Ok,
All other big brands were in the business of selling bicycles to have profit.
Cannondale was i the business of creation, of pushing the limits of what you really care about.
Totally different level of ambition, involvement, passion for what you do.
If you JUST want to sell bikes to have a profit, you dont need to:
make bikes expensively inhouse
smooth all the welds down to cheapest models
Have unique tubes made just for you
develop several your own suspension systems (including forks, headset, stems, hubs) and turn them into succesfull products which stood the test of time.
(headshok 20 years into production, lefty is the lightest and arguably the best lightweight fork on the market now in 2011)
buy great ideas, put a lot of work in them and push them forward and (crankset, BB)
I could go further to details..
These things are basically approach of independent garage company...but on a huge scale.
THATS WHAT MAKES CANNONDALE COOL
YOU REALLY NEED TO HAVE PASSION FOR WHAT YOU DO TO MAKE BUSINESS SO MUCH MORE DIFFICULT FOR YOURSELF.
Its UNEQUALED in any other big companies.
All others just flowed with the stream, outsourcing everything, adding little gimmic here and there to look different (triple triangle etc)
But who would blame them.. Bikes from taiwan were coming in perfect, component makers (rockshox, kore) were doing better and better jobs..
All you need to do is to add thinner, more inclined stickers for next season and sales will go up right?