Alpha Video New Owner-CEO Kevin Groves on What’s Next

Having bought retiring Stan Stanek’s shares to become owner-CEO-president, Groves discusses where he’ll steer the Alpha Video ship. >

Tom LeBlanc

There are at least a couple of very happy people in Eden Prairie, Minn.

Stan Stanek, who after 33 years at Alpha Video with the last few as owner, president, CEO and face the firm, is thrilled because he’s set to retire on July 31.

Kevin Groves, who as VP, COO and partial owner bought Stanek’s shares to become owner and president/CEO, is ecstatic about the opportunity to lead the $40 million integration, broadcast solutions and digital signage firm into the future.

Since Groves joined the firm in 1995, he and Stanek teamed for a nice “left- and right-brain management” approach that has led to significant growth and strategic focuses on developing increasingly demanded digital signage and broadcast solutions for integration clients.

Stanek will continue to contribute to Alpha Video as a member of an advisory board that Groves hopes to launch by the end of the year.

“Kevin and I have had a great partnership since we purchased the company,” Stanek says in an Alpha press release.

“We’ve doubled the revenue, doubled the number of employees and, with our move in June, we’ve double the size of our facilities. Stepping away from Alpha Video after 33 years will be difficult, but I’m confident that Kevin and the management team will continue to grow Alpha Video.”

Continued growth is the plan, according to Groves who chatted with CI about the significant changes at Alpha.

After Stan discussed his retirement with you, how hard was the decision to buy his share?

We were talking and he said, ‘You know, I think I’m ready.’ Then it took a while for me to come to terms with my decision. We both could have sold.

Even though I’ve been an owner for the last 12 years with Stan as a business partner it was something I had to look at carefully before jumping in and making that acquisition. I needed to realize that there was enough for me to do and make a difference. Then there’s just the risk of jumping in and going into debt to think about.

But the more I looked at it, the more excited I got about the opportunity.  Talking to my wife and family they were all in and told me I have to do this. In the end I am really very excited about the opportunity in front of us to make the company run and grow.

What growth goals do you have?

We are in the process of setting growth goals. My management style is really to align the team to help set the goals and for our management team and frankly all the employees to buy into those goals – to really go after it. But we certainly will be a growth company. If you’re not growing, you’re sitting still and that doesn’t work in this economy.

The way this changes a bit is that one owner making decisions makes it a little more streamlined, even though Stan and I worked well together.

I’m going to guard against my weaknesses by ensuring that I talk to a lot of people and am getting a lot of advice. I’m on the board of PSNI and that group is a fantastic resource for me. Also, [I’m a member of] Vistage, a nationwide group of CEOs that share best practices and discuss running their businesses and challenges in a confidential manner.

I’ll also be forming an advisory board that Stan will serve on as one of the members. That will come together probably by the end of the year.  I like to guard against weaknesses and hire people that are smarter than me.

You guys are uniquely focused on your clients’ demand for video solutions. Is that something that you’ll be pushing forward?

We’re very successful in that segment of the business; video if you will, not video conferencing, but video production, video playback, broadcast style integration will be very important.

We also have a digital signage division developing our own [Castnet] software and that will continue to be a main focus of our business. We also do a lot of traditional AV integration. We are fairly well diversified but we’re very strong in that broadcast like space and our sports division is very strong along with digital signage.

We’re going to continue to evolve the company and you’ll see us continue to grow in those areas and maybe in some ways that you haven’t seen in that past. [Editor’s note: Groves declined to expand on that.]

If I’m an existing client of Alpha’s, what is going to change?

We have a vision to really try to develop a world-class organization. They can expect our service and support to amp up, our processes and our operations to increase and improve. We already do a great job from most of our customers’ perspectives, but it’s going to get better.

If I’m an Alpha employee, what is going to change?

They can expect security, growth and a voice.

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