Economy of Motion

Eric Herman

As is true of businesses coast to coast, we at WaterShapes are counting the days until the economy turns around. We do so confident that economic trends are cyclical and that good times have always replaced the bad.

But this particular recession has been deeper and longer than most among us have ever witnessed, leaving many companies – including ours – to hunker down and make what we can out of thin stocks of available business. As has been suggested numerous times in the pages of our magazine, however, this is no time for rash action: Instead, we must take advantage of this opportunity to evaluate positions, sharpen skills and put even greater energy into enhancing our businesses.

In our case at WaterShapes, this sort of honest, careful examination of our situation has led us to a practical decision: Until further notice, we’re changing our frequency and will become a bimonthly publication again for the first time since 1999. The reason is obvious: We need to find ways to stretch our resources to stay in the game until things turn around.

In considering our possibilities, we talked with countless people (readers and advertisers alike) and picked up two general impressions – the first being that the magazine is important to everyone, the second being that many we spoke with were relieved (and even admired the fact) that we had a sensible plan and the determination to see it through. The consensus was, above all, that we were doing the right thing.

True, this means you’ll see us less frequently for a while, but as I gather from my conversations with many of you, it’s far more important for us to keep going than it is for us to visit with you every month. In addition, this new schedule will give us a much-needed opportunity to focus on our Web site and on developing original content that will make watershapes.com a far more valuable resource.

Through all of this, you can expect the same level of quality you’ve always found in WaterShapes: It’s not only that we refuse to compromise on the values that have led us to success, but also that we just don’t know how to do things any other way. As we see it, the watershaping industry will bounce back soon – and it will be as a marketplace in which WaterShapes’ orientation toward excellence will be more important than ever before.

In our recent conversations, we learned that many of you have spent the last several months wrestling with decisions of similar gravity. Like you, we at WaterShapes are taking pride in accentuating the positive, in celebrating the small victories and in never taking our eyes off the fact that our industry has a yet-to-be-fully-realized potential for greatness that can’t be denied.

We will get through this together.