Letter from Ed & Mary Rogers
War on Terrorism – September 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
Hi Ed and Martha,
Just received [the August] Colorado Central. The article read very well and we actually laughed at my own writing. Those win-wins are never a win-win; the taxpayer is always the loser.
Ed your article in the Denver Post was perfect [“Diogenes was looking in the right place, anyway,” July 23.) The higher one goes the less the person gives a damn about integrity and service.
It is our sincere belief that this is what happens. A small privately owned company answers to only one group; the customer. If the customer is not happy that customer comes directly to the source of the problem, you the owner on the other side of the counter.
If you have integrity and are focused on the one overwhelming source of your being present in business (customer) you make that customer happy if he/she has a legitimate problem. Once a company grows and becomes public then that customer is tertiary. Number one is keep the shareholder happy, number 2 is keep the board happy. By then you are so damned involved with yourself you do not even recognize those early customers when you pass them on the street. Frankly, they cannot afford to walk the same sidewalks you now walk on.
Our company has become an unimagined success. Our website averages 150,000 readers per month and sales are worldwide and well into triple digits. Every search engine places us in the top two or three and two engines have translated the site into six languages. We are now the largest specialized rare book dealer in our subject [geology] in the world.
We are constantly asked how we do it. Simple. In other words we keep the business small and simple. We do not and will not go to Advanced Book Exchange or other sites that are large and place customer service second. That is the big complaint that customers who come to us have with the big boys. They crave small and simple. The nation craves it but does not know it yet. They hate the Wal-Marts but go to those boxes because of price.
If Americans would look at the Revolution they would find that the Colonists feared not only King George but more so big unknown British Corporations. That was the reason for the Boston Tea Party. It was corporate tea going over the side. That is why early corporations had to pass a test and standards unimagined by today’s easy filings in Delaware. They were allowed to exist to fulfill one public service (Eric Canal for example) and then bye bye (wonder how many caught the reason for the bill to the State of Delaware in my letter). It was not until after the Civil War that corporations (carpet baggers) became a major problem which led to the Great Depression. Makes you wonder — the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. Now the 2002 Crash and another drought spreading across North America. The 20s and 30s led to World War II. Now we have the phony “war on terrorism”. Coincidence or history about to repeat? Again that Post article was superb.
Ed and Mary Rogers
Poncha Springs