Have you seen that little box on the Thorlabs Homepage that says, “Hungry for Your Thoughts” Almost a year ago we posted a link on our homepage with those words and a picture of our Lab Snacks box. I wanted an easy way ......Have you seen that little box on the Thorlabs Homepage that says, “Hungry for Your Thoughts” Almost a year ago we posted a link on our homepage with those words and a picture of our Lab Snacks box. I wanted an easy way for our customers to send me feedback directly, and I made a commitment to personally answer these e-mails. I’d like to thank those of you who have taken me up on this invitation. It has proven to be a rewarding experience and has started many valuable discussions, ranging from product ideas and academic research to individual life stories. I heard from several famished grad students who depended on the Lab Snacks for an occasional meal (we happily sent them extras), but many discussions which began with our Lab Snacks quickly morphed into interesting discussions concerning the science and business of photonics. The “Hungry for Your Thoughts” initiative has reinforced my high appreciation and respect for the source of our success, our customers. Now more than ever I view photonics not just as our core industry but as my community. I have also been intrigued over the past year or so by the concept explored in James Surowiecki’s book, The Wisdom of Crowds (Doubleday, 2004). Surowiecki postulates that large groups of people are collectively smarter than a few individuals, no matter how brilliant those elite few may be. I wanted to find a way to access this source of knowledge and to tap the group wisdom, both internally at Thorlabs and within the larger community our “Hungry for Your Thoughts” campaign was just one concept that we implemented with this idea in mind. Internally, we have taken this a step further by creating an intranet interface, an internal on-line forum called “Brainwave.” Brainwave is a tool to manage raw ideas, product development, and product vetting. More importantly, it was designed to tap the “wisdom of the crowds” by creating an open forum discussion available to all levels of our organization. Specifically designed to encourage participation and to break down traditional hierarchical corporate barriers, Brainwave includes a “skin in the game” betting pool to provide the mechanism for aggregating the available information. I hope to soon deploy a version of Brainwave that is open to our customers I envision this last step as a significant way to broaden communication within the photonics community. Please allow me to take a few minutes to talk about another facet of community. Recently I have had the fortunate opportunity to step back and watch the ever growing community of Thorlabs employees, which is now almost 500 individuals worldwide. I am continually amazed at the level of ownership and dedication this group displays on a daily basis. I see Thorlabs employees living the mantra of the importance of community by caring for our customers in a very personal way. For example, just yesterday, one of our Newton Call Center representatives hand-delivered a package to a customer at Newark Liberty Airport, which is over an hour away. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the members of our team. I have tremendous respect for the employees in all of our facilities. The Thorlabs organization has shown me that it has a true heart and a true soul. I am proud that this is a diverse community comprised of people of varying ethnic, educational, cultural, and economic backgrounds, truly working side by side. I am committed to building a company that achieves its competitive advantage from its connection to community. I view Thorlabs as an integral part of the photonics community, and as such, I hope that Thorlabs will continue to foster the forward movement of the photonic sciences in cooperation with the amazing community of scientists we are privileged to serve.