In January, the Society of Satellite Professionals International elected as its new President Keith Buckley. Not long before he was also named President and CEO of ASC Signal Corporation, where he is tasked with turning around an earth station and radar antenna and services company that was spun out from Andrew Corporation about two years ago.
His roles are a study in polar opposites. SSPI, like much of the satellite industry, is thriving and finds its challenges to be forward-looking. ASC Signal is a classic business "turnaround" challenge. Fortunately, Keith is no stranger to turnarounds. Most of us know him from his work at InSight Telecommunications, where he started this business and in his six-year tenure generated 1400% return on investment for investors. However, at digital media company Trusonic, Inc. he came onboard and immediately built a new management team, refocused sales and marketing efforts and achieved a 34% revenue growth, 30% EBITDA improvement and a 350% increase in contract backlog in 18 months, which enabled the parent company’s successful IPO. Many years before, as an Executive Vice President at Globecast, he turned around a USD$10 million loss. In between these two ventures, he led Juke Systems in developing a mobile phone start-up technology which became commercially viable in a mere eight months and is today part of the Microsoft’s HealthVault platform.
He and I worked together to grow SSPI’s corporate sponsorship revenues significantly when he headed the Society’s corporate development function. We both share a taste for coming into under-monetized environments, finding the organization’s core strengths and packaging them for profitability.advantage assures us that we can compete in the marketplace. The difference is focus. There are some great products in the industry but we’re focusing on making sure that ours are the best in each of the categories we target. We are not targeting every application. It would not work. Our choice was simple: we could take the company in the direction of commoditized products and race our competitors to basement-level prices, or we could use our great engineering capabilities and workforce to make products that our customers really need and for which they understand the value.
I thought his diverse and simultaneous roles at ASC and SSPI would allow him to discuss the industry from two unique perspectives, both representing the changing face of the satellite industry. We talked about it recently and follows are excerpts of our conversation:
Lou Zacharilla (LZ): When you look at the global satellite industry today, with the perspective of your tenure at GlobeCast and InSight, what would you say is the biggest change?
Keith Buckley (KB): No doubt it is the dramatic shift in the role technology plays in our business models. When you look at what’s possible today from a technology standpoint – new coding models, satellites with a great deal more power, changes in feed technologies, higher performing (yet smaller) aperture antennas – and the opportunities that they present, we can do things that were unheard of not all that long ago.
LZ: But this also presents the possibility for a lot of disintermediation. Technology gives and technology takes away – quickly. The factor which separates the successful from the desperate is the degree to which of innovation can be fused to an organization’s daily activities. My concern with our industry is that, often, our heritage of being cautious and government-backed keeps us from taking daring leaps.
KB: Maybe. But I think we’re seeing a lot of change in the industry. Coming from the equity financing side, I can tell that there is more of a demand now to move companies along to profitability, which places a premium on innovation, responding to the market and creation of value-added services.
LZ: Then you have a challenge at ASC Signal because, with the Andrew heritage, your company could easily be pigeon-holed as a commodity earth station and milcom antenna provider. But I note that you are banking on the company’s engineering capabilities to carry it successfully back to the market. That is a value-added approach, so far as I can tell. Can you explain this decision and tell me how it’s going?
KB: It is going really well. We have new products that capitalize on our significant engineering and manufacturing expertise in ways that many of our competitors’ business models do not allow because, frankly, they are too big and move too slowly. What is good, first and foremost, is that this competitive advantage assures us that we can compete in the marketplace. The difference is focus. There are some great products in the industry but we’re focusing on making sure that ours are the best in each of the categories we target. We are not targeting every application. It would not work. Our choice was simple: we could take the company in the direction of commoditized products and race our competitors to basement-level prices, or we could use our great engineering capabilities and workforce to make products that our customers really need and for which they understand the value.
LZ: When I started managing SSPI, it was in need of a turnaround. We had the Gala, which was underperforming and a few corporate sponsors, but nothing to extend the value beyond one night in Washington. The real value of the Society had not been made available to the industry. Once we did that, we really took off and built a brand with activities, events and a network of professionals that are connected year-round. That was our turnaround moment. Turnarounds and start-ups have always been your strengths as an executive. The satellite industry is not necessarily seen as one in constant need of either, but because of what appears to be a sea change in the media industry, you see this changing, right?
KB: Certainly, but not just in the media industry. The great news for every entrepreneur in the world, as well as the limited group of folks with the skills (and stomachs!) for guiding turnarounds, is that there will always be something to do. As consolidation continues as the natural course of the business cycle - in any market - opportunities are created for new businesses to form. That is a good, good thing. While you and I probably have a bias for our industry, the satellite industry is no different from any other.
LZ: Given the intensive capital costs required in the satellite business, does the business really lend itself to entrepreneurial initiatives? Or does bigger always mean better?
KB: It depends. Even the bigger companies that feed on great amounts of capital have to think about being more flexible and "turning things around" today. I see plenty of companies revising their business plans and entering new markets, for example. And as the excuse that the "global economy" causes inertia and poor performance eventually goes away, investors will demand results from businesses, which opens the door for people who innovate and are able to monetize assets inside a company more effectively.
LZ: Mobility and broadband seem to be really hot areas now. If I said that Ka-band is the path forward for our industry and probably for ASC Signal, would I be way off the mark? Are there other aspects, from the technical side, that are more important?
KB: Not way off, but it is not the only path forward. It is going to continue to emerge in significance, of course. We are definitely seeing a tremendous amount of activity in Ka-band networks worldwide, which is why we’ve devoted so much energy and resources to ensuring we’re a leader in Ka-band antenna and systems design. But there are also major opportunities with on-the-move antennas, terminals and systems, both commercially and in the defense sectors.
LZ: A major role of SSPI is to expand the market for satellite products and services and to generate more visibility for the industry in order to attract the next generation of knowledge worker. Speaking as SSPI’s president, what is essential to make this happen?
KB: SSPI needs to continue its focus of encouraging growing ranks of corporate sponsors – the leaders in this industry who believe in its future – to find ways to develop talent when people are in college or high school. When we look at all of the innovative ideas outside of our industry that have come from young entrepreneurs, everyone in the satellite industry should ask, "How do we make this innovation happen inside the satellite business?" We have very talented people working in the segment today, but we need a constant influx of new and creative thinking. There are great ideas being developed in the Internet and mobile spaces, to name a few. Why shouldn’t the satellite industry be seeing a similar flow of talent? That’s what SSPI has been trying to do for a few years now, but we need our members and their companies to focus on this.
LZ: We have some ideas for this. In the Fall we are going to announce a new book highlighting careers in the industry. It will be announced at our Future Leaders Dinner and we hope it does the job to begin to inspire people to look at an industry that is really transformative.
KB: That’s just one more great idea you’ve come up with to build the Society. Our Future Leaders Dinner is a good example of how SSPI, as a non-profit trade association, has found innovative ways to further promote the strengths of our people. Our key sponsors and many in the industry have reacted very favorably to SSPI’s encouragement through the Future Leaders Dinner, and the support shows how important developing these leaders are. And that’s what we as a Society need to ensure our industry does.
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Lou Zacharilla is the Director of Development of the Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI). He can be reached at lzacharilla@sspi.org
