If you don’t enjoy reading about companies’ successes, bear with us for a few paragraphs before we get to the lessons learned.

Norwell, Mass.-based Signet Electronic Systems is a successful company. It earned $26.9 million in 2010 revenues versus $28.3 million in 2009 and $26.8 million in 2008, holding steady through the recession despite competing with more bidders for a smaller pool of new-construction opportunities. Meanwhile, it maintains an extremely strong foothold on New England’s hospital, K-12 education and government/public safety electronics installation markets.

The thing is, though, even companies that have survived the recession relatively unscathed have battle scars. Successful companies, in fact, are usually quite good at recognizing lessons from recessions and applying them to their long-term business plans. In Signet’s case, the recession led to it prioritizing the following:

• Closing business with less lead time
• Increasing its backlog
• Turning single-dimension clients into multi-system and service clients
• Increasing recurring revenues from 15 percent of business to 33 percent

  The other thing about successful companies is that they’re usually more than willing to talk about their mistakes because, in many ways, they derive their success from their darkest moments. Such is the case with Signet and president Bradford Caron. “I don’t mind talking about [mistakes]. In fact, I can sit back here and rattle them off all day because I’ve made enough of them,” he jokes.

  The truth is, though, that Caron, who two decades ago took over the business his father, Charles, founded in 1974, made some great decisions that evolved the company from what he describes as “basically a service company, not an integrator” to what it is now: a full-blown engineering, installation and 24/7 service provider.

  CI Snapshot
  Primary Location: Norwell, Mass.
  Additional Locations: Scarborough, Maine, and East Providence, R.I.
  Principals: Bradford Caron, president and owner; Dan Chauvin, VP of low-voltage integration; Dawn Mello, VP of operations
  2010 Revenues: $26.9 million (projected)
  Years in Business: 36 (founded in 1974)
  Employees: 119
  2010 Commercial Installs: 790
  Top 3 Vertical Markets: Hospital, K-12 education, government/public safety
  Top 5 Brands: Crestron, EST, Genetech, Hirsch and Rauland-Borg

  “My company does engineering and execution better than any other company.”

  All Aboard Engineering
  Signet, which now has 119 employees, had 12 when Caron worked for his dad during high school - “no room for growth,” he points out. “Sales were pretty flat.” So, when he finished school in 1987 he set out to broaden the company. “That’s when our integration roots started. He [Charles] gave me the authority and the direction to go out and support our engineering groups.”

  Caron focused on creating new clients by distributing well-engineered systems and installing new systems for Signet’s existing client base. The overwhelming goal was to turn each client into a customer for life and improve the long-term viability of the firm.

  “It was expected that every new system sold would ultimately become a new service client. [The goal] is to build recurring revenue and build long-term relationships with clients.”

  That’s nothing new. Most companies at least say they’re focused on creating lasting relationships with their customers. Signet, however, is lot more committed to that ideal than most, Caron explains. Signet’s core mission, he says, is all about creating service clients. “We will not pursue project opportunities if they won’t lead to a long-term relationship with a client.”

  Of course, the key to actually creating these long-term clients is making them happy with their well-engineered systems and Caron, the guy who doesn’t mind talking about his mistakes, admits that early-on Signet often fell short.

  Mistake No. 1: Inadequate Data Collection
  Signet wasn’t always good at collecting the data it needs from clients in order to implement an integrated solution. In particular, it wasn’t communicating well with IT professionals, a position that has increasingly become its primary contact on projects.

  
  

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  About the author
  

  
  

  Tom LeBlanc - Editor-in-Chief, CI, Tom

  Tom has been covering electronics integration since 2003. Prior to being named editor-in-chief of CI, he was senior writer and managing editor of CE Pro. Before that, he wrote for the sports department of the Boston Herald. Migrating to magazines, he was a staff editor for a golf publication and an outdoor sports publication. Follow him on Twitter @leblanctom.

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