rental operators could make gear available at minimal costs, ski areas could cut the cost of lift tickets to a bare minimum or, better yet, let these first-timers ride free. These same resorts would recoup some of their investment by selling more hamburgers, drinks, sun tan lotion or goggles while lodging companies could offer accommodations at or near cost. This should prime the pump and would inoculate first-time visitors with a life-long dose of "snow fever."

These are just a few ideas that have the potential to re-energize our industry if we have the fortitude and patience to let them grow and are willing to give them more than just a couple of years.

Look! The Emperor has no clothes…

I have observed the recent Olympic scandal with a mixture of amusement and concern.

Amusement, because I have never put too much credence in the Olympic Movement; mixing a monopoly on sports and lots of money under the name of "Movement" has always sounded suspicious too me. Somehow, I couldn't not see the Olympics as white as the flag that flies over the Games. What has amazed me the most was that people were even shocked at the "scandal". I see in that either too much naïveté or hard-core hypocrisy.

One of the reasons for my concern might be found in the fact that I was born a few miles across the lake and Lausanne, where the International Olympic (IOC) Headquarters are established in Switzerland. For years, I have observed with particular interest the rise to power of the new Pope of Sports, His Excellency the Marquis Juan-Antonio Samaranch, operating out of his Château de Vidy on the shores of Lake Geneva After being Spain's Secretary of Sports under Franco, and then President of the Catalogna Region until 1975 when the dictator died, Samaranch's ascension into the pinnacle of sports has been rather remarkable. From the time he became the IOC president in 1980, he was able to assure his re-elections with absolute predictability by "working" his constituency, the international Olympic Delegates.

As we have heard from the press, many of the 100-plus IOC Delegates are not beyond reproach. In fact, in a great number of countries they rose to their positions through "excellent relations" with local dictators or from the Party high spheres in former communist nations. Some of the Delegates' tainted origins perfectly set the stage for making their votes a commodity available for purchase. In my opinion, this sad state of affairs has been going on for a long time, and is something that must have been known and condoned by the IOC.

Samaranch skillfully worked these same Delegates to achieve and maintain his Imperial-like status over a twenty-year span. Do I need to add that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely"? What is rather interesting, and has not been discussed in the recent "scandal", is that the IOC is awash with money. By its own admission, it takes "less than 7%" of the sponsorship contributions related to any Olympic Games.

Figure it out: Based on Salt Lake's $1.45 billion budget, the IOC should receive $100 million. With one Olympic every two years and a price tag of $2 billion for the summer events, an average yearly income of $60 millions flows into the Château de Vidy. Those of our elected official who visited the place some 18 months ago will have to agree that after paying the staff and the operating costs, a heap of money has to be left over at the IOC headquarters… Of course, I am not counting the millions of dollars "donated" by Nagano for the Olympic museum in Switzerland and the countless rivulets of "freebies" that must be pouring into the IOC headquarters...

This is a lot of money circulating into what should be a non-for-profit organization. No wonder why Mr. Samaranch clings to his job with such a fervor! That is indeed far too much money if one considers that the "movement" offers very little accountability -- if at all -- to the world at large. No wonder then that a portion of its cash is used to harass people all over the world, including our own Wasatch Brewery, for alleged Olympic trademarks violations!

Now, I smile when the same Samaranch deplores the excessive commercialization of the Atlanta Games. This Holier-than-thou attitude will be much harder to sell in the future, when the good people of Utah have realized that Messrs. Joklik and Johnson were indeed the sacrificial lambs of this sad Olympic episode. In my view, they had very little reason to go; like all candidate cities, they played by the IOC "rules" and did what they had to do to secure the votes.

Unfortunately for them, a story-hungry press opened the can of worms and SLOC got hosed. The obvious problem I see in the current crisis is that Mr. Samaranch has failed to take any responsibility for his corrupt system. When the dust settles over this story, he is the one who should step down; not Joklik and Johnson. Unlike what was recently suggested by Mr. Marc Holder, Salt Lake City should remain the Olympic choice for 2002. The final selection was appropriate, our venues are fine. The only condition should be that the IOC steps up to the plate if we fail to attract all the money needed to run the games. Hopefully, there should be some dollars left in the IOC's coffers!

For the future, I simply hope that the U.S. and all the other responsible National Olympic Committees will start questioning this whole IOC concept, from its absolute power all the way to its secrecy, and start a deep-clean process. With so much money and influence at stake, they should, among other things, look at re-casting the IOC within a supra-national organization like the United Nations or some of its agencies, for greater accountability, sound democratic rule and full transparency.

Where's yesteryear's excitement at the races?

Once again, from November 19 to 21, the Alpine Ski World Cup made its annual stop in Park City for the 1998 America's Opening. This year, I watched the races from a variety of vantage points. From inside the arena to the sidelines and from a distance, uncovering the whole course, using my binoculars. One thing I found, in spite of the "official spin", was that the number of spectators watching these races is dwindling.

Aside from some isolated spectators who go there for the first time and make a genuine effort to understand what goes on the hill, the traveling fan-club members or a few nationals who live near Park City and Salt Lake and want to cheer their countrymen and women, the majority of spectators are the racers, their coaches, their support staff, suppliers or sponsors... The ski business gives a big party, the world is invited, but only a handful of insiders come. What an irony! Some will argue that the time picked for the events was too early in the season, that BYU was playing the University of Utah on that very week-end, or that the weather could have been better. In my opinion none of that is true: Skiing as a sport is no longer fit for spectators.

I take this assessment at heart. Skiing has been one of my life's great passion. Since I was a little boy growing up in the French Alps, this sport has been a magnet of tremendous strength. From as long as I can recall, I was a staunch admirer of the French Ski Team, "L'Équipe" as we called it. I still can vividly remember the parade given to my hometown's hero, Jean Vuarnet, upon winning the Squaw Valley's Olympic downhill in 1960. Then there were Adrien Duvillard and Guy Périllat's victories who started to challenge the incredible lock the Austrian ski team had upon competitive skiing at that time.

In those same years, TV made its way into the French households eager to follow this alpine action. In boarding school then, I wouldn't miss a beat of the 1962 FIS world championships in Chamonix, the 1964 Innsbruck Olympic and, in between, all the "Classics" like the Hannenkahm, the Lauberhorn, or the Kandahar. Then came the grandeur of the "Killy's years" during which Honoré Bonnet, a diminutive but disciplinarian French coach, started to clean up the Austrians' clocks.

Without succumbing to nostalgia, these years had an incredible impact on my entire adult life. Among other things, they would lead me to pick the ski industry as a career with the same kind of devotion required to enter priesthood. This was my way, my vocation. As I have said before, my life's vision was to live in a place where snow would never melt and skiing would be grand. Perhaps this was the ideal "Snow Country" way before its time. After spending ten hours a day teaching skiing for five full years, including a few winter seasons down under in Australia, I got a first glimpse at the world cup when I became director of racing services for a French binding company. This was back in the mid-seventies. At that time, racing was already starting to take a turn to the worst. Its glory years had just started to slip...

The deterioration came under the guise of fairness and safety. Fairness first; the nature of snow which is not quite like asphalt: Its surface and properties can change dramatically after the passage of several competitors. It also mirror all the bumps and other imperfections of terrain beneath when snow cover is thin. Combine this with changes in weather ranging from fog to snow, humidity, dryness, extreme cold or even freezing rain and you have the most changing environment. Safety concerns came in second. Downhills then, were narrow gullies lined up with trees and other obstacles; as a result, accidents did happen. To protect from that risk, runs were widened, nets installed and everyone felt a little better.

At that point, skiers could barrel down the hill faster and to accommodate the higher speeds, runs were again made even smoother and wider. The Fédération Internationale de Ski (FIS), skiing governing body worked relentlessly at making ski less risky and more consistant. When you bring both safety and predictability into the picture, you also remove excitement and sprinkle boredom over the whole picture. Back in the 60s, downhills used to be thrilling spectacles. This was the main reason why this event was the centerpiece of skiing and was so cherished by spectators.

In Europe, most downhill courses were downright scary. To this day, I still can picture two of my hometown downhills in Morzine, France. One was "Nyon", the other "La Vaineuve". They were both vicious versions of Kitzbuehel's infamous "Hannenkahm". The same was true of "La Verte" in Les Houches, near Chamonix. On these courses something happened all the time. Unpredictability was the norm, strong emotions were guaranteed, and fear was part and parcel of the event. In these days, speed was just one component of the event. Uncertainty, risk, luck and unadulterated courage made for the rest. On these narrow, speedy ribbons, the natural reliefs of terrain were omnipresent to unsettle racers, the bumps were tricky to negotiate, the compressions crushing, and the total lack of transition between blinding winter light and complete darkness in those shady and steep gullies, were all traps leaving no place for cruising on automatic pilot...

As we moved into the 70s, Val Gardena and Schladming offered the kind of courses that would set new speed records and reshaped downhill runs after the German "autobahns". By that time, alpine downhills had literally cleaned up their act and things would never be the same again. Sure, and thanks to Bernhard Russi, attempts were made through "designer's downhill courses" to bring back excitement at the last Olympiads. These new runs attempted to recreate the "excitement" of the past but still with the FIS' blessing. The attempt was nice but failed to restore the charm and the spontaneity of natural courses. Yet, spectators crave on spontaneity! Hermann Maier's flight in Nagano is a vivid proof of that... Today, the world has forgotten Crétier's Olympic victory in that downhill, but the flight of the "Herminator", like Klammer's near-fall at the 1976 Olympics will remain engraved forever in aficionados' memories.

What is clear is that the "cleansing" and "sanitizing" of Downhill courses succeeded in removing whatever the last doses of thrills and excitement that were inherent with that event. The emasculation of the downhill let to the invention of the Super G, a hybrid but useless race somewhere between GS and downhill. Incidentally the proliferation of events is a sure recipe for dulling bona-fide competitions. The International Olympic Committee has become an expert at diluting its own Games by adding more an more events and, in the process, by robbing from legitimate, "classic" disciplines.

On the surface, Giant Slalom appears to have best weathered the "emasculation" process of alpine skiing, but this might be just an other illusion. GS courses have become so polished that it is has become increasingly difficult to miss a gate or make huge mistakes. Again, the overall smoothness of the terrain has become the great equalizer. In addition, super-sidecut skis and binding platforms are now stearing skiers instead of the other way around... A more obvious victim however was the Slalom since the advent of break-away gates. The end result of that move has been a "robotization" of the spectacle resulting in racers mowing down a line of break-away poles.

This may sound like an oversimplification; technical challenges are still many in slalom, but a great deal of suspense and a lack of predictability went south the day the first break-away pole was tightly secured into the snow... In all cases, the uniform surface, the new equipment and a consistent snow did a great job at eliminating the chance factor built into the choice of a specific line and did a great job at homogenizing all the racers' styles.

Over the years, these attempts to perfect the sport just did the opposite by dulling the "edge" that made it so exciting in the past. Further, it acted as the ultimate "leveler" in bringing together the style of athletes that could -- in the past -- be easily spotted with the naked eye and without much understanding of ski racing. Today, racers look pretty much all the same. You've seen one, you've seen them all. Their style is stereotyped and technical differences are very hard to spot... Based on these observations, it now make more sense that spectators have deserted the finish areas and their TV sets, not just in America, but also in Europe.

I remember vividly a Sunday of March 1975 when some 40,000 excited spectators came to Val Gardena to watch the World Cup Finals between Thoeni, Stenmark and Klammer. One dual slalom would decide everything! The explosive atmosphere of that day and the incredible energy that was floating in the air is no longer felt at major winter sports events. Of course all the various race formats offered by the(FIS) are not made for TV and this sport action was never designed to be framed on the small screen and be entertainment-packed.

Bob Beattie and Honoré Bonnet -- Killy's coach -- had understood this caveat when they tried to introduce dual races. The concept had great promises but the dinosaurs running FIS did very little to allow this format to evolve and gain in strength or popularity. Today, and in order to appeal to the masses, a sport has to be conceived so it can fit and entertain within that same TV screen. It is indeed very hard to "torture" a sport event to fit the requirements of modern television. As a result, I believe that after perfecting the race conditions, while ignoring the formulas used in the most popular sport marketing events like the NFL or the NBA, the FIS did a remarkable job at softly killing competitive skiing.

Of course, the changes made to the runs, the equipment and the technique are not the sole factors responsible for the decline in ski racing's popularity. There have been quantum changes in attitudes in the racing circles and among spectators. When in the 70s sports marketing became a business reality, it had some terrible effects on "small" sports like ski racing.

As it is said: "A fish always rot from the head." All probably started with the officials working at the national and international ski federations levels and then filtered down to the coaches and finally to the athletes. These people saw the worldly image of skiing, but forgot its tiny resources and limited audience. Skiing will never be like football, golfing or even tennis; a huge abyss exists between Michael Jordan and Hermann Maier...

When compared to most other sports, its total number of participants is minuscule, its attraction very limited and its promotional resources quite modest. It is therefore not appropriate to develop attitudes that belong in the upper league of sports and hope that the skiing public will put up with it. To gain support and attract, ski racing should remain fun, close to the people and for the people.

Let's now talk about the spectators and the way things are viewed through their eyes. Winters used to be long, dreary and devoid of any fun. One way to create some more pleasant experience was to go outdoors and slide or watch people have fun in the snow or on the ice... Since 1960, winter entertainment has evolved by leaps and bounds. Technologies, that couldn't have been even imagined thirty years ago, have appeared and multiplied. From mini-cassettes to CDs, from TV to videos, from radio to computer games, from cheap airfares to sun and beach destinations, recreational options are now endless...

In the meantime, Hollywood has become the world's new spiritual leader and cranks out products that are perfectly fitted to mass consumption. Gray winter days don't necessarily require a ski race to bring excitement. Today, faraway exotic places or up to the minute entertainment are at one's fingertips, or better yet, at the touch of the remote control, with the proliferation of televised options. Video, electronic games or the web are perfect outlets for literally eating-up long winter afternoons.

With this plethora of options, these last thirty years have spoiled our ski spectators. These have become more demanding and would like to see more than a succession of ski racers who look all the same, do the same motions, all in a blustery cold environment. An adjustment to this dying format is long overdue. Maybe that before cloning one single sheep, we successfully cloned our contemporary ski racers as well...

In an upcoming article, I will now explore ideas that might be poised to reviving the interest for our great sport of skiing.

Emerging Travel Trends and Their Implications

The following observations were presented during the Mountain Travel Symposium that just attended in Banff, Alberta. These trends have clear implications for destination resorts like Deer Valley, Park City or The Canyons and highlight the travel preferences and interests of Americans. Without question, the demand for mountain winter vacations remain very flat.

The Age of Time-Poverty

For 266 million people living in the USA, there is a strong sense of a "feel-good-economy". On the plus side comes a clear sense of possibility, and on the minus side a much more demanding consumer. In fact, tomorrow's consumer is becoming a "vigilante", less willing to compromise, with an acute sense of "time-poverty". With far too many things competing for the consumer's attention, convenience becomes a key word and the new definition of value becomes "how easy is it for our consumers to do business with us?". Another finding is that people want to experience new things all the time and find the very best value, and -- as a result -- are not as loyal as we would hope. With prosperity comes a new definition of success which is likely to fuel a greater demand for leisure and travel service. In fact, vacations have become a birthright. With 70% of spousal households working, consumers tend to plan more impulsively and take shorter trips that are much closer to home (within an average of three hours). The week-end vacation is soon becoming the most popular one; this growing trend will accentuate peaks and valleys in terms of occupancy and will behoove us to aggressively pursue the convention business in order to fill these early days of the week. Probably because of these time constraints, Americans seem to gravitate towards domestic vacations.

The Importance of Convenience

In spite of all these positive signs, a malaise still seems to linger as we somehow feel that something isn't right. The response is very simple: we're all stressed to the limit. Indeed, time has become the new currency. We don't ever have enough time to do it all; as a result, "dashboard dinning" is up, and along with that, half of the Americans feel they don't have enough vacation time. Convenience is another key word in our over-stressed society. We must continually ask ourselves: "How convenient is our product to purchase or use". The pay-off is clear; a product easier to use or acquire will often transcend the cost factor (i.e. ski-in/ski-out mountain properties). To further ease the acquisition process, we may see consumer credit entering into the picture for lodging transactions following the "Love Boat Leases" that have started to appear in the cruise industry. Trends also point to consumers preferring to buy products that are "bundled" as long as they have control on the components that make up the package. While for most households the 80's were the era of acquisition, the end of that decade and the early 90's brought back "cocooning" and savings. Today's buoyant economy has returned a stronger sense of certainty. With it, people place "having more fun" at the head of their possibility agenda along with "taking a special vacation". With increasing time pressures, vacations have become opportunities to spend time together with families or friends. Over-exposure to Madison Avenue's message has also made most Americans suspicious of advertising. The element they trust most is not the ads they see or the editorial they read; they now have much more confidence in themselves. This trend signals that consumer activism is at an all-time high and rising. Consumers now negotiate for everything. They also want everything personalized; today, the exception has become the rule. With little doubt, this trend will also apply to vacations. Another by-product of "time-poverty" is that consumers are defaulting to brands. As a result, national brands are ascending. If established and trusted, brands save consumers energy by sparing them endless evaluations and negotiations.

On-Line Commerce

Technology is also bringing a new twist to the picture. Today, almost half of the households in America own a computer and AOL already claims over 12 million subscribers! While the internet is still not widely used to book vacations, it has started to become a tool for gathering travel information. Consumers still rely on their travel agent for booking vacations. Many are still concerned by on-line security but some have started to log on line for low risk transactions like books (amazon.com) or music CD purchases. Experts also believe that very soon the internet will become a convenient tool for selling and buying distressed goods or inventory as exemplified by the new "priceline.com" website in which consumer are given an opportunity to bid for low air fares. This may usher an era in which price-stability becomes seriously eroded. The debate on the future impact of technology would not be complete however if we failed to differentiate between "Technos" and "Know-Nots". A significant portion of the population will resist technology as long as they can; as a result, conventional ways for reaching these people should not be overlooked...

Pricing skiing back into the market

The subject of pricing has been and remains taboo in our industry. However, addressing it straight on is on the list of measures we'll have to take, if we are to stop the current down-trend.

Conventional wisdom suggests that perception has stronger effects than reality, and as far as skiing is concerned, the overwhelming perception is that the sport has become prohibitive and is no longer beyond the reach of America's middle class. Based on that, attempts to attract new skiers through emotional and slick ad campaign won't suffice for reversing the decline. Bringing ski gear prices down and then demonstrating to the public that skiing is affordable are much needed steps in the process.

What appears to have pushed ski goods prices into the stratosphere prices deserves careful scrutiny. First, most consumers equate ski gear with the rest of mass-produced goods they purchase. While TV's, VCR's, computers, and a host of other consumer goods have seen their prices going down as their features while their features were improving dramatically, ski industry goods improved by minute increments while their prices kept up with and most recently exceeded the C.P.I. index... Over a period of five years, ski goods stuck out conspicuously in a field of competitively priced consumer products.

We sure can try to tell consumers that skiing is a tiny market, with a narrow selling season, and affected by unpredictable currency fluctuations, skiers will hear the plea but won't buy it; that simply goes against the grain... They'll go back to the argument that if the same desktop computer now costs half the price it sold for five years ago, somebody must be doing something wrong, somehow, somewhere in our little industry.

If we look beyond our small size and seasonality, and examine our fragmentation and the excessive number of suppliers, we start to see the roots of the problem. Does the market need 15 brands of alpine boots or 20 brands of alpine skis, which in turn literally "pro-create" and give birth to a 20 or 40 model line? Probably not. Not only does it confuse both consumer and retailer, it also multiplies R&D and tooling expenses at the factory as well as inventory carrying charges at every level of the distribution circuit. This clearly is the most hidden and unnecessary reason for run-away costs in our business.

The eighties have often times produced ski industry executives who thought they could afford to play the multi-model games as it is practiced by true mass marketers like Sony or Honda... They've just forgotten how tiny and vulnerable our ski industry is in comparison.

Rightfit's Bob Shay who operates boot fitting stores in major Rocky Mountains ski areas puts it best: "When it comes to overlap (boots), I only need 4 s.k.u.'s" he said, "men and ladies stiff plus men and ladies soft; that's it." How far have we strayed from the simple and clear cut three-modelLange collection that included "Comp", "Pro" and "Standard"?

The other industry predicament is that no one wants to leave it, no matter how bad the climate becomes. Since the business is so fun and so congenial, many a factory, distributor, rep or retailer will stay at any cost, even if that means starvation, bankruptcy, or any other form of protracted business agony... The existence of lesser suppliers generally supported by social foreign national banks ignited a dangerous trend of leniency when it came to granting the most liberal terms in the retail industry. I strongly believe that out-of-sight dating has become the "opium of the ski business" to paraphrase Karl Marx. When ten month due dates and systematic re-dating become a way of life, it becomes easy for retailers to forget that the money is simply not theirs. Some of them spend it all and can't face the music when the due date finally hits...

Today, this sorry state of affair has created a national addiction for protracted dating resulting in record-breaking industry debt. Soft credit policies are wheat has kept poorly capitalized and marginally viable retailers in business and made the retail business a tough road to travel for many others, business minded retailers. Without a question, extending terms costs an incredible amount to the whole industry. It requires more working capital, augment the impact of bad debt, and adds up somehow, somewhere, to the final price customers must pay.

In this apparent complexity, the solutions for keeping costs under control are painfully simple:

1). Do less things - or more precisely, offer less models, but do them better, i.e. be efficient with less s.k.u.'s, less warehouses, less factories, less molds, less R&D scatter, greater focus. Just do products that are right on the money when it comes to their market acceptance. Examples of successful products that could stand on their own abound: From the Head Standard, the Lange XL-S, the Pre 1200, the Salomon SX-91 to the Rossignol 4-S, Even though their success was often more by accident than design, these successful models show that efficient target marketing works.

2). Go back to normal business credit procedures. Stick to 30 or 60 days payment terms, ship when the goods are needed, not six months ahead of time, offer deeper discounts on close-outs not extended dating (remember the Opium...), cut people who don't deserve to stay in business or can't accept that starting capital and operating funds are essential to running a business.

3). Understand the law of market and stop fooling around with the rule of supply and demand. Enforce cut-off dates during the order taking season, only produce what is ordered then, and count on credit cancellations to account for most of the re-order needs. Run out of product, it will be a sign of a healthy industry again. By the way, suppliers need not worry about what their competitors are doing; by simply applying these principles they'll automatically enhance their desirability factor in the market place and will put the law of supply and demand to work for them.

4). Accept to exit. If there is no more room, if the product sold can't make it on its own, if the supplier, factory, reps are impossible to deal with, or if there is just no money to be made, realize that it's time to move on to greener pastures (no pun intended). Yes, there's life outside the ski industry, and your friends will respect your move. Trust me.