Nordic Ware recently announced the introduction of a special Bundt pan design celebrating the company’s 75th anniversary.
The 75th-anniversary pan represents much more than an opportunity to introduce and promote a product around a milestone occasion. It is a testament to how an inventive and determined family — the Dalquists in the case of Nordic Ware — turned $500 dollars and a dream into an enduring international business that through the years has carefully balanced the need to evolve with the need to retain traditional values upon which the company was founded.
Nordic Ware certainly isn’t the only housewares business marking a big anniversary this year. (Apologies if I don’t attempt to list them for fear of leaving some out.) Companies every year celebrate their longevity, proudly saluting the past in a way that also cultivates confidence in the future among employees, community, customers and consumers.
Yes, it can be an occasion for special anniversary products and promotions. The leadership of such businesses, though, will tell you pride in such professional staying power runs much deeper than any near-term marketing opportunity.
Such milestones resonate even louder in 2021 amid a pandemic that has exposed the vulnerability of businesses incapable of adapting rapidly to a sudden, sweeping shift in commercial and operational priorities.
Long before the pandemic, startups with little long-term equity in the industry have been disrupting business regularly by brandishing progressive, new approaches unencumbered by conventional thinking and practice. However, while the concept of disruption has been amped up and the stakes raised the age of digital commerce, it is hardly a novel phenomenon.
Many of this industry’s most enduring companies, regardless of how long they have operated, were born out of an opening in the marketplace to offer solutions and value in new ways. These companies have strong cores to support carefully managed risk, decisive action, productive innovation and steady progress. And they are ready and willing to adapt again and again.
There is more to a milestone anniversary than feel-good nostalgia, although that can be a powerful elixir of commercial goodwill. Longevity indicates a company that likely has confronted all sorts of unprecedented turbulence through the years has consistently demonstrated the resilience, dexterity and vision to see another day.
Congratulations to Nordic Ware and all home and housewares companies marking special anniversaries this year. Their most important tradition might be the reliability of their commitment to lead and advance.
It will be interesting to see which of the prospective disruptors just getting started on their dreams will celebrate their own milestone anniversaries in the years and decades to come.
