It’s ironic that AVIXA’s own research would feature a glimmer of optimism for the pro AV industry only a few days after the association let go a wide swath of staffers, but that doesn’t mean the findings are any less valid or should be discounted.
Sure, not every company has reached the point where they’re in recovery mode from the effects of the coronavirus on their businesses, but as AVIXA economic analyst Peter Hansen told me, sometimes it’s important to let the numbers speak for themselves and not try to read too much into them.
The AVIXA Pro-AV Business Index for July shows both sales and employment are in growth mode across the landscape—and that’s a good first step toward recovery. No one—AVIXA included—is saying this is the end of the hard work or that the recovery is anywhere close to being complete, but it’s underway.
Related: Next Year Will Be Tough, but Industry Expects Full Recovery in 2022
I’m a huge baseball fan and I’ve found that it can be harder to enjoy watching games on TV sometimes these days because every second is overloaded with numbers, statistics and analysis. I’d rather just use my eyes most of the time to decide whether a player is good, bad or in the middle somewhere.
I know the deep dive into the numbers can probably provide a fuller picture of how well that player hits at home on Tuesday afternoons when his mother is sitting near the third-base dugout, but the crack of his bat or the speed with which he tracks down a fly ball can also tell me the guy’s a pretty good player.
AVIXA’s numbers may not reflect your reality and that might involve more number-crunching for your business, but the industry snapshot provides at least a little bit of optimism when we all need it.
keep it simple
What Pro-AV Business Index Tells Us
I like that Hansen, whose job is to dive deep into the numbers and analyze as many ways as possible, took the simple approach to the Pro-AV Business Index showing growth in both sales and employment for the first time since the COVID-19 outbreak.
I’m not saying the full analysis of the numbers isn’t necessary and certainly Hansen and the rest of the AVIXA market intelligence team are up to their eyeballs in facts, figures, projections and predictions, but I like the idea that he’s saying the growth is a good thing and it should continue.
Sometimes, the simplest answer is the best one. There’s no need to over-complicate things. It looks like pro AV is in recovery, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be an easy road to return to profitability. This is a great first step and an important one that many people might not have expected quite this soon.
