Sunday, March 07, 1999

Business developer overcomes adversity

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Display firm stands out

BY JOHN ECKBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Tom Bove's firm, Genesis Modular Exhibit Systems Inc., is gaining recognition as an industry trend-setter. (Saed Hindash photo) | ZOOM |

        The years from 1987 to 1997 brought a bumpy ride for Tom Bove, president and owner of Genesis Modular Exhibit Systems Inc.

        He doesn't look back fondly on those years, even though his Madisonville firm is now flying high with a modular display system that is gaining national and international recognition as an industry trend-setter.

        The downward spiral for Genesis began one night in 1987 when Mr. Bove, 48, figured out that a key employee was stealing from his company. He pieced it together at 1 a.m. — with a client in town — and within hours, felony charges were filed against a former bookkeeper.

        The embezzlement was just the first boot to fall. He soon learned that his company, created in 1981, owed $95,000 in back taxes to the federal government. Vendors were owed thousands of dollars more — at one point, telephone service was hours away from being cut off — and in general the company books were a mess.

        One result was that the company's flagship prototype product, the Genesis Modular Exhibit System, which Mr. Bove conceived and designed, was soon headed for the deep freeze. What was even worse, the 12 full-time employees and 18 seasonal employees had to be laid off. The annual payroll of $300,000 swooned to $25,000. Want to know about pluck?

        “You don't know about worry until you go to a bank and mortgage your home and then go seven months without pay,” Mr. Bove said.

        “There's worrying every Friday about whether or not you're going to make payroll. You worry about the families that work for you — how are they going to pay the rent? It was a lot of stress.”

        The theft destroyed the company's credit with banks and vendors. Any capital expenditure came out of cash flow. The Genesis system was still in the deep freeze.

        Mr. Bove, a Hyde Park resident, was a phone call away from a bankruptcy attorney in 1993, but on that very day a client ordered up a custom exhibit, giving the company the cash flow to take it through the next six months. The firm survived.

        The years of work and worry paid off in February, when the company unveiled the Genesis at the Exhibitor Magazine Group trade show in Las Vegas, a show of display systems from all over the world for trade show and event marketing professionals.

        At the conclusion of the event, the Genesis received the 1999 Buyer's Choice Award for best new product of the year, and the staff of the Genesis Modular Exhibit System was given a Best Booth Staff Award for overall excellence.

        The awards were nice.

        The requests for information were even nicer. Dealers from South America, Germany, Mexico and throughout Canada and the United States now want to know about distribution rights. Design requests for new displays came from industry heavyweights like Ericsson, Ameritech and Kawasaki. The company generated more than 130 leads from the show.

        “Everybody is saying the future of the world economy is e-commerce, and we recently made our first sale solely through the Internet to Netscape,” Mr. Bove said. “They found us on the Web — at www.genesisdisplay.com — gave us their design parameters and within two days we e-mailed back full-color sketches. They purchased two portable displays.”

        After years of delayed development, false starts, the theft, near bankruptcy and endless worry, the company balance sheet is again solid. Systems are not cheap, however, particularly the custom-built displays. If the experience of Stihl Inc. is any indication, the expense is worth it.

        When the world's leading manufacturer of chain saws and outdoor equipment set up a $250,000 Genesis display at the World of Concrete show in January in Las Vegas, sales leads on the first day were twice the size of four days worth of sales from the previous year at the same convention.

        “Indeed, we had unbelievable booth traffic,” said Ken Waldron, national marketing manager for Stihl. “We had a newly designed and constructed booth of brushed metal that reinforced our core competencies of strength and durability.”

        The convention display industry, estimated by the Atlanta-based Exhibit Designers and Producers Association at $1 billion in sales annually, is a highly competitive sector with about 80 manufacturers and 250 types of systems. There are two major categories: folding panel systems and pop-up displays. The Genesis system, Mr. Bove said, merges the two.

        It sets up in eight to 15 minutes with a reconfigurable framework, no tools and no loose connectors. Panels attach magnetically. There are faux marble and faux granite paint treatments, wood and laminate options.

        Jerry Dolbey, owner and president of Dolbey & Co., an Anderson Township company that develops software for hospital and medical record keeping, purchased a portable display about five years ago for $16,000. Two years later, a $70,000 display was custom-built. Last year an additional $60,000 display was ordered.

        “It certainly has given us a great image,” Mr. Dolbey said. “When we upgraded to the latest version, we got a lot of comments from customers and competitors that we had really grown up.”

        Mr. Bove tells potential customers something most of them probably already know: Convention displays must be fresh and functional. “The experts say you have 1.2 seconds to 4 seconds to make an impression on a show visitor,” Mr. Bove said. He said the custom capabilities of the unit guarantee impact.

        Developing the system has been a decade-long challenge, but with revenues projected at $750,000 in 1999 and $1 million in 2000, Mr. Bove thinks the company has finally turned a critical corner.

        It has not been a one-man band either. Margaret Humphrey was a former executive vice president and a key player during the trouble years, he said. “She put her heart and soul into this thing,” Mr. Bove said.

        Being the chief of a small company usually brings with it a multitude of roles, particularly when the company is struggling. “I am the president and the developer, but I was also the painter — from errand boy to president, that's what I am,” he said. “When things needed to be painted, I painted.

        “I used to joke that a Christmas card ought to go out with me standing there with paint all over myself.”

ENTERPRISE INSIGHT
        “There's no magic formula. Typically our design tack is to keep things bold, dramatic, clean and simple. We tell people who we are, what we do and how they will benefit. Hit 'em in the face with it. If I could sum it all up: It's "don't give up.'”

        — Tom Bove

       

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