The transcript of "Fashion and Quality" from New York City with Nicole Miller and Bud Konheim at Nicole Miller Fashion House as seen on Small Business School the series on PBS-member stations in the USA and the Voice of America around the world. The best little show on television about the American spirit.

The transcript for this episode

last update: September 2006

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There making it here in old New York

There's Power in Partnerships

HATTIE: Shari Grossman started as an intern and worked her way up to director of licensing.

SHARI: I think that the partnership between Bud and Nicole is very different than anything in any other company of this magnitude and I think that definitely drives the business. I think the philosophy of opening our own stores as opposed to distributing heavily in department stores has also made a big difference. The way our distribution scheme is wholly different than any other designer. So we have gained a very big customer loyalty through that.

BUD: But a partnership is not meeting somebody 50 / 50. A partnership is meeting somebody 90 and let them meet you 10 – but they won't – if they meet you 90 then you've got a locking thing that is like this, it's great.

WATCH TELEVISION THAT TEACHES

Transcript Segment #8

1.	Sell Happiness
2.	Pricing is Art
3.	Feed and Trust Your Instincts
4.	There is No Place Like Home
5.	Create a Win-Win
6.	You Can Stumble into Millions
7.	Staying Small is a Strong Position
8.	There's Power in Partnerships
9.	Multiple Sales Channels Work
10.	Internship Programs Work
11.	Make Organization Charts circular
12.	It Never Gets Easy

HATTIE (In the studio): What happens when two people have a singular focus?

The power of two is the root cause of success at Nicole Miller. The partnership started with clearly defined responsibilities. Nicole was to design the new and Bud was to get it made. Now they both admit they could almost switch roles.

The LightBulb

The Nicole Miller company wants to move us all up the clothing chain – you know, stop wearing Wal-Mart and start wearing fashion. They want us to stop thinking clothes and start thinking style. They want us to attend to aesthetics. They are chipping away at their goal, working in harmony, and bringing to bear nearly 3 decades of experience. While most fail in this highly competitive and sometimes fickle industry, this pair and their extraordinary team persists, yes even thrives, yet at the heart of it all, the power of two prevails.

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