The MoeDown

03-0

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Your guide to what's going on at The Mohawk Group

Welcome to the MoeDown. I’m Moe, your communications friend who

will keep you up to speed and “in the know” about what’s happening at

The Mohawk Group.

In addition to all of the marketing, sales,

product and training news, I’m including a

new section called, Moe-tivation Ideas. I know

it’s important for you to connect and stay in

touch with your clients between new product

roll-outs. This section will provide you, the

sales force, with fun and creative ideas to turn

an average client meeting into an exciting

client event. I’ve made sure to address a

range of price points–from low key get-

togethers to top notch events.

Hopefully these ideas will inspire you to create

your own client event. Go for it! And I’d love

to hear all about it afterward. Send me your

ideas and the results. We’ll feature the best

ones in future issues. Additionally, we'll select

the three top ideas and award a Kodak digital

frame for use in the design libraries. Load

photos, product fl ashes and more and you'll

differentiate your next library display.

Submit them online at MoePlanet.com

or e-mail me at moe_getz@mohawkind.com.

Also, be sure to check out the Maverick

callouts featuring outstanding work being

done by The Mohawk Group's fi nest reps.

Enjoy!

1

We’ve been fed and gifted;

now the New Year is here!

The Mohawk Group resolves

to make it our best yet.

We’ve got an expanded

sustainability focus and new

tools to help build

our brands and

support you in

the fi eld.

Al Kabus Asks Why Not? p3

Competitive Green Gab p5

Busy in Boston p6

New Custom Design Websites p7

LEED Plus Calculator p8

Sustainable Frontlines p9

Notable Honors p10

The Shirt Off Todd's Back p11

In The Vault p14

The MOE You Know p15

Marketing Knowledge Nuggets p16

Body Language p17

It's All About Them p19

Moe-tivation Ideas p21-27

Trend Outlook p28

Vocabulary p29

LEED for Retail p30

Meltdown? p31

Healthcare / Education p32

2

I hope all of you enjoyed a wonderful holiday season and

are re-charged for what will most likely be one of the most

defi ning years for The Mohawk Group. While the economy is

producing a headwind for our industry, our company is well

positioned to leverage our people, our substantial resources

and our combined product lines to best meet the stringent demands

of the marketplace.

2008 represented a renaissance year for The Mohawk Group.

We evolved our strategy, our organizational structure and our

technologies to create a springboard that will propel us into the future

with more relevance to our customers than ever before. We have

discussed the need to transition from a “product centric” mentality to

a more customer or project centric mentality in order to change the

conversation with our customers – to turn the spotlight on them, not

us, in our relationship approach. With our Drag and Fly technology

and LEED Plus tools, we deliver the perfect means by which to abet

our customers with their projects. With the REACH© approach of

customer engagement, we are urging our sales professionals to

research their clients and then follow with salient questions to better

position The Mohawk Group as the industry’s most trusted resource.

The aforementioned tools and engagement focus will be a welcomed

reprieve from the repetitious traditional approach of most sales calls.

It takes some investment on our part to get comfortable with new

tools and methods, however, once mastered; we will experience

greater results and perpetuate more income and success.

As I shared in the past, we are committed to investing in our people,

our processes and our products. These investments will be wrapped

in innovation which means that we must be willing to innovate in the

fi eld, the plants and in our leadership style.

3

President

Al Kabus

In closing, I am writing this in the Charles DeGaulle Airport on my

way home from Domotex, the International Annual Flooring Show

in Hannover, Germany. Our International customers' businesses are

vastly different in many respects, be it their focus, product mix,

selling styles, and the list goes on. Perhaps the most memorable

quote I heard at the show came from the owner of Klassis, an

excellent dealer of ours in Turkey. Bulent Isseven, the founder, has

been a customer since 1993. He and his general manager, Evren

Kurtboke have built a signifi cant business with fl ooring, Steelcase

furniture and Tate Access Floors, along with other peripheral lines. At

dinner with Bulent, he shared how he built his business and with each

question I asked, I received the same response. It went something

like this:

AK: "How come you started furniture?"

BI: "Why not?"

AK: "Why did you get into the raised fl oor business?"

BI: "Why not?"

Then he shared that last year we challenged him to double his

business.You probably guessed that his answer was "why not?"

He did double his business with us last year, setting me up to

challenge him to do it again in 2009. He left me with “why not?” This

may well be my new phrase in 2009; it’s catchy and instills optimism.

Okay, we have a tough economy, had a challenging 2008 and the

competition is getting more aggressive every day. I get it, but when

I think about how much talent we have at Mohawk, coupled with

our vast potential and then think about growing our business, I now

simply smile and say, “why not!”

4

5

Interface – MissionZero.org

Part social networking site, part environmental

blog, part news/events feed, part Yahoo

Answers. Interface is attempting to create the

platform for discussing and solving the world’s

environmental problems.

Mannington – Art With A Heart

Mannington auctions children’s artwork to

benefi t St. Judes Children’s Research Hospital.

Tandus – PVC-Free Tile/Carpet Recycling

Milliken – LEED Buildings

Featured their commitment to LEED via

photographs of carpet in LEED buildings,

including their showroom.

This super team collaborated on a Drag and Fly event in Connecticut

to thank their clients and offer them the unique support of The Mohawk

Group’s new tool. Inspired by Chris Stulpin and the Drag and Fly RepNet

video, the group planned the event to take place at the aptly named Dragonfl y

restaurant. Chris made a celebrity guest appearance and promoted Drag and

Fly in a working presentation. The event drew 100 customers! –Steve Vosburg

Competitive Green Gab What you need to know about competitors

messaging at Greenbuild:

The Party PeopleArt Honegger, John Talio & Tracy Kilmartin