Each week we gain more perspective on commercial integration by profiling industry pros.

This week we talk with Steve Riley, AVI Systems‘s central engineering manager.

How did you become involved in commercial integration?
There was a single pivot point in my professional life that can be traced back to a conversation I eavesdropped on when I was a 10-year-old. Growing up on a farm, seeing visitors in our driveway was a rare occurrence. You would be instantly drawn from the monotony of chores to see what they were doing.

Turns out, this visitor was an elderly man who lived several miles down the road. He was there to ask my dad if he would be interested in taking his place as a board member for the local telephone cooperative. I had no idea what he was talking about, but I listened intently and asked a lot of questions after he had left.

That’s when I found out there was a business model that paid people to work with electronic equipment, wiring, electricity, and all the things I was naturally interested in.

I went on to college with an emphasis on electronics, and after a short stint working for a PBX interconnect, I began my career with AVI Systems doing commercial AV integration.

What is something special you bring to your position?
I can instill confidence with a client during situations where their trust may have been shaken. I take on the responsibility of achieving their satisfaction, and demonstrating this responsibility with proper communication and actions.

My goal is summed up in this statement: “They will hire us again when I get through.”

Developing these traits is traced back simply to the way I was raised. I was taught accountability early on, and I use it every day.

Is there a particular book that has inspired the way you approach business?
Our company founder/chairman gave me a book in 2005 that I have read multiple times. Jack-Straight From the Gut by Jack Welch.

“Boundaryless sharing of ideas with an intense focus on people.” These are words to run a business by, and is the theme of how I approach the sometimes mundane day-to-day work I perform. Knowing your ideas make a difference, and working with the right people will keep anyone inspired.

What business practices can integrators learn from other industries?
Quality control from the manufacturing industry. So many times I see work performed by novice workers who haven’t had enough training to fully know what they’re doing. This causes great delays from your higher level technicians performing the check-out as they find these issues and correct them. Proper training, coupled with installation standards with a check-and-balance system via quality control, can greatly improve the quality of the installation.

What’s the biggest business change you see on the horizon, and how might it change the way integrators operate?
There are lots of buzzwords that infiltrate our industry and get talked about commonly. I’m going to skip right past them to a real topic that affects everyone right now.

Digital video is yesterday’s news, but it continues to evolve in its transport, switching, and contents. This touches every single bread-n-butter project we integrate. Anyone in the digital video over twisted pair business is combining video, audio, control, Ethernet all over one medium. The medium most commonly used is twisted pair. I am seeing absence of scope coming on the near horizon.

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