We believe strongly that for manufacturing to succeed in the USA, companies have to innovate. For us, this took the form of innovating our business model to be mostly direct to consumer. Creating individual invoices, packing slips, shipping bills, and managing tens of thousands of individual customers is a challenge most manufacturers don’t want to embrace. We found that it was the key to building a brand that would continue to be made in the USA. Additionally, customers who wish to keep jobs in the USA will often need to make buying choices that reflect that desire. This can sometimes result in higher priced products which many customers do not want to pay. Our industry is fortunate in that our customers, mostly hard-working American truck owners, have a great desire to buy from US-based companies. You’ve navigated a solid and popular product through one of the biggest storms in modern economic history, came out stronger from the storm, and you’re business plan is consumer and employee centric before anything else – and it works. What does the future hold for DiamondBack? Today, DiamondBack’s vision is one of long-term stability, growth, and profit generation for its employees, the founders and investors. Our mission is to continue to build one of the best manufacturing companies in Pennsylvania, one that employees love
to work for and customers love to buy from. By using the internet to find, connect, and communicate with new customers through Facebook, Twitter – that reminds me to encourage people to check out #DiamondBackReady where customers can also submit and add to the album of photos you asked about earlier, DiamondBack is building lifetime value and a brand that customers trust and purchase from again and again as they replace their trucks. The company is committed to pioneering a new kind of direct-to-consumer manufacturing, which allows for high wages and high profits through connecting directly with their end users. “The company today is where it is because of the absolutely incredible team of employees we have.” I’ve got to say that while the classroom to corporation is a good story – and we like to tell it – that the company today is where it is because of the absolutely incredible team of employees we have. I’m sure many people say that, but we seriously have one of the best teams of people I’ve been around. They love the company, they love DiamondBack. They work with a passion and determination that exceeds just working for a paycheck. Myself and Matt at this point, are largely along for the ride with our employees as we all together see where the DiamondBack ship will take us. •
The headphone jack is becoming extinct
by Calli Gregg T he headphone jack has been around for over a hundred years first being used by operators. Yes I know what those are, for telecommunication company until the industry moved to the 3.5mm headphone jack that was popularized by the Sony Walkman, long before my time, in the 1970s that has long remained a key part of mobile devices, but now seems that is going the way of the dinosaur and will soon be extinct as more and more devices moving to Bluetooth technology. The trend started back in 2016, Apple opted not to include the headphone jack in the iPhone 7, making waves across the tech industry. Samsung, who has been one of the last champions of the headphone jack, recently revealed the Galaxy Note 10 will not have the traditional headphone jack. It is interesting on how things change, and how companies view innovation in the industry as Samsung nowpromotes this change as innovation in the industry even though the company took every opportunity back in 2016 to ridicule Apple for removing the headphone jack when it did. So, why did Samsung follow Apple and remove the jack? The answer may be obvious to engineers and designers, the jack had to go in order to make room for other components. Specifically, Samsung needed
more space to cram larger batteries into both the Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10+. Samsung could have kept the jack and could have crammed in larger batteries that are thicker, but that would have also meant making the Note 10s thicker, by gutting the headphone jack and making the batteries thinner and taller, Samsung was able to safely fit them inside the phones' thin bodies. There's also another reason Samsung removed the headphone jack: According to the company's post-purchase research, the majority of Galaxy Note users are using wireless headphones or earbuds with their phones. Whether they're using Samsung's own IconX or Galaxy Buds or another brand's wireless headphones, Note users are early adopters of new technologies and have embraced a wire-free listening experience. Plus looking at the industry, other phones, like the Pixel 3 and Huawei P30 Pro, don't have headphone jacks, either. Whatever the case, the loss of the port is no longer as unreasonable as it was a few years ago and it is here to stay. So, what was a risky move has now become the standard for the industry, well at least for today.
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81 OCTOBER 2019 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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