This month, we’re taking a small look at the behemoth topic of technology.

Clearfield prides itself in being a technological leader  – especially within the fiber optic management industry. When you’re a leader, of course, there’s always a target on your back. Someone is always coming up behind you and trying to take over that lead. Frankly, we welcome healthy competition, because it challenges us to keep innovating to maintain that competitive edge.

We’d rather over-think than over-engineer. Our approach is simple and straight-forward – but while it is simple, it is not simplistic. Our approach is probably best described by our COO, Johnny Hill, who loves to tell the story of the pens vs. pencil principle at NASA. As the story goes, NASA scientists worked with private industry to develop a zero-gravity pen that could write in space, “wasting millions in in tax payer money” while our Russian competitors in the space race got the job done with a pencil.  The point is that Clearfield is committed to designing a product that suits the application – without undue expense or unnecessary features.

The key to making that happen is the first of our core values – Listening. We start by listening to our customers and, then, working through the remainder of our core values: Recognize (their needs), Understand (how we can address) and Collaborate (with each other to make it happen).

You’d be surprised how a simple approach can give you a leading technological edge.