Chuck Ulland, President, NEL Frequency Controls

Would you consider your business difficult to understand?

"In all fairness, it is. NEL manufactures crystal oscillators. They're timing devices, also known as frequency control devices, that are used in electronics, networking, computers, storage. We employ a variety of disciplines—mechanical and electrical engineering, physics. If a person is trying to understand our business, it's complex."

"The goal wasn't to be a crystal oscillator expert, but to learn the key measurements and attributes of our business to promote it to our customers. How long did it take? They were pretty savvy within two or three meetings."

"First, we have close access to a senior-level professional with diverse business experience. That involvement is critical. Our company was growing significantly. Then the telecom business collapsed. There was a significant drop off in business. They brought cyclical business understanding to us and that depth was useful. They advised us that now was a tremendous opportunity to grow—and gave wise counsel on the benefits of broadening our product offerings and aligning ourselves with other companies. That input is right on with what we want to do. We are implementing a program to increase and diversify our customer base.

"Second, the market research is very enlightening. The methodology they employ—the KANO model—was a real eye-opener. We learned about our customers. The company gave us access to sophisticated market research. They polled our customers. Why did they buy from NEL? What was the most important thing to the customer, our service, technology, other attributes? Using the KANO model they had the customer prioritize the top three attributes and then give them a point value equaling 100.

"We learned that the assurance of product reliability was three times more important than any other attribute. That's significant. We had thrown product reliability into our sales mix with everything else, but now senior company management took a look and repositioned our company as the high reliability supplier of crystal clock oscillators.

"Also, the information about what is important to the customer has helped us with price erosion and preserved our margins. We've gained insight into what's important to the customer and can counter competitive actions based solely on price. The high reliability information is significant for our company.

"The market research in the KANO method has told us that we need to change our website, our manufacturing process, our sales presentations, everything. Talk about a gold nugget uncovered.

"Everyone's trying to differentiate themselves. When a company has a proprietary technology—that's enough. However, technology matures, competitors come in and a company needs something to differentiate themselves. Winsby can complete the product offering with both tangible and intangible values. I'll gladly give them an endorsement as long as they don't go to our competition."