Our company embarked on a mission to develop a user-friendly security system developed on a highly complex infrastructure. We required the ability to develop and manage a wide scope of work that would encompass an entire line of electronic products, designed to interact with not only each other, but also outside service and monitoring facilities. Do to the nature of our offer to customers in matters of life and property protection, quality and precision results were mission critical. Our products would be set up in a wide array of environmental conditions. Our products included integrated technologies using injection-molded plastics, specialized fasteners, cabling and fittings, embedded firmware for microprocessors, RF communication, telephone communications, and environmental sensing. Furthermore we required a proprietary supply chain and customer service system that tied numerous third-party warehousing, fulfillment, emergency response, accounting, CRM, and retail POS platforms together.
Prior to meeting Clint O'Conner we had no idea where to begin. We had concepts but no idea of the magnitude of open and unresolved challenges that lay ahead. We required specifications for software and hardware from operational to end user to testing. We had no idea how to identify a proper and reliable mass production facility. Prior to our introduction to Clint, we had burned through more than $1.5MM in capital over 24 months with a host of freelance and organized engineering people and firms resulting in "looks like", non-functional prototypes. We suffered numerous false starts with electronic and industrial design projects. We were busy generating no results, and the disappointments, skyrocketing budgets and unfilled promises embarrassed us with our stockholders and dismayed our marketing partners.
After we retained Clint, he worked one on one with our team to assimilate our product vision. He laid out a fast, clean road map defining the requirements to place our project under control, and to establish an engineering and R&D operation. Once he understood what we wanted he hand selected a team of engineering candidates while investing months refining a full set of specifications required to guide the project and design efforts. We finally knew where we were (starting from scratch) and more importantly, we knew where we were headed. Clint also took the time to explain the new engineering and manufacturing plan to stockholders, and both his pedigree and his knowledge unlocked financial support we thought had permanently vacated.
In 24 months (the same amount of time that we had previously wasted with nothing to show for our energy) budgets were created and met, a full line of products were in the hands of hundreds of beta testers, collateral materials improved the customer experience, designs for infrastructure including our supply chain and customer service system were going live, and after focus group tests a significant set of rolling design and packaging changes were implemented. As a result, we obtained our first national purchase order after a successful market test with CompUSA. This led to subsequent orders with Home Depot, Meijers, Costco, Circuit City, Fry's Electronics, and a relationship with a brokerage firm who engaged to finance our national launch and did. When we needed to squeeze time and our marketing team pressed for "now", Clint was at the helm to assist management in methods to calculate and identify sensible solutions and ways to mitigate risk to complete the job sooner.
Clint's project management skills are second to no one. He accomplishes as one man the work of five. He directed engineering through every level and every detail. Clint took our team to China using a custom technique he created to identify and qualify the proper manufacturing partner. Communicating in both English and Chinese, Clint introduced two world-class mass production facilities that began building our products. The firms that became our partners also serviced clients including Motorola, Panasonic, Plantronics and Sony. We were in good company. Clint moved us through cost reduction engineering, rolling product enhancements, and he was meticulous at ongoing audits of the factory's purchasing and pricing. This resulted in ongoing savings to our company. Our manufacturing and testing process is extremely unique and every aspect of our proprietary processes was designed and taught to the factory by Clint. He supervised the development and implementation of our back-end infrastructure and continued to impress us with everything from conflict resolution to hands-on engineering and design.
Through the development process new intellectual property was continually being born and before we knew it Clint had organized patent law firms and began drafting our first filings. His daily and weekly reporting skills are remarkable and it's difficult to comprehend how he finds the time with so many complicated agendas under management. A CEO can review Clint's paper trail and literally identify what occurred hour by hour through the entire project from start to finish. Clint is fast, detailed, skilled, dynamic, and accountable. When challenges arise and they always do, this is a man and teammate you want on your side of the court. To choose another candidate when you seek perfection is a mistake.
Our upper management, our manufacturing partners, our IT department, our customer service department, and our major partners from fulfillment to security monitoring are all smarter, more capable people with improved operations because of the influence of Clint O'Conner. It is an education of such value it is impossible to place a price on it. Clint will deliver the results you're looking for. Clint will save you from yourself and he will carry you safely across hostile territory. You will receive far more value than you anticipate. When Clint tells you it can be done it will. When he tells you what you don't want to hear, believe it's the truth and listen. There is no substitute for ingenuity and experience. In Clint you'll get it all. Salud!
Founder and CEO of Lasershield Systems Inc. Back