Pelco CEO Out, New CEO Found

Bring Scott Schafer back :-)

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John Honovich

In reply to Undisclosed End User #1

IPVM

YES!

Arecont EVP Schafer Ousted and Scott Schafer Responsibility In The Fall Of Arecont

In fairness, he has a lot of time on his hands...

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John Honovich

IPVM

Funny side note, Schafer has been consulting for Pelco but he did not get the CEO job.

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Undisclosed #2

IPVMU Certified

Pelco’s CEO is out...

The new President of Pelco is Brian McClain. McClain was brought in by Transom Capital...

...Most importantly, McClain has the confidence of Transom...

...The positive side is that it frees Pelco to make its own decisions...

but only after Transom installs it’s own management???

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...

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John Honovich

IPVM

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...

That's silly. Transom may or may screw this up but to conflate it with Schneider is absurd.

Schneider had a very specific problem - Pelco was a tiny part of a conglomerate that fit poorly, making it extremely difficult to make good decisions.

Transom is a boutique PE firm with just 15 employees listed on LinkedIn. So Transom may screw up Pelco but it won't be because Transom has a lack of focus or wants to cross-sell it with circuit breakers or motor starters or whatever Schneider's core business is.

The new boss is totally different than the old boss. Maybe the 'new' boss will screw it up (in new ways!) but it won't be the 'same as the old boss'.

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Undisclosed #2

IPVMU Certified

you said

The positive side is that it frees Pelco to make its own decisions, which had been a major problem for many years as Schneider dictated or otherwise influenced and delayed Pelco.

but replacing the existing Pelco CEO with Transom exec who will (assumedly) be choosing the next CEO, indicates Transom is making the calls, not “Pelco”, and in this way, may be like Schneider. let’s see who they pick.

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luis rodriguez

So perfectly said !! 👍👏

Best comment so far !!

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Casey Mitchell

John Roman has had various leadership positions within Pelco over the last decade. During my tenure, John was the most respected of Pelco's Exec on the team and served as a driving force behind the Back to Blue campaign as well as owning technical services and customer service.

John's collaborative approach to team building, empowerment, industry partnerships, and professional integrity represents the best of Pelco's historic fanatical customer service battle cry.

I would love to see John Roman serve as the next Captain of David McDonlad's ship.

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #5

In reply to Casey Mitchell

Disagree. I worked with Roman for 3 years at Pelco. Great guy. Great mentor to me personally. Loved working with him.

But he's DEFINITELY not a company leader. It's just not in his DNA.

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Undisclosed

In reply to Undisclosed Manufacturer #14

How old is your youngest Pelco install. This feels like one of those minicomputer companies that stumbled way to long into the 1990's before it was shot in the head. And is their modern stuff any good? features, cyber, managability, interoperability, ...

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #14

•Oct 21, 2019

In reply to Undisclosed

Like DEC/IBM/WANG/XEROX/many others ... ? Sometimes good brands get too old/sick for even life support.

I am sure with just the right leadership maybe even a company like Dedicated Micros could make a comeback and takeover the market? Could happen, right? ;-)

Or how about Polaroid ... they still have a recognizable name in "cameras". Just slap the brand on some OEM security cameras?

I guess my meandering point is, companies initially grow because they have some unique value-proposition including the forward thinkers who brought it to market. When you reach the point where all you have is the name left, you can try to fill the vacuum, but your likely just going to suck dirt.

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Undisclosed #2

•Oct 21, 2019

IPVMU Certified

Or how about Polaroid ... they still have a recognizable name in "cameras". Just slap the brand on some OEM security cameras?

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Undisclosed #2

IPVMU Certified

We see this as a bullish sign as it shows Transom recognizes the peculiarity of this industry and the value of having someone who already understands and has relationships within the industry.

Transom President: What a resume! When can you start?

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John Honovich

IPVM

You really want Schmode to come back :)

I don't know. He is the type of guy who would be relentless about growth / sales, that's one thing for sure...

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #5

I think "infamous" is the word you're looking for, John :)

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Undisclosed #3

I don't think he'll be taking that job. I would envision him getting involved in something more cutting edge than just revamping an old manufacturer, were he to get back in the game. Maybe taking some almost unheard of company to the next level, building another new brand.

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Undisclosed #2

In reply to Undisclosed #3

IPVMU Certified

Maybe taking some almost unheard of company to the next level, building another new brand...

I think you’re right. here’s his current gig:

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Undisclosed #2

•Oct 21, 2019

IPVMU Certified

In reply to Undisclosed #3

Maybe taking some almost unheard of company to the next level, building another new brand.

This comment has been flagged for being suspiciously prescient ;)

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Undisclosed Integrator #4

Shamus Hurley! However he has made the impossible exit from the industry.

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John Harrington

It is a shame that Dave MacDonald passed away, he would have been a logical interim leader.

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #5

Pelco doesn't need new vision. Pelco doesn't need new tech. Pelco doesn't even need new personnel.

Pelco needs to go on the offensive as a Marketing company. Take a page out of Avigilon's book and dump a significant part of resources and revenue reinvestment into tools that make Pelco easy to do business with, and that market the crap out of the company in every conceivable nook and cranny. I'm talking about brute force effort marketing. That, coupled with a very good product portfolio today (VideoXpert, Optera, and a great camera portfolio), bake for 12-18 months, and restore Pelco as a top-tier manufacturer in the Video Surveillance space.

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John Honovich

IPVM

#5, you hired! Pelco CMO!

a great camera portfolio

You really think it is a great camera portfolio? They have a limited range, not refreshed anywhere near as frequently etc., no analytics, OEM fisheyes from Oncam, etc.

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #5

Okay maybe "great" was an overstatement. But we'll say "competitive" camera portfolio.

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #6

Disagree. That's what Pelco did all those years before they were bought by Schneider. Everyone wants to blame Schneider for Pelco's downfall, but the truth is that Pelco was set to be sold from day one and McDonald marketed the crap out of it with all kinds inventive campaigns, parties, charities and services, spending feverishly, to the point of almost no profitability, and they were extremely lucky to sell when they did once the perfect storm hit of IP convergence and market changes. Don't forget, most of the customer tactics that made Pelco easy to do business with were all cancelled by Big Dave before he sold....

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #7

In reply to Undisclosed Manufacturer #6

As an end-user customer of Pelco's in the McDonald days, I was treated to not one, but two Pelco jet rides and often wondered how sustainable that practice could be considering we didn't really buy that much equipment, but I worked for a marquee company at the time... so "marketing" I guess

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #5

In reply to Undisclosed Manufacturer #6

Meh. I was there. On the inside. For several years. You weren't.

Don't confuse the way McDonald propped Pelco's image with what I'm suggesting. At. All.

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Undisclosed Integrator #4

Maybe they could merge with CoStar/Arecont and ride Unicorns off into the sunset. I can see the commercial now.

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #5

In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #4

That would put Shane Compton (former VP of Engineering at Pelco, and current President of Arecont) as effectively the CEO at Pelco. Hrmmmmmm....

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Undisclosed

But are their cameras/vms'/whatever any good now? Is there product there which one might consider using, regardless of what warm body is in the CEO chair this week? Pelco has spent a looooong time on the "run away, old stuff" list. Is it secure? Does it have modern features? Do they have a solution that can do FR on a moving vehicle? Have they figured out TLS to the camera might be good?

Is there some reason we should be following this thread other than to watch old timers wax poetical about that time Pelco gave out jet fighter rides at an A&E event back in the day...

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #5

I'd stack VideoXpert against any other large Enterprise VMS out there today, and the same for their cameras against most Tier A camera manufacturers.

I believe TLS has been supported on their cameras for over a year now, but I could be wrong about that.

You should probably revisit their portfolio soon. They've come a long way over the last 5 years.

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Undisclosed #2

IPVMU Certified

...the same for their cameras against most Tier A camera manufacturers.

have to ask, which “Tier A” manufacturer(s) would you not stack them up against?

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #5

Nice try, counselor. I was specifically being non-specific, so as not to say "any Tier-A manufacturer."

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Undisclosed #2

IPVMU Certified

ok, but I assume you’d stack them up against any “Tier B” manufacturer?

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #5

If you have a point, I wish you'd make it.

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Undisclosed #2

IPVMU Certified

sorry, just getting warmed up.

let’s go back to your

I'd stack VideoXpert against any other large Enterprise VMS out there today

which notably omitted the non-specificity hedge used in the camera statement.

are there typically native drivers available with VideoXpert for non-Pelco cameras, or are the integrations often limited to ONVIF?

i saw this on 95% of cameras i tried at random:

regardless of native or ONVIF, some major manufacturers seem not well supported:

do you think this stacks up well against some indisputable ‘Tier A’ Enterprise VMSes that come to mind, Milestone, Genetec, Exacq?

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #5

Since I no longer work at Pelco, I'm not here to answer product questions for you. But if you contact their Tech Support or Pre-Sales folks, I'm sure you'd get the info you seek.

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Undisclosed #2

IPVMU Certified

Since I no longer work at Pelco, I'm not here to answer product questions for you.

apologies, i had no idea you didn’t.

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Undisclosed

Thank you for the input. I agree with you they merit a fresh investigation. (Which does imply I hope the current/next generation of management doesn't screw up the products.)

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #5

In reply to Undisclosed

Agreed.

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Undisclosed Integrator #8

A page from the Marketing book from Avigilon, the end-to-end solution offer & Customer support ethic from the old Pelco, I say go for Dave Dalleske as Pelco 3.0 CEO -
Considering 2.0 was the Schneider Pelco. https://www.linkedin.com/in/davedalleske/

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #5

I worked closely with Dave, I have a lot of respect for him. Pelco could do far worse than put him at the helm.

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John Honovich

IPVM

Update October 2019: New CEO Hired

Pelco announced hiring Kurt Takahashi as CEO, formerly President of access control manufacturer AMAG. Transom definitely stayed within the industry for this hire, as they said originally. Takahashi has worked on the Tyco / ADT previously as well as an executive for Quantum Secure, the PIAM / access control company.

Pelco described Takahashi's tenure at AMAG in transformative terms:

At AMAG, his innovative leadership transformed the company from being an access control focused business into an open, innovative security management solution specializing in access control, video surveillance, visitor management, identity management, incident and case management, and a fully integrated command and control software suite.

We are skeptical of Transom's 'innovative leadership' claim simply because we have not seen AMAG be 'transformed' recently (e.g., OEMing middle-of-the-pack Salient is fine but not innovative). If that is the type of innovation Transom is aiming for at Pelco, this will be a concern.

And as this LinkedIn employee trend shows, AMAG has been more flat over the last few years:

The bigger question is where this 'new' Pelco is going. It is definitely clear they are prioritizing operational improvements, which are certainly needed post spin-out from giant Schneider but beyond that, it is not clear to us what the bigger strategy or vision for Pelco is. We will continue to look into this for a potential future report.

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #9

Best of luck to Mr. Takahashi and Pelco but I don't think this is going to excite the troops or the customer base much.

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Undisclosed Integrator #4

In reply to Undisclosed Manufacturer #9

Where’s Ken?

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #10

Does Pelco have a path to viability? John, what would you do if you were in Kurt Takahashi's shoes right now?

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Undisclosed #3

John, what would you do if you were in Kurt Takahashi's shoes right now?

Start a blog?

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John Honovich

IPVM

It's a good question. For Kurt, so much of it depends on what Transom wants to do with Pelco. I don't think Kurt is there to provide a vision, I think he is there to execute Transom's plan. That's my opinion, to be clear, not something they have told me.

If I was in his shoes, I'd execute Transom's plan, sort of by definition. I assume if he does, they sell Pelco and both Transom and Kurt get a nice payout.

That leads to your broader question of Pelco's viability. It depends on what 'viability' means. If it means "Make Pelco Great Again', I am highly skeptical that Transom even cares about that. If it means make Pelco a financially healthy business but a shadow of it its 2000s self so they can sell it for a sizeable profit on their low investment, I think that is what Transom is aiming for. We shall see. Thoughts?

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #10

If it means make Pelco a financially healthy business but a shadow of it its 2000s self so they can sell it for a sizeable profit on their low investment, I think that is what Transom is aiming for.

Agreed. At this point, 'financially healthy' is probably a lot to ask of anybody. Making Pelco the class of the world is simply unlikely to happen.

The question is, what can be done to make Pelco financially healthy?

If I wanted to buy a security equipment manufacturer, squeeze all the profitability from it, and then sell it up at a nice markup, there are things I could do. I could eliminate all waste and unnecessary spending, I could neglect upkeep and R&D spending and customer service, and downsize all departments not directly related to sales. I could eliminate all my rep firms and bring sales in-house, with sales targets creeping ever higher to reduce the amount of commission and bonuses I would have to pay.

Problem is, Pelco already did all that. Some of those things, they did a few times. They have no fat let to trim.

Assuming all that, and assuming Transom has no long term plans beyond "make Pelco an attractive acquisition target to we can recoup our investment and make a respectable profit", what, if anything, could a CEO do?

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John Honovich

IPVM

what, if anything, could a CEO do?

One thing he can do is bring in AMAG / ADT / Tyco people to rebuild Pelco's team. That will help Pelco go after more deals, try to win back some dealers, etc.

Schneider made things a lot harder for themselves by bringing sales execs and leaders from outside the industry. Kurt has a clear step up in that fundamental respect.

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #10

Sure, they need to rebuild the sales and executive teams. If they don't do that, they're dead no matter what else they do. They also need to restore trust in their customer service and post sales support mechanisms.

But it seems to me that another fundamental problem they have is lack of product that can compete with other manufacturers' products in the same price range. The best salespeople in the world will struggle to win projects if they keep trying to sell 2014 cameras in a 2020 world. And I don't know how much influence Takahashi has over that issue, or how quickly he could solve it. Yes/no?

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John Honovich

IPVM

another fundamental problem they have is lack of product that can compete with other manufacturers' products in the same price range.

Sure, but Takahashi comes from AMAG where he dealt with that same challenge everyday, no?

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #10

Certainly, but the challenge was far less acute then. First, AMAG wasn't as far behind the competition as Pelco is, and second, the pace of technological innovation is far slower in the access control world than in the video surveillance world, which in turn leads to customer expectations that are far easier to meet for any access control manufacturer.

In other words, there are more end users who would be okay purchasing a three year old access control solution than there are who would be okay purchasing a three year old video solution. Having a great sales team matters a lot less when your product simply doesn't stack up against other, similarly priced solutions.

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Undisclosed #2

IPVMU Certified

“Make Pelco Great Again!”

is a bit optimistic, maybe better would be

“Keep Pelco from Going Under!”

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Kevin Mundy

Stanford University

Many congratulations to Kurt on his new role. For those of you that have not had the pleasure of working with or for him at some point you will get to see him turn things around get that ship sailing again. Kurt is the utmost stand-up person and they could not have selected a better new leader for Pelco. He knows the space better than anyone and vast experience in all side of the business very well. Look out for great things to come from Kurt and Pelco in the future.

Best of luck Kurt!

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Kyle Baker

IPVMU Certified

I almost fell out of my chair laughing at the part about "innovation" while at AMAG.

All I can say, is that Pelco has been in a terrible place. These moves maybe slow their decline to where they could compete as a middle of the road manufacturer... Maybe. But other than being out from under Schneider, none of these changes instill any confidence that Pelco will be any different in the near future.

But, I'll be fair and give them some time to prove me wrong.

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John Honovich

IPVM

In reply to Kyle Baker

These moves maybe slow their decline to where they could compete as a middle of the road manufacturer... Maybe. But other than being out from under Schneider, none of these changes instill any confidence that Pelco will be any different in the near future.

Wait, Kyle, but wouldn't a 'middle of the road manufacturer' be an upgrade for the Pelco of the last few years?

I kind of mean this seriously. Transom cares far less what Pelco used to be than (a) what they paid for them (very very low price) and (b) what they can return. My guess is 'middle of the road' would give them a handsome return.

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Undisclosed #13

•Oct 19, 2019

In reply to Undisclosed #13

Transom will get a handsome return only if someone will buy it in the future . chances for that are low in my opinion, even if they improve to middle of the road status, what is the incentive to buy them ? install base is big but outdated, IP portfolio is not extraordinary... I really don't see the exit strategy for transom.

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John Honovich

•Oct 19, 2019

IPVM

I really don't see the exit strategy for transom.

What Transom did is the corporate equivalent of going to a garage sale. Transom has no interest nor expectation of restoring Pelco to what it was in 2005. The only question is how low can they buy it for (every insider agrees it was pennies on the dollar) and whether or not they can clean it up enough to sell it for more.

Schneider ran Pelco so dysfunctionality that if Transom just makes it like March Networks (and I am not trying to knock March Networks - at this stage in its life it is a solid but not exciting company), Transom will find someone to buy it a significant premium to the pennies they paid.

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Kyle Baker

•Oct 22, 2019

IPVMU Certified

You're probably right. They can make some money doing that. The question is whether or not they will hang onto them for the long haul or just get them to where their PnL's are more attractive and resell them? Only time will tell.

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John Honovich

•Oct 22, 2019

IPVM

In reply to Kyle Baker

hang onto them for the long haul

Kyle, it depends on what one thinks is 'long haul'. I don't think they will hold them for longer than 5 years, some industry insiders think it will be as quick as a year or two.

Transom (Pelco's current owner) is not like Berkshire Hathaway / Buffett in the sense of holding on to companies for decades. I think at some point whether it is 1 to 5 (or so) years, Transom will get Pelco to a point where they find it optimal to make a deal to sell them to someone else.

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Undisclosed Integrator #4

•Oct 17, 2019

All kidding aside I would actually say there isn’t a better time for this to happen. If he makes the right hires in sales and drives product management and service levels up the world likes an underdog.

They won’t recover JCI now that they are TYCO, but they could get ADT Commercial back as well as Convergint.

When BOSCH bought Philips it was old OEM technology and they stumbled several times. Look at them now.

Maybe he rescues Vicon while he’s at it!

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #11

•Oct 17, 2019

Kurt Takahasi helped turn AMAG into a joke of a company, and was quite arrogant during the process based on my observations and comments from those who had an even closer look.

I guess we now get to see if he tries the same approach with Pelco.

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #12

•Oct 19, 2019

Here is a name from their past who could make a huge difference in their future. Bill Arbuckle

I have worked with Pelco since the early 1980’s, I knew ownership through all the transitions they made. Schneider Electric was not able to manage a company and industry they didn’t understand.

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John Honovich

•Oct 30, 2019

IPVM

Update: Adam Tabakian is out as Pelco VP Sales for North America and Latin America, Pelco confirmed to IPVM.

Incoming CEO Takahashi starts this Friday, November 1st.

Tabakian had no industry experience coming in to Pelco but he had worked with recently exited Pelco CEO Theolier at Sensata.

I don't know the internals of the situation but, generally speaking, with a new incoming CEO who has lots of industry sales connections, it would make sense for Takahashi to pick his own VP of sales. It will be interesting to see who is the choice.

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John Honovich

•Nov 04, 2019

IPVM

Update: Justin Wilmas is in as Pelco VP of Sales, North America.

As anticipated, Wilmas came over from AMAG. Wilmas also worked with Takahashi at Quantum Secure.

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John Honovich

•Nov 19, 2019

IPVM

Pelco CEO short video talking about an 'end to end solution' and the 'new Pelco':

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Undisclosed #3

•Nov 20, 2019