Blogs

By Peter Granata, president, Granata Design and the Marine Design Resource Alliance -- December 17 is National Regifting Day. For those of you not familiar with the practice of regifting it is described as the act of taking a gift that has been received and giving it to somebody else, sometimes in the guise of a new gift. To paraphrase ...

By Gary W. Druckenmiller, Jr., co-founder, TheOpenSea.com -- Like most of us, I’ve been boating for years.  I started as a kid sailing daysailers, then got my license and began bombing around the bay in my Dad’s bow-rider. As I got bigger, so did the boats. In the early 90’s, my family moved up to a larger cabin cruiser and ...

If you think your gut alone can predict the market accurately enough to run a business, then I suggest you get out of boating and go make your fortune on the stock market.

Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of customer-service-related blogs I’ll write to wrap up 2009. Through a series of recent consumer experiences, I feel I’ve learned a number of things worth sharing about satisfying customers. Last week, I shared the incredible experience I had with a Disney employee who went above and beyond to exceed my expectations ...

During the Marine Dealer Conference & Expo last month, I was thrilled to hear Joe Verde talking about the importance of marine businesses getting the right people working in their companies and leading and training them well. That is essential if dealerships are to recover from the effects of the recession and grow. I’ve experienced the power of such leadership ...

It’s the holiday season, and it’s all about the consumer. And as a consumer, I’ve been fortunate (or unfortunate, as it may be) to have had a series of experiences — both incredibly good and horribly wrong — that I believe contain worthwhile lessons on customer service and are therefore worth sharing. So with that as a backdrop, I’m going ...

Welcome to the photo showcase for the 2009 Boating Industry Top 100 Dealers Club 100 Gala, brought to you by the Leadership Alliance and Boating Industry magazine. This gallery showcases the entire event, held on Nov. 18, 2009, from the cocktail reception through the awards and the after Top 100 networking event. You can view all of the photos and ...

If it’s true that what happens in the recreational vehicle industry foreshadows developments in the boating business, then a release yesterday from Citigroup may offer a glimmer of hope that market conditions will improve in 2010.

There comes a time in everyone’s business life when we are faced with having to make a critical decision that requires action. We’re getting very close to being “there."

Recently, Crocker’s Marine announced that after 40 years, they have closed their doors. The real question now becomes, who will service their existing customers?