At its core, Wild Idea Buffalo is a company of stories. How many meat companies are founded by an author who has written eight novels and has been called one of the most powerful literary voices of the Great Plains? When I first met Dan O’Brien 15 months ago, I was totally captivated by his story, or should I say stories. The story of how he first got into buffalo ranching, the story of how he humanely raised his animals, the story of how his red meat was actually healthy, and the story of the colorful characters involved with the ranch and company over the years.
In many ways web sites are a modern form of storytelling. For better or worse, web sites have become a window to our world – where we learn about a political candidate’s background and positions, where we learn about the opening of a hot new restaurant, where we learn how our coffee beans were hand-picked.
Being CEO of Wild Idea Buffalo is about a lot more than analyzing balance sheets and finding efficiencies in the plant. In many ways I serve as a curator and broadcaster of the great stories that Dan and Jill have created over the years. One of the most challenging tasks for me has been creating a new web site. While there was a lot we all admired about the old site we wanted to find a very visual and compelling way to weave together these incredible stories about the company in a manner that was unique, authentic, and informative both for people new to the company and for people who had been loyal customers and fans for over a decade. At the end of the day a web site is really about telling a story – the story of your company.
With good reason there was a lot of passionate debate along the way about what we included in the web site – we wanted to make sure we were doing the best job in capturing the rich stories of the company. After a several month journey of numerous re-writes and re-designs, we went live a few days ago with our new web site. I am excited to share it with all of you, and hopefully it reflects what you know and love about the company, but also teaches you some new things about us.
If we were a restaurant or a bricks and mortar store, we would have a grand opening party and invite all of you to share a toast. Since it is a web site, we would like to invite you to the virtual “grand opening party” of our new site. Please take a few minutes to visit the site, look around, and share your comments. We are always looking to improve and make it a better experience for you.
As a “party favor” at our grand opening party we are offering a special discount on any purchase made between today and March 15. With any order, type in “Newsite10,” and we will take 10% off of your purchase price as a thank you for stopping by.