1. Welcome to Commodity Hell: The Perils of the Copycat Economy
Faster, Bigger, Harder
"Either you innovate or you're in commodity hell. If you do what everybody else does, you have a low-margin business. That's not where we want to be."
Sam Palmisano, CEO of IBM, uttered those words, and Robert Winquist would painfully agree. Winquist is CEO of Vending Supply, Inc. (VSi), one of the premier designers, manufacturers, and distributors of children's stickers and temporary tattoos. When your kids insert quarters to buy stickers or tattoos in vending machines at grocery stores or malls, they're probably buying a VSi product. Within two years of its launch in 1993, VSi was the fastest-growing, coolest player in what's known as the "flat vending ...
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