Back to School

Kenneth Williams is a member of the Andis educational team. He is one busy man. He owns the Silk and Classy Barber College plus 3 shops in the community. I spent the day visiting him at his school and meting with him to discuss ideas for shows and events for 2006. You will see a lot of Kenny in 2006 as he is slated to appear at a number of schools, classes and events. Kenny has great energy and enthusiasm for barbering and educating the students that represent the future of the barber industry. Kenny's school is clean and bright and features a strong team of educators and aspiring barbers. With the holiday season upon us it is sure to be a busy time in Kenny's school and shops. You know how it goes...If you cannot get busy cutting hair this time of year you will never get busy.

Testing 1, 2, 3

One part of my job where I have the most fun is the chance to play with toys. The engineering test samples of the tools and equipment our teams are working on find their way to my desk. These I consider toys. My job is to play with �em. Try to break �em. See if they will really do what engineering wants them to do and marketing wants to say that they will do. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don�t. This week was an interesting version of a current clipper. This one did not work as intended. Sometines I have bad news. Sometimes the bad news is good news. Better to identify problems, challenges and opportunities when it is just in the idea stage. Once we have a warehouse full of �em it is a little late for tweaking. Sometimes the engineers have to beg for the samples back. Sometimes an idea is so good I want to keep the sample. At least I know that when it finally hits production I will be the first to have my very own.

Next year

My travel schedule has slowed a bit as we move out of the show season and into the holiday season and the busy season of planning for next year. The big projects on my plate for the coming year are ramping up Andis� presence at the major events throughout the country, a continued focus on distributor events to build on the early success of the Experience collection and the continued growth of our business in the schools market. Lots of school programs on the way. Lots of student kit clippers moving out there.

Educating a different audience

Today I paid a visit to our production floor to speak to the team that builds our StyleLiner II trimmer. This is one of our best selling tools. It is also one that we have made for a long time and is an old favorite of many of our traditional barbering customers. The team that build StlyeLiner is very proud of the work they do to build, pack and ship this tool. They had great questions about the tool and the customers who use and love it. I also shared information on the StyleLiners competitors out there (there aren't many due to the power, durability and quality of this tool). Presentations of this type will happen on a more regular basis as we work to involve and educate all employees in the many aspects of our business and help all to see how what they do is a part of the entire process.

Fighting for my clipper

A visit to The Akron Barber College in Akron, OH, a large classic barber school, was the highlight of my trip this week. This place is magical to me. A huge school, 40+ chairs, male and female students and a mixed ethnic clinic floor clientele. Overall, a great place to learn, a great place to teach and a fun place to visit. Not a bad place to get a haircut either as the students here do really superior work. An Andis school customer for many, many years. I visited with the owners and set up in a back classroom to demo some cuts, ask and answered hours of questions and show off some of the latest and greatest Andis tools. The new Andis Ceramic Advanced clipper was a hit with the students. It is small, light, fast and affordable. It uses all the UltraEdge and CeramicEdge BG series blades. When I told them the price they all wanted to buy one on the spot. When I mentioned my intention to leave behind the one and only I had brought I had a near riot on my hands. Out came the 2-part raffle tickets (I love giving stuff away and always have a roll of raffle tickets in my show bag). I gave away a bunch of hats, shirts, capes, barber jackets and my only Ceramic Advanced. Hey, there is a warehouse full of 'em on the other side of my office wall. I'll get another one when I get home.

Lights, Camera, Action

Once again I am back in front of a camera with a clipper. This was a DVD shoot for a training tape for employees of beauty supply stores. They sell more clippers every day than anyone. We tried to provide the answers to the most frequently asked questions so they would be comfortable and confident in suggesting and recommending Andis tools. This was a fun shoot as it is less rigid than a training DVD for sale. We had a teleprompter for the script and were able to nail it in one take for each segment. We had the luxury of filming second takes so the editors had alternative choices for the final piece. It is a good thing people have 2 sides and 2 ears. We get that second take where we need it. It is the 3rd take on the 3rd side (3rd ear) that can be a problem.

Frequent Flyer Miles

This will be a big week for my United Mileage Plus account. ORD to DEN to BIO to DEN to IAD to MIA to CTL to ORD. 1 store class, 3 student lecture/demo, 1 hands-on workshop, 1 sales meeting. A busy 3 days! This is just the way I like it. The highlight of the trip was an Andis Academy-on-the-road program. This will be rolled out on a broader scale soon and looks to be a great way to take tons of great clipper cutting information to large audiences at lower costs and with high impact. Look for me and an Andis academy-on-the-road program in your area soon.