By sharing its innovation with distribution partners early, Pella earned their enthusiasm. This resulted in partners offering to showcase the new product in their own booths at the International Builder Show, dramatically increasing Pella's presence and impact beyond its single, small booth.

Home Depot succeeded by "counter-positioning" against incumbents like Sears. Their high-volume, low-price model was so different that if Sears tried to adopt it, they would have damaged their existing high-margin business. This strategic dilemma paralyzed competitors, allowing Home Depot to capture the market.

The bottling contract fixed Coke's price at a nickel. While a long-term liability, during the Depression this became a powerful weapon. Coke's massive scale allowed it to remain profitable at that price point, while smaller competitors with higher costs were crushed, unable to compete with a superior, cheaper product.

Pella Corporation found a massive innovation opportunity by addressing the pain points of window installers, a critical user group who doesn't purchase the product but heavily influences its perceived quality and customer satisfaction.

High margins create stability but also invite competition. The ideal strategy is to operate with margins low enough to build customer loyalty and a competitive moat, while retaining the *ability* to raise prices when necessary. This balances long-term growth with short-term financial resilience.

Instead of setting prices at launch and letting them erode, Novonesis implemented a discipline of having annual conversations about the value their products deliver. This shifted pricing from a 1-2% annual erosion to a 1-2% revenue growth contributor.

While competitors fired staff and cut advertising during recessions, Clayton Homes adopted the motto, "The country is in a recession and we have elected not to participate." By maintaining investment and playing offense, they captured significant market share and were positioned for recovery.

The game-changing insight wasn't a new idea, but an observation of how installers were already "hacking" the process. They were forcing an exterior-designed product to be installed from the inside for safety. Pella simply designed a system that formalized and optimized this behavior.

Historically, Pella addressed installation issues by trying to "fix the installer" with more training. Their successful innovation stemmed from a crucial mindset shift: the problem wasn't the user's process, but a product that was fundamentally designed incorrectly for their real-world needs.