NORTHERN PLANNER

It was really nice in the pub after Interesting to meet some people. You all know who you are, but I’m just going to talk about Adrian Gunn Wilson right now.

He manfully ignored the fact he spoke first and taught us all how to chop a log. He works for Howies and his talk really embodied their philisophy.

Since I’m a fan I couldn’t help bring this up  when we chatted in the pub. And you know what? His face lit up and couldn’t stop talking about it – it wasn’t talking about his job, it was just what he DID.

I was telling him how nice the girls were on the phone and he promised to tell them. They need it, since they’re nice, they take nasty phonecall to heart. That’s the downside of being charming and friendly, but they won’t change.

What I found particularly inspiring was the no compromise commitment to his (and their beliefs). They want to get big, they don’t want to be a niche brand – it’s only when you get big that you get to influence people, that you get to preach to more then the converted. It reminded me why number ones matter – they have power to shape and influence us all. Scale can be a good thing if it’s used wisely. It takes conviction and it looks like they have that in spades.