My entrepreneurial values were immediately put to a test.when I was starting to manufacture my commercial fish feeders (an automatic fish feeding device I invented that would help aqua-farmers simplify feeding management).
I was on the phone with a Filipino Chinese supplier of plastic raw materials one day. The heavily-accented voice on the other end of the line was telling me his products had a service life of one to two years.
Do you have UV-stabilized grade of plastic that would last at least three years?” — I asked.
A long silence followed my question.
Then he finally answered: “Eh, di wala ka nang negosyo pagkatapos.” (Then you wouldn’t have repeat business.)
I don’t remember how that conversation ended but that supplier made a point I pondered on for days. Should I make a cheap product that would have a short useful life that would send the buyer back to me in one to two years? Or should I make a higher quality product that is durable but is considerably more expensive?
In the end, I chose to make a product built to last.
I might have failed my first test from the conventional business view. After all, even expensive machines these days are engineered with obsolescence built in.
But it turned out, my kinetic fish feeder became an instant success among fish farmers around the country and won the respect of colleagues. While I lost a good deal of my earning potential to piracy (because soon, cheaper, slightly modified copies of my patented product proliferated in the market), I found comfort and satisfaction from being able to help Filipino fish farmers in my own way.
By:
Philip S. Cruz
President, Cruz Aquaculture Corporation