Vantaggi
DataPath had a very tough spin-out from Rockwell Collins. They had stripped it of everything good and left nothing but bureaucracy and unhappy customers. New management came in and set some big goals to grow to over $100M . They pushed hard to develop new products and enter new markets. That is finally happening. We won a huge $300M Army contract last year, and a bunch of new business in Australia and Canada this year. The factory is humming and the company has hired over 100 more people in the field. In the recent All Hands meeting the CEO said we should hit $120M this year, almost doubling in size. That is really helping morale because people feel like all the hard work is finally starting to pay-off. We are all hoping they pay some bonuses this year.
Svantaggi
A lot of the old guard didn't like having to do more with less after the spin-out. Most of the whiners have been fired or left, but a few nay-sayers are still around complaining. One of the original "founders" of the company is still on the board and is always hanging around stirring things up and playing favorites. No one takes him very serious, but he is disruptive and wastes a lot of time. Also cash to buy inventory is always tight. Management says they are are working on getting more financing, but it never seems to get much easier.