Means For Growth

With his Three-Dimensional Model for Business Growth as the impetus, ex-JBL President
Ron Means transformed a small company with no market presence into the dominant provider
of professional audio equipment.

By Aaron DeCollibus

While you may not have heard of Ron Means the man, you no doubt have heard from one of his strategic successes in business. As President of JBL, Means oversaw the rapid expansion of the company’s professional audio systems business and was the architect that transformed the company into the standard in theater audio systems. Since leaving JBL, Means remains active with numerous business ventures. He currently holds a chair position with Vistage International, an executive development program, where Means works with CEO’s and high level executives to maximize business performance.

Ron Means started his first business, a retail audio components store, while studying Industrial Technology and Physics at Western Illinois. “It wasn’t a huge business, but the day I graduated I had 19 paychecks due. The challenges presented daily were varied but solving them taught me how to deal with the stress of running a business.” His math and science background provided a source for solutions. “I went to college to be a scientist and scientists think about issues and problems from a very logical perspective. They take large, complex problems and break them down into small, manageable pieces. I realized this method translated seamlessly to the business world.” The early business experience proved valuable when Ron went to work for one of his vendors after selling his ownership stake. Success followed and Means was transferred to California as national sales manager. “I was relatively young… and it was a trial by fire. But the lessons learned served me well.” In 1980, after tremendous success, the 30-year-old Means was recruited to JBL. Despite the recessionary times, Ron continued to thrive and five years later he was named President of the company’s professional products division. The company flourished throughout Ron’s 16-year tenure and witnessed its revenue grow almost twentyfold as JBL Pro Audio systems emerged as the industry’s preeminent brand.

Means’ success at JBL and subsequent ventures provided unique experiences that he believed could benefit business executives. With this idea in mind, Ron decided consulting afforded him the best opportunity to reach the broader business community. “I found I really enjoyed working with lots of businesses at one time. Over the years, I have worked with a multitude of executives and it is very fulfilling to witness them succeed. Vistage provides the perfect opportunity to continue on that path.” Although Ron deals with executives from various industries, one problem returns consistently. “The majority of the high level executives I work with are caught working in the business instead of working on the business. [The executive] will often come home stressed and preoccupied with business issues after a 15-hour workday. The business and its issues are with him all the time. Our goal is to help these executives achieve work-life balance and have the business outperform itself.” To aid business development, Ron introduces clients to his three-dimensional model, titled “Doing Business on Purpose,” with three key components critical to business growth: geography, market knowledge, and product lines. “All of the executives I encounter claim to have unique problems. All industries do have their distinct challenges, but really the concerns are very similar whether it is a guitar store or the automotive dealer business. My three-dimensional model allows a business to understand where the business fits into the market. The model can provide a wealth of data and transform the understanding of the business.” Recalling a local restaurant owner that approached him with customer traffic challenges, Ron explains the geographic component. “As a restaurant owner, I want to know where my customers are coming from and if one area brings in more than another. From this data, I can derive customer tastes and expectations. Then I can make business decisions that properly serve the customers I am attracting and allocate marketing resources efficiently. [However] the depth and complexity is based entirely on the commitment of the business.”

JBL’s explosive growth can be attributed in part to components of Ron’s model. Market knowledge allowed Ron to put the right sales associate in front of each customer. “At JBL, we identified eight vertical market segments. To find someone who could speak all those languages would have been near impossible. I couldn’t send a guitar store sales representative in to speak with the head of audio systems at the Greek Theater. I had to be certain that the representative I was sending in knew how to speak to the customer. You need to be certain that your business is speaking the language of the segments you are targeting.” Market knowledge also allows businesses to not only highlight the customer segments they currently serve, but those neglected or underserved. This component, coupled with a focused product line (the third tenet), aided Means when he attacked the theater audio systems market. “We identified the opening in one of our vertical markets and immediately made it a priority segment. Our challenge to growth was daunting. We were attempting to break into a market where our competitor had close to 100% market share. We had the products but did not speak the language of the movie theater industry. Our research indicated that to secure the market, JBL had to become the standard.” To accomplish this heady goal, Means and his team outmaneuvered their competitor by going “up the channel” to negotiate directly with the movie studios. “We presented our products, backed with research on the improvement our products offered over the competition, to the studios and Academy of Theater. At the time we were [also] involved in the early stages of the THX development which further enhanced our credibility. Our goal was to get the studios mixing their movies with JBL products which would push us into theaters.” The decision paid off and within a few years JBL boasted more than 75% share of the theater market nationwide.

In these unprecedented times, it is critical that businesses do not take the “duck and cover approach” that Means believes many do. “The success at JBL came during the difficult economic times of the early 1980’s. What businesses need to understand is that the hardest time to gain market share is during the good times. Everyone is growing and adding sales people. The time to seize share is now, when your competitor is afraid and pulling back. Understand where your customers are coming from, what they are demanding, and how your products can satisfy that demand. Find where the holes exist in your market [and] then go after those opportunities.”

To contact Ron about the new Vistage group, please email ron.means@vistage.net