Automate or Die… (sometimes slowly)

First published as a LinkedIn article on February 25, 2021. Reposted here so it lives alongside the rest of the lab notes.

My father is a 2nd generation business owner, inheriting the family business from his father who passed away from brain cancer in the late 1970's.

My father's business is a mold of artistic vision combined with carpentry work. This business model, some would argue is very antiquated, is the business of "Signage."

Signage has an interesting history but is rooted in manual processes that require a ton of overhead in the form of skilled human capital.

In the past one would become interested and start with an apprenticeship. Like a tattoo parlor or a journeyman, you have a predetermined path to professionalism. During those early years one's job is to become "aware" of the environment and to gain a deep understanding of the tools used in signage.

My father's business was doing quite well… contracts with large PNW retailers such as Eddie Bauer & REI; any decent high rise in downtown Seattle would likely have an "Alvord Signs" signage. My father was doing very well through the early 2000's.

A large trend started in the early 2000's in regards to wholesale signage… that trend was three fold. This combination brought on massive competition in a time that most American signage companies had healthy pipelines and run rate revenue.

The trend had multiple components for a perfect storm. That trend has 3 pivotal traits:

1. Signage was moving into the digital age (neon, electrical signage).
2. Computers and programming were being leveraged in the signage lifecycle and brought efficiencies through automation and cost reduction.
3. Global competition — a massive floodgate of competition coming from Saudi Arabia and Eastern Europe. WTO & policy was an external trigger event.

My father was faced with a trend that was coming at his business and industry from all angles — fierce competition driving costs down backed by technology that was automating the signage lifecycle.

Choice was simple: invest in technology to compete with the competition or become irrelevant. Innovate and differentiate or die!

My father was filled with fear, uncertainty and doubt. My father made a fatal decision in the early 2000's. That fatal decision was to ignore the market conditions and turn his back away from technology.

Today my family's entrepreneur legacy is dead. Irrelevant. The signage companies who invested in technology and automation have relevant pipelines and run rate business. They are relevant and have fared well during a storm of transition.

I was speaking with my father last weekend, drawing the comparable lines of our industries. Automation and technology drive innovation and reduce time to market. Digital transformation forced my father to make a choice. My father's fear: his skills that took a lifetime to build were obsolete. Fear that technology and automation alone would not help his business survive.

What I learned during that conversation was the regret. Regretful he did not push through his fears, uncertainty and doubt and accept that he needed to invest in something new, upskill and differentiate himself.

The real value of my father's business was the name "Alvord Signs," not his signage skills exclusively. Had my father had the foresight he would understand that shifting his skillsets did not weaken the value proposition of Alvord Signs, but strengthened that brand image and brought it into a modern world.

Automation and orchestration is measured in latency. Brief moments of time. Without automation and orchestration, that fall from grace as a business can be measured in years.

Originally published on LinkedIn, February 25, 2021. Reposted with light typo fixes; the text is otherwise unchanged.

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