What do IKD’s clients like about the company’s location?

Woman: Hello, Mr Michael, thanks for talking to me today.
Man: Not at all.
Woman: Your company is located in such wonderful countryside. I expect your clients like coming here, don’t they? Or do they find it difficult to get here?
Man: Actually, the transport links aren’t too bad, but we very rarely see our customers in person. What they do like about it is that it’s a pretty secret location and rather difficult to find. Our work is very confidential.
Woman: Ah yes. Your designs are beginning to make the designs of some of your competitors look rather old-fashioned. How do your designers work on their ideas? Is it all about technology?
Man: Technology is the biggest part. We certainly have no use for pencils and drawing boards like the old-style design studios. Our designers use the latest computer-aided design system. Ideas can be tested from all angles just by using the computer screen. However, we haven’t stopped building models completely - we just put the design into a solid form using clay or foam at a later stage of the process.
Woman: Ah-ha. I know you have several important projects at the moment. Who is your biggest client?
Man: All our work’s important to us. We’re best known for designing bikes and motorbikes, but the company that keeps us busiest these days is a car producer. However, there are also hundreds of different household items that we’ve designed in the past.
Woman: Do you only use your own designers or do you ever look for new ideas, for example by using well-known artists on a freelance basis?
Man: We certainly do look for ideas outside the company, but not from freelancers - our work’s too secret for that. It’s a very competitive market. We’re even competing with the in-house R&D teams of our client companies! However, just now, we’re working with scientists at a university to develop an even better system for designing products through the latest computer and video systems.
Woman: What do you think it is that your customers value most about you? Is it just the fact that you use the latest technology?
Man: Well, not that alone. Good-quality design can be made by any number of different methods, not just ours. What our customers particularly like is that with the technology, we can work faster than our competitors. Design has traditionally been a very slow process - but not here. That doesn’t mean we’re cheap, it just means we can get the design to the client before anyone else can.
Woman: You’re becoming well known for your designs, now, aren’t you? Didn’t one of your racing bikes recently win an award in a competition?
Man: Well, what actually happened was, it was judged by over fifty international biking magazines to be the best design, which meant that they all used it on their front covers, which was fantastic publicity for us, and hopefully the bike will go on to win lots of races.
Woman: It must be sad when designs are rejected. However successful a design company is, is it true that most designs never actually go into production?
Man: Usually, but not with us. Almost all our designs are put into production as soon as the company receives them. Our customers want designs not just to look at and think about for some later date, but to use immediately. Very few are rejected.
Woman: How do your customers pay you?
Man: Many design companies demand from their clients a share in the profits from sales of products made to their designs. That can be very costly to the client. Our customers pay us on a straight fee basis: one project, one fee. If it takes many more hours to produce than we had expected, that’s our problem, but the client gets the project on time.
Woman: Well, you’ve certainly got a successful operation going ...