Riders with steering levers and zero turn radius performance were already on the market in '77 when we started designing the Walker Mower. Our vision and innovation was to make a very compact, frontcutting machine with a built-in grass collection system. This package would optimize the performance available from a zero turn radius-type machine. In the years since then, there has been very little offered by other equipment manufacturers competitive with the Walker- we've had a niche of the market to ourselves.

There's the old saying, "leadership is earned and not given." And how is leadership earned? There's another old teaching (Biblical) "Whoever would become a leader, let him be a servant" That sounds like a paradox. and as a business principle, it just wouldn't work... "You'd be eaten alive in the dog-eat-dog business world." But this is a principle that Walker Manufacturing was founded on and is trying to follow.

There is a shift these days toward throwaway or disposable products. Mass merchandisers have emerged to sell these products and it works. They essentially tell the customer, "You don't need service. If it breaks, just throw it away and buy a new one. Or we'll give you a new one within the warranty period." It is clear that the traditional dealer providing dealer services is not needed in this scheme. Some have foretold the demise of the independent dealer network as a result of these changes in products and retailing.

Some people might think a mission statement or product philosophy is just "words on paper" and a waste of time. But to get into business and stay in business, it is important to know who you are, how you got to where you are, and then have the vision of where you want to go. A written statement or philosophy helps in the guiding process.

After trying it both ways, my father, Max Walker, likes to say, "I'd rather have my own hamburger stand than be part of McDonald's." It's not that there aren't advantages to being associated with a big, stable organization. There are. But there also are distinct advantages to independent businesses.

By some estimates, we've grown too slowly. "After all," critics and supporters both would say, "You have a niche so why not take advantage of it." Or, by proverb, "Make hay while the sun shines." Our answer to them is, we want to stay healthy and continue to grow. We want to ensure that our heart - our manufacturing system and our product - stays strong, and the only way to do that is to take care of our circulatory system - our distributors and dealers and their customers, the end users.