When I was growing up, being told you had a “smart mouth” was not necessarily a good thing. Insolence was not encouraged. Intelligence was.

Since September is the official start of the new school year, I thought we would take this month to look at the whole concept of broadening your mind. Anyone familiar with Clearfield knows how highly we regard the concept of smart. (Just look at our product lineup:  FieldSmart, CraftSmart, WaveSmart.)

We even call our field and development team “Smart Guys” – because we think they are among the sharpest minds in the industry. As part of our own back-to-school initiative, every year Clearfield hosts a Smart Guys Weekend at the boss’s (COO Johnny Hill’s) cabin. I learned recently that Apple founder Steve Jobs apparently did the same thing. Who knew?

Throughout the course of the weekend, the thinking of this team of uniquely intelligent people is challenged by some decidedly non-brainiac events involving fishing poles, bonfires and other outdoor activities. By getting out of their elements, the Company benefits from the elevated collaboration that is achieved – generating future strategic elements of creativity. A lot of laughter, bantering and brilliance can come out those weekends.

Ironically, we find that for smart installations, it’s always best to keep our product designs simple (i.e., not-over engineered). In other words, it takes something seemingly counterintuitive to produce the right results.

So, we say bring on the smart talk.