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2016: And we're off!
As most of our readers probably know, GE closed the deal to sell off its embedded business toward the end of November 2015—and so began Abaco Systems. Being the end of the year, with the holidays looming, we had to jump through a few hoops to get us ready for 2016...and now we are here. It has been a busy start for our new company. I thought I'd share a summary of what we have been up to so far…
The marketing team is working feverishly, rebranding all of our assets and materials from the old GE "meatball" to the new Abaco "sail." To put things in context, we have over 1,500 marketing documents that must be rebranded—datasheets, white papers, brochures and the like. This does not include the thousands of technical documents such as product manuals and technical notes (the downside of offering the broadest portfolio and some of the longest-serving products in the market). We have a robust calendar of events planned for 2016, and so new event assets are under creation—Abaco booths, signage, even tablecloths and some new giveaways for our customers. New business cards have been created. New email and PowerPoint templates. Even new product packaging has been carefully designed.
Then, of course, our website... Our initial idea for the site was to do something quick and simple—essentially a copy of our old GE site with the new Abaco branding, fonts and colors. Same structure...fresh coat of paint. Well, as you can see, our team took it a lot further than that! Tremendous work, given the time frame we had (around four weeks). We did encounter a few glitches here and there, and I appreciate the patience and positive feedback from our customers and employees during the transition. Given how fast we were moving, a lot more could have gone wrong.
The whole process has been a lot of work and a lot of fun. Our goal is to create a very different brand in the embedded industry. Something new, bold and exciting. Something more personable and customer-centric. I hope this is coming across. We are far from done. You can expect a lot more from us throughout the year... We will never stop innovating, and at a pace our industry has probably never seen before. I'd love your feedback on how we are doing in the comments section below.
What else...?
Our leadership team gathered for a kickoff and strategy meeting in early January. We held the meeting at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. The academy represents a culture of excellence and is proud of its track record of generating some of the world's greatest leaders—a perfect backdrop, given what our leadership team was there to achieve. We were privileged to be joined by VADM Ted Carter, superintendent of the academy, on the first day of our meeting in the Officers Club. We were also joined by Daniel Akerson, the ex-CEO of General Motors. Both of them gave our team some priceless advice and great ideas for our fledgling company. The team built the Abaco business strategy by starting with customer impact/benefits and working backward to clear and actionable initiatives. We left Annapolis with a solid plan for the year. I expect our customers will begin to see the impact immediately.
January also saw us attend our first industry event as the new company. The event (Embedded Tech Trends, hosted by the VITA Standards Organization) was a great forum for us to introduce Abaco Systems to our industry partners and the media. It was particularly fun for me, as I got to tell our story: a story of a brand-new company that just so happens to already be an industry leader, with products that have been shipping for over 20 years. The event also made it clear to me that we have launched Abaco Systems at the perfect time. Today's challenges will not be addressed by the same old business models or products that have served in the space (somewhat unchanged) for 20 years. Our industry is crying out for new innovation, leadership, courage and change. Exactly what we are building Abaco Systems to deliver.
And that was just January. We kicked off February with some new product demonstrations at the FACE Technology Interchange Meeting in our hometown of Huntsville, Alabama. This was a great forum to express Abaco Systems' continued commitment to the Future Airborne Capability Environment standards. We are now in preparation for a string of events including the GPGPU Technology Conference, the AUSA Global Force Symposium and the Army Aviation Association of America's Missions Solutions Summit. But more detail on those soon…
