Don Rickert Design

Details on Don Rickert Design In-House Product Development

In addition to work for clients, we invent many new Don Rickert Design^(tm) products in-house, being very careful to avoid conflicts of interest with our work for clients.

Some of our in-house New Product Development is self-funded and some involves joint ventures and limited external funding. We tend to avoid external funding, as primary ownership of our inventions is key to our business plan.

It is no secret that Don Rickert Design has unique expertise in the design, manufacture and marketing of innovative musical instruments, primarily bowed instruments (acoustic and electric violins and synthesizers with a violin-like interface). In fact, Dr. Don Rickert is internationally known in the field of musical instrument invention and innovation.

Some might find this musical instrument angle surprising. It is no different, however, than Cox Enterprises owning the world's largest used automobile buying and re-selling (to dealers) enterprise, Manheim Auctions. Nor is it different from Clabber Girl, a brand of baking powder, baking soda and corn starch, which also owns and operates the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Indy Racing League.

Would you really want a product development firm that does not invent, manufacture (through a complex network of boutique CNC, laser-cutting, carbon fiber fabrication and violin-making workshops in the U.S.) and market its own products helping you in your own product development efforts?

A key business partner in our musical instrument arena has been Fiddarci Lutherie (lutherie is the proper name for a stringed instrument making workshop), located in Helena, AL. Another critical business partner has been International Violin Company, which serves as a broker to specialty workshops in Germany, Eastern Europe and Hong Kong for the manufacture of some of the parts, such as the distinctive necks used for Don Rickert-designed violins.

The current main website/blog for Don Rickert Design musical instruments is www.AdventurousMuse.com. There are several online retail outlets where both Don Rickert Design, as well as instruments and accessories from other makers are sold. The primary online store is www.AdventurousMuseStore.com; however, we also own storefronts on Amazon.com and Etsy.com.

Other In-House Product Development Areas:

In addition to the musical instrument development described above, Don Rickert Design has considerable expertise in rowing craft design and construction. We are "sitting on" three original designs for high-performance boats intended for ocean, bay and rough river rowing until we can get the rest of our business running on a new "troubled times" business plan.

Another reason we are waiting is that high-performance rowing craft are "luxury" items and launching them now (no pun intended) would not be prudent, even if investment resources were available, which they are not.

In-House Self-Funded and Investor-Funded Product Development

It is no secret that Don Rickert Design has unique expertise in the design, manufacturer and marketing of innovative musical instruments. It is indeed true that, in addition to our work for clients, we invent many new Don Rickert Design(tm) products in-house, being very careful to avoid conflicts of interest with our work for clients.

You might find our musical instrument ventures surprising. To read more about this and other in-house product development, click here.

Would you really want a product development firm that does not invent, manufacture and market its own products helping you with any aspect of your own product development efforts?

Our own New Product Development

Don Rickert Research & Design also does its own in-house product development and manufacture (in conjunction with its joint venture partner firm, Fiddarci Lutherie in Helena, AL). Ground-breaking stringed musical instruments, electronic music gear and specialized adventure equipment (e.g. high-performance rowing craft) have been our initial areas of focus.

Once an area of focus seems to have potential, it is spun off as a separate division with its own identity. To date, the most well-established "spin-off" company is Rickert & Ringholz Musical Instruments, which has earned an international reputation for innovative modern violins. About half of its customers are in Japan, Australia, EU countries and Denmark. Some of the most highly regarded musicians in the world own and perform on instruments, sold under the Rickert & Ringholz(tm), Rickert & Jones(tm) and Don Rickert-Fiddarci Lutherie(tm) brands.

There are about 25 Patent Pending applications in various stages of progress for the various musical instruments. The curious reader can see and hear cutting-edge bowed string instruments being played by visiting  (YouTube www.youtube.com/user/DoctorFiddle). The official website is now www.FiddleandBowBlog.com. The online store is www.FiddleandBowStore.com.

The other two spin-offs, just getting under way (AND GREAT INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES) are:

• Adventure Rowing(tm) (website is www.AdventureRowing.com): You can see various photos from a sea trial of one of Don Rickert's rowing craft prototype on the temporary website. This boat can handle 3+ foot ocean swells and is faster than an Alden Ocean Shell, something thought to be impossible for an inflatable boat.
• MusiqElectroniq(tm): The website is www.MusiqElectroniq.com.
  

We don't just talk about invention and innovation in New Product Development (NPD), but we DO IT!

WHY VIOLINS AND BOATS?

In order to save you the trouble of having to ask what our involvement in these niche products has to do with Design Research and Product Development consulting, you may want to look at the page entitled "Why Violins and Boats?".

Why Violins and Boats? (Part 1 of 2)

Anyone who asks the question that is the title of this post is both a reasonable person and in good company. Hopefully we can answer your questions here. If not, we will be more than happy to discuss the matter further either by telephone or in person.

The Initial Business Plan

Wiederholt & Rickert Partners, LLC (still our official corporate name), doing business as WARP3 Insights™, was founded in early 2006. Our business plan called for starting out exclusively in the New Product Development (NPD) consulting arena and evolving into a firm that did NPD consulting AS WELL AS inventing, designing and patenting our own breakthrough products...but things changed, as will be described later in this post.

Non-Competition with Our Consulting Clients

A critical ethical principle that we vowed to uphold, even at expense of losing potential business, was (and still is) to NEVER develop, under any circumstances, an internal project (i.e. Wiederholt & Rickert Partners) that competed with a product manufactured by a consulting client.

Spin-off Companies

As our own product portfolio grows, we will "spin-off" separate companies to bring our own products to market. We are in the process of forming one such spin-off company presently that involves a merger with one of the firms, Fiddarci Lutherie (U.S. based, in Birmingham, AL), that assists in the manufacturer of many violin parts, as well as entire instruments. The name of the new merged firm has yet to be announced. The start-up, doing business as Rickert & Ringholz Musical Instruments, currently sells several amazing travel or packpacker fiddles and a baritone violin via an online store (www.fiddleandbowstore.com).

Instrument Designs Have Achieved International Respect

Some of the most respected musicians in the world (such as Darol Anger, Natalie Haas, Aladair Fraser) own and have performed with Rickert & Ringholz/Fiddarci Lutherie instruments. One of the oldest and widely-respected instrument catalogs, Elderly Instruments, will sell some of the instruments via its online store in the near future. In addition to U.S. sales, the online store has sold instruments to players in the U.K., Australia, Italy and Japan, despite the heavy duties/taxes and low U.S. Dollar value.

Bottom Line on Why We Chose Violins and Rowing Craft

We chose innovative modern violins and rowing craft for ocean and extreme river conditions as our initial internal product development domains for the following reasons:

1. Both are such niche products that it would be unlikely that we would have conflict of interest issues with our consulting clientèle.

2. Don Rickert has unique access to the violin and fiddle playing, building and repair communities (important for doing good consumer research), owing to his own decades of experience as both a player (Don was a professional fiddler, guitarist and bassist while in graduate school) and maker of musical instruments.

3. Don also has deep (and very difficult to establish) experience as an "insider" within the competitive rowing community, both as a member of several racing "crews", as well as serving on the Executive Board of the Atlanta Rowing Club.

See, it all makes at least a little bit of sense.

Some Rude Awakenings About the Musical Instrument Business

1. It is VERY expensive to start a musical instrument company

2. Achieving respect and trust is REALLY hard work

3. The effects of startup debt is challenging to overcome

We have made great process with respect to #1 and #2 above...still working on #3.

Why We Concentrated on In-House Product Development Earlier than Originally Planned

Bottom line: Not enough consulting work several years ago to sustain a viable business!

We discovered all too quickly that the marketing/marketing research/design and product development media greatly exaggerated the true market size for the type of services that WARP3 Insights provided. With the exception of some of our clients, companies were simply unwilling or unable to pay a fair price for consumer-centered research & design services, either from ‘suppliers’ or from in-house teams. We were even "stiffed" for over $50,000 worth of work by a major "respectable" corporation.

We learned that executives, when interviewed by magazines, often exaggerated their commitment to in-depth consumer-centered research and design. We also learned that the limited work that really does exist went to a handful of famous research/design firms—the ones that everyone has heard of.

Why the Time is Right for Re-Focusing on Our Consulting Business

You can read about this in Part 2.