PAS Musings

Look Out World!

Another milestone at PAS! 

After some months of effort, we now have a complete business management team in place.

Tomorrow it will be 7 months to the day of my starting at PAS, and I am pleased.  Our global business leadership team is now complete!

We have a full complement of line-of-business managers for each of our key business areas:

>> Advanced Control & Optimization

>> Critical Condition / Alarm Management

>> Automation Asset Management

>> DCS Configuration Services

(growing but still with no web page of its own…)

We also now have a Marketing Manager to complement our secret weapon. 

This means that the marketing machine – which has only just warmed up with a book publication, users conference, and various other items – is ready to crank up to the next level and bring the good news of PAS solutions to all sorts of new customers hithertofore – don’t you love that word, it sounds so great! – unreached by PAS.   Our history of growing by word-of-mouth and localized sales activities is about to change in a big way.

And, of course, you’ll remember our recent hiring of Matrikon’s leading VP of Sales… 

Well, our senior sales exec is booked solid strengthening the sales force to deliver some serious benefit to those customers in the many sectors hithertofore lacking the privilege of using our solutions.

Put it all together and the PAS business is going to be just like one of those little foam pills that I wrote about recently– just add water and **POOF!** – instant success!

Yes sir, the +52% growth rate of 2006 is becoming ancient history – real fast!

Stay tuned…

© Copyright PAS 2006.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!

Users Conference = Success!

We did it!  PAS just pulled off its First-ever Users Conference. 

Not only that, but it was successful.  Not successful like it was our first time ever, but successful like our industry peers who have hosted these events for years.

Customers loved it and long-time PAS staffers were blown away. 

Even I was impressed!   

The PAS marketing machine is really starting to prime the pump for success now!

Although the Users Conference has been a “Gedankenexperiment” with PAS management for about 5 years, it wasn’t until we hired our secret weapon for marketing that things actually took shape. << But that’s a whole other story….>>

Like I said, despite our best Gedankenexperiments, it was the actions of our secret marketing weapon that finally brought about the current success and cranked up the creaky old marketing machine to produce!

And produce it did.

CEO and Founder Eddie Habibi even testifies to that. In a moment of exuberance over the success of the conference and the awakening of the marketing beast, he ‘fessed up that between the Users Conference and the Honeywell deal, PAS has had more market exposure this past month than in the previous 10 years…

Now that may sound great on the surface, but the truth is that it really validates what I saw when I first joined some 6 months ago – that PAS is a company with some great technologies, lots of smart people (including a dose of Super-Gee’s), and a potential for success far beyond what has been imagined in years gone by.

<< Reading between the lines, you can see that there was this big ol’ hole where marketing should have been…>>

As I see it, the company is like one of those little foam pills that your kids might play with – just add water and watch it grow into the shape of an animal.  In this case, we just need to add a touch of marketing, some additional sales focus – and **POOF** – instant success!

As I say, even I’m impressed.

But, as they say in show business –

You ain’t seen nothing yet.

Just you watch and see what is about to transpire in the next week or two.

Yee-haw!!! This is going to be one fine ride!!!! 

Woo-hoo!

© Copyright PAS 2006.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!

6 Months of Blogging

It has now been 6 months since I started this whole blog adventure. 

And for  that I want to thank my daughter, Bianca, who got me going on this after starting her own blog at college well before I did. 

Kids like her have a lot of great ideas that apply to our world as adults and even companies.  We need to stay tuned to what they have to say…

Thanks also to the others at PAS who have contributed ideas and content ready for use in the blog.  You know who you are – thanks again!

Lastly, I want to thank the many people who have been an encouragement for me to keep writing - especially my business partner Eddie, my wife Elizabeth, and even my neighbor Patricia.  Thanks to these and each of you who have send me feedback, ideas and comments!

People often ask what it’s like to pound out a blog or two every week… I can honestly say it’s not easy and that’s why I encouraged your feedback last time.

The closest analogy that I can come up with for doing a blog is a never-ending English assignment, with deadlines every week. 

For those of you thinking a corporate blog is a good idea, be sure to think twice before jumping off… or you may find, like a boat owner, that the happiest two days of your blogging life are the day you start and the day you end!  J

Despite the time and effort, I find the blog a rewarding outlet – and have yet to fall prey the “boat owner syndrome”.

Looking back over the past 6 months and all that’s been written, I sense that there is some value here worthy of adding a teeny-tiny copyright notice to all the postings.  A matter of process, hopefully offending no one.

6 months down already… bring on the rest of the year!!

Remember – I really value your comments, ideas and feedback.  Click here to email me, even if it is just to say that you’re still reading…

Have a great day!

© Copyright PAS 2006.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!

50,000 mile checkpoint

They say time flies when you’re having fun.  If my time at PAS is any indication, then I am having a blast!

This week is 6 months since I started.  50,000 miles done of my 100,000 mile commute. 

It’s a good time to take stock and check on progress both at PAS and on the home front.

On the PAS front, we’ve accomplished much in the last 6 months.

We turned what looked to be a conflict with Honeywell around the Integrity software into an OEM deal that benefits both parties in an innovative iPod sort of way.

We’ve reorganized PAS around four strategic lines of business, helping to make the transition from the Owner/CEO model and profitably sustain the high growth  achieved in 2005.

We revamped our website (finally!) and actually started some marketing to customers – which when added to the sales growth we achieved in 2005 without any marketing should put PAS on steroids for growth!

We’re in the midst of launching our first-ever User Conference – scheduled for next week – and promising to be a big success for both existing customers and others wanting to learn more about how our solutions can help them.

We’ve written a book and are having it published this month.  I won’t reveal its content just yet – that’s a surprise for our Conference – but let’s just say that it firmly places PAS on the map as the thought leader in one of our key business areas.

We’ve reorganized our sales leadership and added a VP of sales – Cory Engel – from one of our most aggressive competitors.   And we’ve added talent to all parts of the organization – with more to come (including Software Developers, an Alarm Management Line of Business Manager, a Marketing Manager, Sales Staff, and more) – all of which further strengthens our ability to deliver as we grow.

All in all, I am even more pumped about PAS than when I first started.  This place is good and only getting better!

I guess one other barometer of how things are going is that our Founder and CEO has recently been able to take a longer vacation than he has in years – trusting that the place is in good hands and that the company has the momentum to carry forward even without him. 

And, in a nutshell, that is probably the best report card I could get.

So all is well for the job, but what about my home life?   

Being gone Sunday-Friday is tough duty, but to be honest, there’s no way I’d get all the things done that I do if I was trying to have a family life all through the week…

It might be fine for me to say these things, but what about those at home?

Let’s start with the dog.  He still knows who I am and is excited to see me each Friday.  In fact, he seems even happier to see me come home now than when I cam home every day.  Not sure if there is some sort of doggie-message in that, but all is fine with him. 

So far, so good.

As for my high school daughter, I still seem to be on good terms with her.  I’m not always there to help her with homework, fix her stereo when it breaks, or check the car when it rattles, but she’s tolerant of the situation and appreciates my travel (versus her moving to Houston for her senior year).

Also, so far, so good.

Now for the most important person – my wife.  I have to say that I’m not the easiest person to live with (sound familiar?), and there may be some slight advantage in not always being there, but nonetheless being apart every week from Sunday-Friday has its cost.  Even so, she has been wonderfully supportive, even when I can’t finish all the “honey do” list on the ever-so-short weekend.  And in a strange sort of way the whole being-apart-all-week and then let’s-spend-the-weekend-together thing does have its high points, in a newlywed-ish sort of way.

So it is true that “Absence makes the heart grow fonder”.

In closing – good people at PAS and strong family relationships are making the 100,000 mile commute possible.

Life is good – I have been blessed on both at home and at work.

Thanks for putting up with my musings…