Shock
and awe
Rockland company takes the
vibe out of vibration
By BOB ROZYCKI
Serge Seguin says that he hopes to be at $100 million in sales in three years.
Serge Seguin is a thinking man’s company owner and president.
His
worries are not solely focused on the bottom line, but
also on fostering mutual respect between himself and
his employees.
“You
don’t grow a business from nothing to over hundred people
if you don’t have (a) team of good people who believe
in you and you believe in them and you can trust each
other. It’s like everything in life. There is reciprocity
in everything.”
And
he should know, the 100 workers he refers to are at
his plant along Route 59 in Rockland County, home to
Shock Tech, 901D, MILCOTS and SYS4S. He also has SMAC
Groupe, a company in France that has nearly 50 employees
and he just started another business in Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia.
As
for sales, Seguin has an objective to be at $100 million
within three years. “It takes a few things breaking
our way. Will we do it? I don’t know. But, can we do
it? Yes, I know.”
He
learned about good will first hand from strangers when
he hitchhiked across the United States during the summer
of 1968. The student movement was jarring his home country
of France with riots. The students wanted to overthrow
the government. The situation was not good. The protests
were disrupting the colleges and there would be no exams.
“Instead of throwing cobblestones at the police, I’d
rather do something more interesting.” He hopped a plane
to Montreal and began his trek to California and then
down to Florida and then up the coast to New York. He
was taken by the kindness of strangers who even offered
him food and a place to sleep. He can recall no bad
experiences.
His
first accomplishment in the United States became an
$800 answer on the July 14, 2004, episode of TV show
“Jeopardy!” under the heading Weapons of Mass Distraction:
During the ‘70s oil embargo, Serge Seguin launched a
fad for these half-bicycle half-motorcycle vehicles.
The question: What are mopeds?
ROLLING
ON
Seguin
has come a long way since those heady days back in the
early 1970s when he hooked up with French manufacturer
Motobecane and introduced the moped to America. The
business endeavor was the result of Seguin combining
a thesis he needed to write for the MBA he was seeking
from the University of Florida and a need to make some
money.
He
convinced Motobecane that America was a hot market in
light of the gas crisis, resulting from an Arab oil
embargo. The only -- and not so small -- problem was
that mopeds were lumped in the same category as motorcycles.
They may have each had two wheels and an engine, but
a moped topped off at just 30 mph compared with a motorcycle
that could go at least 100 mph faster. He began lobbying
the U.S. Department of Transportation to change the
standards for mopeds. He kept lobbying until he earned
his MBA and had to return to France because he owed
his country a stint with the military. But he chose
another option to fulfill his obligation; he served
for two years with the French Peace Corps as a teaching
assistant in Quebec. In the United States, he developed
a bicycle line with Motobecane and kept up his lobbying
efforts for the moped. The National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration agreed that a moped was not a
motorcycle. But he still had to lobby each state to
agree. He formed the Moped Association of America and
got all moped makers to work together. Americans who
had visited Europe and were taken with the moped as
a must-have item, wrote letters to the manufacturers
asking where they can buy one in America. Seguin gathered
those letters, contacted each individual and asked that
they in turn contact their state senator or equivalent
and ask that mopeds be allowed in their state. “In five
years, 48 states were on board.” He calls it democracy
in action.
Victor Alcivar pulls an anti-shock mount from a mold-making machine inside the Tallman plant.
From
1974 to 1980, his distributorship served 2,000 dealers
and some 250,000 mopeds were sold. Yamaha bought Motobecane
and in turn Seguin’s distributorship. He became the
vice president of the French-American Chamber of Commerce
and ended up working for a French-owned company headed
by the chamber’s president. Two and one-half years later,
a change in France’s government left him without a job.
But he parlayed his experience into taking over a company
that dealt with shock and vibration. Shock Tech was
born.
FROM
SUBS TO PLANES
The
principal users of Shock Tech’s applications are the
military and the aerospace industry.
The
company creates a wide range of products all aimed at
protecting electronics from shock and vibration. It
had “great success” a couple months back when it was
awarded a 20-year contract from Boeing worth about $50
million.
Twelve
companies -- “billion-dollar plus” -- vied for the contract.
We
were the oddity there. All of the other guys looked
at Shock Tech and said. ‘Who are these guys?’” Seguin
said they probably thought he had an uncle at Boeing.
But
as the candidates were narrowed over three years from
12 to six to four and then just two, Shock Tech proved
it wasn’t an oddity.
“We
had the best solution; that’s what put us into the real
running. We had the best test results.”
The
contract involves Shock Tech reducing noise in the cabin
of the new Boeing 787.
“We
have a sandwich of composite and special rubber that
absorbs the vibration and dampens the noise. This derives
from work we did for quieting submarines. You want quiet
submarines,” he said.
After
developing the material for the subs, the company realized
it could be used in other applications.
But
companies like Boeing were not receptive initially because
of the high cost. So the company approached corporate
plane manufacturers such as Gulfstream and Dassault
Falcon, where sensitivity to prices was much lower than
for commercial airplane makers.
The
company eventually developed solutions that were less
expensive, thus reducing production costs and creating
an economically sustainable model.
The
Boeing pact is “an immensely major contract because
number one it qualifies us at Boeing, which is difficult
to do,” Seguin said. “To look at a small company like
us... it’s new thinking at Boeing. We have tried at
Shock Tech to crack the Boeing shield in that sense
for the past 12 years without success.”
“It
shows Shock Tech keeps progressing ... it’s the first
company I started in 1989 and it still kicks as a young
company.”
The
company’s next target is Boeing’s competitor, Airbus.
Seguin’s company, SMAC Groupe in Toulon, France, will
be pursuing the French-based company for business.
GROWING
AND GROWING
About
12 years ago, the U.S. Navy started using computers,
the same desktop ones used by individuals nationwide,
except they were not meant to be used in a military
environment. They initially experienced a lot of problems,
Seguin said. So the Navy decided it had to test commercial
equipment differently from military equipment.
“It
makes sense; everything makes sense after the fact.
They came with different testing requirements. Including
a shock requirement, which became the 901D standard.”
When
the Navy came out with the guideline, “we looked at
what was required and we didn’t know how to resolve
it; no one in the industry knew how to resolve it.”
So
Seguin told two engineers, “That’s a new reality and
we’re going to have to find a solution.” In about 18
months they found one.
Seguin
was ecstatic. “When we had the solution I wanted to
shout to the world that we had a solution. So the best
way to shout -- and we did not have much money -- was
to form a separate company and call it 901D. And with
that your message was loud and clear; we have found
the solution.”
In
the process of developing the solution to the military’s
shock requirements, Seguin realized commercial off-the-shelf
electronics, or COTS, faced other issues, including
cooling. Placing powerful electronics in a confined
space of a ship will cause breakdowns because of the
heat. In addition, there’s also electromechanical interference
and radio frequency interference.
“The
different waves create conductivity and acoustic noise
that we can’t perceive, but are bothersome to the electronics.
“So
we started addressing all these issues.”
The
result was the creation of enclosures with cooling systems,
power supply, consoles ... all kinds of configurations
taking into consideration space environment and the
work environment and knowing that we always have to
keep the electronics constantly working whether it’s
in the back of a HUMVEE or it’s in the ship.”
And
so another company was born: MILCOTS.
“We
saw we had capability to do displays and that it would
be better for us to do them; we would be able to answer
faster to market requirements.”
Seguin’s
son, Aldric, oversees business development at 901D and
his other son, Shawn, is an engineer in product development
at MILCOTS.
“From
these three companies we have a fourth, SYS4S, security
and surveillance. We take commercial electronics and
we integrate as a system.’
FREE
THINKING
As
the company continues to grow, a major problem that
Seguin has encountered is finding manpower.
“This
area is a difficult area for a manufacturer. We are
close to New York City with all the benefits and all
the not-so-beneficial things it brings with it. When
you look for help in manufacturing jobs, which are jobs
in the $15-an-hour range, plus or minus a few dollars,
it’s tough for someone to live on that kind of paycheck
in this area.”
Another
problem is attracting engineers.
“It’s
difficult to bring people from the outside here. They
come here and at the hotel the first thing they do is
look at the cost of housing. And before you start the
interview you have lost the candidate. It’s a difficult
issue.”
“We
hang in here because we have grown the company here,
we have a lot of very good employees and personnel who
live locally and are very valuable to the company. And
we don’t want to look at moving these people. But if
you look at expansion, the South is desirable.”
If
he started with a clean slate, Seguin said, that strategically
his current location might not necessarily be the best
location.
Affordable
housing is key, but he points out that a lot of people
have the NIMBY syndrome about affordable housing. One
easy solution is to plant trees.
Serge Seguin goes over a work detail with Svetlana Shambetalieva.
“If
I were a local government, I would instead of pounding
on this and that and that and that, I would say I have
a project for trees and tell people, ‘Look guys, we’re
going to beautify the town and we’re going to plant
trees here and plant trees there. And with that you
make it much more humanlike at no cost and for the benefit
of everyone. You’re going to have a much more beautiful
town. You can have affordable housing without compromising
the beauty.”
But,
“you have to think different,” he said.
“It’s
not a fine-tuning of things, which is what we tend to
do. It’s different thinking and it’s not complicated.
And I’m not here to give lessons; but I just look as
a resident. It’s simple, plant more trees.” He smiles.
“And I’m not in the tree business.”
But
in addition to appearances, the government could help
by giving some relief to people who are in need of affordable
housing. “People who make $35,000 a year cannot afford
to pay $6,000 in real estate tax. Before they used to
commute far away, but with higher gas prices it becomes
costly. These people are in a Catch-22.”
SOCIAL
CONSCIENCE
More
and more it’s the companies that are helping workers.
“Companies
are starting to do social work, which we do gladly,
but it’s not right that we have to do it. People should
not be placed in that position for these kinds of things.
If some people are in such dire need, which should not
be a structural dire need but should be an exceptional
dire need, and if these people are in an exceptional
dire need then government should have some way to help
them.”
Seguin
has helped people in the company several times assisting
in down payment on homes and cars. “Without fail, all
the people to whom we have loaned money, they don’t
ask for a gift, they ask can you loan me money ... they
repay without fail.”
Seguin
is an atypical business owner.
“We
are in business, so we have to make money. Fundamentally,
I’m not trying to make money. If you run your business
well, if you respect your people, you’re going to end
up making products which meet market requirement, you’re
going to end up making money. And I don’t care at the
end of the year, I’m not a typical entrepreneur maybe,
but I don’t care at the end of the year if we have maximized
the amount of money we make. ... Whether we make $1
million or $750,000 or even $250,000 I don’t care; I
do care that everyone is happy and everyone is doing
the work not because he has to do it, but because he
or she enjoys it. And with that you find the flow of
things makes your business grow; if you give to people
the freedom to do things, if you free their energy and
you give them some sense of happiness, you’re going
to find that you’ll go a long way.”
And
is that a secret to his success. “I would say definitely.”
Reader
Comments
|
Please
send us your comments!
|
|
Add
Your Comments
