Whilst I agree that only growth outside the U.S. can be be the long term saviour of the boating industry, the question of whether that growth will be led by US companies is another matter.

My own belief is that American companies may well be able to “proactively manage” the quantifiable economic, technological, and possibly even the environmental forces to their best advantage, but will struggle and probably fail when it comes to the social and cultural forces.

The ongoing inability of many successful US organisations even to recognise, let alone understand, the significance of social cultural differences in today’s global marketplace is their major stumbling block.

As other similarly populous and economically powerful economies emerge to challenge America’s leadership position, the USA still retains First Mover advantage but if it is to continue to profit from it, it must learn to pay much more attention to the Voice of the Customer, and less to the Voice of America.