Getting There First and Don’t Be a Problem Solver Special Note: While this method solves the problem, it requires little skill or forward thinking. This story takes 3 minutes to read. If you are in a time crunch, skip the story and jump to the moral of the story. A few years ago we studied the Mechatronics Industry, which is the marriage of mechanical systems (gears, belts, electric motors and hydraulics) and electronic systems (computers, PLC’s, sensors and digital screens). Along the way, our work discovered mechanical distributors were almost always the first to learn of customer projects. Why? Customers designed mechanical portions of their system ahead of the electronic portion. In all but a few situations, the mechanics were engineered 60-90 days ahead of electronic controls. We believed this gave the person selling both the mechanical components and electronic controls a competitive advantage over a “controls only” seller. Knowing about and working on solut...