A Sydney-based audio-visual systems company has rapidly expanded by a simple method – offer customers all the service they want and need.
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Entrepreneur: Richard Skarzynski, Managing Director, Australian Operations
Company: Total Concept Projects
Business type: Audio-visual systems integration
Founded: 1984
Employees: Approx 100; Offices in most state capitals and Malaysia
Turnover: $10M - $50M
Head office: Silverwater, New South Wales
Contact details: +61 2 9648-3444
The Total Concept Projects Story:
Richard Skarzynski is anything but coy about his company's strategic direction. In the next three to five years, he wants to take Total Concept Projects (TCP) up to about $100 million in annual sales. After that, he says a listing on the stockmarket is possible.
It is pretty heady stuff for a company that evolved from an audio hire operation, which Skarzynski and a friend and fellow university student, Tony Musico, began from a tiny office in western Sydney. As joint Director, Musico heads up Asian Projects and has wide ranging responsiblity for corporate work in Australia.
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Key learning points:
- Be honest with clients - Even if it costs you money. Say when a mistake has been made - and fix it.
- Be honest with staff - They need to know whether the company is having a good year or a bad one.
- Personalise the workplace, but do not show favouritism - Show an interest in everyone on staff , treat the staff as a team and plan activities that demonstrate this. For example, do not give a birthday cake to one employee unless all other employees will get one too.
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The company's growth reflects the rapid development of the audio-visual sector, which in the past decade has gone from cottage industry status to quite big business. And the sector increasingly uses information technology.
Skarzynski says: "We play with technology on a global platform. We need to have the engineering depth to connect Australian subsidiary operations to their US or European offices. A big hurdle in Australia is finding highly trained staff. We have to recruit widely, from around the country and overseas."
Large projects – such as stadiums, concert halls and convention centres – head the list of TCP's key markets. Other markets include audio-visual projects for Australia's top 100 companies, the registered club market, four and five star hotels, and the top end of the pub market.
TCP's core business philosophy is a one-stop shop concept with strong emphasis on winning and keeping customer loyalty. Skarzynski says: "A colleague of mine in the club industry told me, 'If I want to put a TV on a bracket in my registered club, I need to ring four people. I need to buy the TV, I need to buy the bracket, I need to ring up my electrician and then ring the antenna people. And all I want to do is put up a TV.' So we now provide a one-stop shop for our clients. To that we have added sound, video, lighting, metal-work and joinery all under one roof."
The same one-stop shop concept applies to customer service and support. TCP is not aligned to any one product range. It offers its clients customised packages of many well-known brands. And the company adds value by offering 24 hour/seven-day-a-week service with a response time of one hour. Most customers take that option.
"The useability of these systems is very important," Skarzynski says. "If our clients have a service problem, they just ring one company. If they want to change the model or the size of the product, it's just one company again." TCP employs 27 full-time technicians to support its customers.
The company has learnt that what works in one market can work in another. In the registered club market, TCP often rents audio-visual equipment to customers and includes maintenance. Instead of spending $500,000 on audio-visual gear or video walls, a club can rent equipment for $1,000–$2000 a week over three to five years, allowing TCP to install the technology, maintain it and update it.
TCP has extended the concept to the corporate market by offering a rental service for state-of-the-art audio-visual fit-outs for boardrooms.
Skarzynski recognises the value of a stable workforce. "When you get people who have been here for 10 years, you get that efficiency factor coming through on the balance sheet," he says. Skarzynski believes many companies fail to explain to prospective employees what is required of them on a day to day basis.
TCP has formalised its hiring procedures, introducing a documented, three-step interview process. "Many of the processes that work well for large multinationals are also valuable for smaller to mid-size companies," Skarzynski says.