We frequently get mail from people that want be part of this in some way. So we need to state what is our opinion on business, competition, and other aspects of developing and business politics.
We see ourself as the motor, inventor, developer, of the concrete submarine movement, and envision a future of multiple appliances, business opportunities, and people having a lot of fun submerged following the visions of Jules Verne.
Problem and Solution
To speak with Gorbatschov there are always things that are "part of the problem" and things that are "part of the solution". Like for any movement there are things that are part of the movement and things that are part of the resistance.
For us anything that is part of the movement is welcome, and anything that is part of the resistance is "not desireable".
Therefore there are things that we embrace - and other things that we are not so happy with.
1) Competitors
We like competitors - we like them so much that we even are willing to give away trade secrets and cooperate to make their business much easier and sucessful. The more people enter to produce well built concrete hulls the quicker the movement will grow - so for us competitors are "part of the movement" much more than a problem. This is why we would love to help concrete submarine fabricaton projects as advisors. It is not a problem for us if somebody has success building concrete submarine hulls, on contrary the mere existence of successful concrete submarine hulls is a important contribution to the movement. On the other hand poorly built hulls, catastrophic failure is part of the resistance - so we are willing to contribute to the success of our competitors and avoid their failure.
2) Self builders
For the same reasons self builders can convert into part of the movement - as well as part of the problem. A concrete building project that fails converts into part of the problem, a successful project is part of the solution. So what we are interested in is, that self builders mount their project well, design it well, and execute it well. We encourage well mounted projects and give advice how to do so.
3) Selling Plans
Selling Plans for a concrete submarine is a bit like selling plans for appendix surgery - somebody who has the know how and experience to do it - does not need to buy any plan - and someone who needs to buy plans is better adviced "not to do it". Before you start to build a submarine you should have a lot of practical experience and a complete insight into the physics involved. Taking shortcuts by buying plans from someone else is dangerous - and can bring up failure - this is one reason why we are not selling plans.
4) Franchise Sistem
For people interested in private concrete submarines we were thinking in a kind of franchise sistem.The objective is not making money but assuring the quality of privatly built concrete submarines by maintain a flow of advice, craftsmanship, general building criteria, and friendship within the concrete submarine building community. Customers could so purchase their hull from a builder that is building according to proven standards and part of a intenational know how building community.
5) Privacy
Private submarine owners has been described as a "privacy motivated" kind of people. We understand the need for privacy, especially in the luxury yacht segment, but we also understand the need of the authorities to have knowledge about what is going on in this segment. So it is one of our codes of conduct that we do not business, nor cooperate, nor build for, nor share info, with people that are not clearly identified with a personal identification - this includes corporations. We have a clear commitment to the code that anybody who is not willing to show his face - should not be enabled to purchase a sub or get special knowledge by means of our community.
6) Discussion
As a movement that is implementing new things we get a lot of questioning - in some cases we do not enter in endless discussion processes with skeptics.
This is not because we do not have the answers - it is because too much controversial discussion only paints a picture of "problematic" to the public that in itself becomes part of the resistance.
As we are interested in increasing the movement - not the resistance - we sometimes pull out somewhat of discussion and prefer that our submarine yachts do the "talking" in the end.
In general terms we are interested in a productive discussion process. We do not pretend to convince the last hard headed skeptic that concrete submarines are a great idea... |