This month Cimquest becomes 30 years old! While a small percentage of companies ever make it to that milestone an even smaller group makes that lengthy journey under the stewardship of the original founder. Even though this can be considered a great achievement, I feel that the passing of time is not a significant measurement of accomplishment. In fact, I am reminded of a poem that my mom loved and which was delivered at her funeral. The poem is called “The Dash” by Linda Ellis. I recommend that you read the poem and support the author’s site at thedashpoem.com. However, to summarize, the poem talks about how the importance of one’s existence is not the year they were born or the year they died but “what matter(s) most of all (is) the dash between those years.”

There are so many people who accomplish so much in a very short time of existence, while others are blessed with a much greater amount of time but unfortunately do not leave nearly the positive imprint in the world. Now we all can’t be Henry Fords or Elon Musks, but we can all make positive contributions to the world in our own small but consistent manners. So while it is great to reflect on the number of years we have existed so far, I really would like to reflect on what has made Cimquest unique through all of these years.

If there is anything that I feel epitomizes Cimquest it is in our ability and willingness to pivot our focus and direction in order to stay relevant in a fast-changing world. We have made difficult decisions in the past to drop relationships with vendors who we felt were either not aligned with our business direction and customers’ needs and/or were not themselves making the necessary pivots to address the changes in the industry. When I mention difficult, I mean sometimes gut-wrenching changes in which we were walking away from over 50% of our gross revenue to sail into uncharted waters. With such risky moves, we jeopardized jobs, vendor relationships, customer relationships as well as the confidence in Cimquest by our team in order to prevent Cimquest from slipping into obsolescence. Even though these changes were at times painful, they have brought us to a point where we have the right products at the right time for our customers.

So what’s in store for Cimquest next? Part of what has driven my passion in Cimquest has been the chance to stay ahead of the curve and to make the necessary changes to keep Cimquest unique and viable in the industry. There is still a great deal of opportunities to create change and create value for our customers. I would love to tell you more about it but time will tell.

Cimquest, Inc. (1990 – Still Going Strong)

Rob Hassold
CEO/Founder