This issue of Walker Talk is a celebration issue. We are celebrating people and relationships spanning the 25 years that we have published Walker Talk and the 38 years of producing the Walker Mower. You may notice the magazine layout is different with us taking a look back at some of the people that have been featured in previous issues of the magazine to see how they are doing.
Walker Talk is long-lasting as a company-sponsored publication. Several other company-sponsored publications in our industry have come and gone in the last 25 years. People who know the specialty business publishing industry tell us that Walker Talk has lasted longer than many other publications of this type.
Why has Walker Talk lasted so long? It helps fulfill our mission at Walker Manufacturing to build relationships and create opportunities for people with the common denominator of the little yellow machine. We are not ashamed to admit that we are a family-owned and family-operated business, and we like to operate family-style, which is built on the foundation of working with people and building relationships. By telling the stories of real people working in businesses they have created, working in other organizations or working as a private user, we have kept the interest of our readers across the years. There is nothing better than real-life stories.
This issue of Walker Talk is also celebrating long-lasting people. Long-lasting people tend to build long-lasting families and long-lasting businesses. Research on business survival rates shows the average time for a business from start to finish is between five and 10 years. Many of our Walker Talk story subjects have lasted well beyond “average.”
Of course, lasting does not mean doing the same thing year after year. It means keeping pace with change, adjusting and improving along the way. Sometimes that has meant changing to a different operation or different opportunity that does not include the Walker Mower; in some cases, the Walker Mower has helped create a stepping stone to a better opportunity. As we like to say, “Each person should work to find their best opportunity.” Fortunately, in many cases, that best opportunity has included owning and operating a Walker Mower.
Now that we have completed 50 issues, an obvious question is: “Will Walker Talk continue to be published?” We cannot promise it always will be, but we have some long-lasting DNA in our blood that includes the third generation in our family.
Bob Walker, President
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