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have certain areas that they may know more than you. I’m 
a big believer of getting everybody in the room and asking 
everyone’s opinions on what they think, so the more they 
know, the better educated decisions can be made. 
Frommelt: The great thing about this is networking. No 
matter what your issue is, there is somebody here that, well, 
everybody here is going to have an opinion, but you learn 
so much. There’s such a brain trust here with all the attend-
ees and the associate members. It’s really beneficial to tap 
into that knowledge phase. 
Borgstrom: You, what did you say, got 11 people here? I 
guarantee you when you get back to the office, you’ll have 
at least 11 different ideas that you got from the trade show 
floor, from one of the sessions, or anything like that. For 
those of you who are employees here, don’t be afraid to 
share ideas or thoughts you have, because there’s no such 
thing as a bad idea. Run it by when you get home because 
that leads to a lot of good things sometimes. 
Lake: That question was basically, are the new dogs 
teaching the old dogs any tricks? 
Borgstrom: Yes, they are. We tried things in the past and 
they didn’t work. They can look at that through a different 
set of eyes and go, “What if we did this?” Same idea, different 
twist on it, different perspective. Just because we did things 
for this way for 90 years, doesn’t mean it’s the right way. 
Things evolve over time. We look at social media; that’s 
such a huge part of everyone’s businesses which didn’t exist 
before. I don’t fully understand it, but I know it’s import-
ant, and that’s fresh perspective. There are a lot of new 
ideas out there because the industry is constantly changing 
and evolving. If you don’t change, evolve, you’ll die. You 
can’t be stagnant. The next generation is to make sure we 
don’t end up being stagnant. 
Wirginis: Even cruise ideas. We have a lot of young staff 
that come up with some really good ideas for some new 
cruises and different kind of entertaining cruises. I’ll try 
anything one time. 
Frommelt: As much as I’d like to deny it, the older you get, 
the harder it is to be flexible and not get set in your ways. 
New people and younger people coming in, you hire them 
for that enthusiasm and those new ideas. In my time com-
ing up, if I had an idea, I worked with or for people who 
were open to hearing it. If it was a dumb idea, they politely 
taught me why that wasn’t the greatest idea, and I learned. 
I was smarter the next time I had an idea. 
If you shortstop people that are bright and enthusiastic, 
they’re probably going to move on, or they're going to quit 
suggesting things. Not every idea is great. You can’t run 
your operation by committee, but you need to foster an 
environment where new, fresh people who are learning and 
want to do a good job have an opportunity to air what’s 
going on in their head. 
Lake: Gentlemen, thank you very much. This was 
fantastic. I’ll say one other quick thing. My time with 
PVA, I think the sessions are phenomenal and have so 
much value, but if you have an opportunity to talk 
to these guys or any of the other folks that have been 
around PVA for a long time listen to the sea stories, 
listen to some of the stuff that maybe doesn’t come up 
in the sessions. You can learn a ton from that, there’s a 
wealth of knowledge here. 
Wirginis: I tell a lot of stories about our company; it really 
helps everybody in our outfit understand what our outfit 
is all about. It’s worth taking the time with your people. 
Know everybody by their first name. Try to know how 
many kids they have. Welcome them when you see them, 
when you walk across the dock, and tell them stories. 
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