I have mentioned before in this column about the importance of having a vision for a company - knowing who you are, how you got there and where you want to go. A business whose leadership has no vision or incorrect vision will not survive in the long term. I believe it has helped our company to succeed by having the vision of being a "specialist." We design and produce specialty products for selected customers. Even within the commercial mower equipment industry we do not offer a machine for everyone.

In a few days, the 50,000th Walker Mower will roll out the door. We will celebrate. It has been 21 years in the making. Some of the big competitors in this industry might say, "What is the big deal? We produce 50,000 mowers in the blink of an eye." To us at Walker Mfg., it is a matter of proportion and knowing who we are. We are not big, but small. We do not apologize for being small. But that sense makes us appreciate the magnificence of this achievement.

As I write this in December '99 and you read it next year, we will have passed into the next century. I suppose this marking of time has caused almost everyone to think about the future and form their own opinions. Clearly there are extreme views. Some have looked glibly at 2000 saying nothing will happen and "let the good times roll." Meanwhile, the alarmist and doomsdayers have predicted catastrophic problems, often profiting handsomely from the fear of the future.

It is part of our company culture to celebrate. We celebrate reaching a milestone, company goal or achievement. In the earlier years the company supplied a special "snack" during Friday afternoon break for everyone when another 100 mowers had been produced- it used to take several weeks. Today, we celebrate hitting our production goals every other week on Friday afternoon.

Welcome to this special edition of Walker Talk in Europe. In 1977, when we designed the first Walker, we were not thinking of market potential in Europe. In fact, we were not thinking about market potential anywhere. The Walker design was approached from the starting point of making a machine to do a job (mow and vacuum landscaped areas) rather than designing to fit a market. When marketing was started in 1980, we stayed close to home in Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma. But to our surprise, the markets began to open quickly across the United States, Canada and overseas. We found that the job the Walker was designed to do had wide application and wide market potential.

It struck like lightning early last year; large and medium-sized landscape contracting companies began to merge into consolidated "national" companies - largely the work of investment bankers anxious to make a public stock offering and cash in on the vitality of this industry. Undoubtedly a move of this size affects the industry. It is a time for the small and mediumsized independent contractors to do some soul searching as to how they will fit in to the future of the industry.