Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1080843
34 PCB007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2019 reporting structure to make sure that the com- munication is right. Not every company can do that; they don't necessarily have the resources to put reps all the way along the supply chain to pay attention to their employer's best inter- est. Antal: Yes. One of the interesting things about NCAB is that NCAB and I are a combination. I am that person both on the China side and the U.S. side. I have relationships offshore with the factory management team directly, so the key account managers for NCAB develop relation- ships with the factories as well as our factory management team in China and the custom- ers. It circumvents any of the diluting of urgen- cy or message that we get from our customers. Johnson: And I'm sure there's a whole slice of the electronics manufacturing industry that would love to benefit from this type of a global presence and get the benefit of clear, crisp, ac- curate communications together all at once. Antal: That's one of the key points with NCAB. As I said, quality is first, and now the quest is, "How do we maintain our quality?" Our pri- mary focus is on circuit boards only; we don't delude into any other avenues. There's no as- sembly or anything of that nature, we just do circuit boards. That's part of what makes it pur- er, and full responsibil- ity is the other piece of it. It makes that tenant that we have with the key account managers like me having access to both sides—front to back end of the supply chain—and allows us to have that full responsibility where it's in our hands to make sure that that happens. It's a tall order, but it's also very powerful to have that on both ends. That's part of why we are so successful. Johnson: That, and making sure that the leads coming into the sales funnel are the right kind of customers for you. Antal: That's right. As we qualify customers, it's really the relationship between me and the customers and factories and the ability for us to maintain and grow those relationships. We tend to have very long-term customers because of that. Johnson: Relational versus transactional? Antal: Yes. Any company, especially if you're trying to find ways of showing your value-add, should avoid being transactional because if it was to get to that point, your value-add gets completely washed under. Johnson: Right. So, that seems to be one of the major trends going on right now for success- ful companies rather than those who are strug- gling. Have you gone into a place where you're building relationships versus just basically pro- viding a transactional service? Antal: Definitely. Let me give you an example. I went into one company where there was an ac- count. Somebody left the company and I took over an account, and I was able to double the size of it. It's hard to know how the chemistry between you and the existing account are go- ing to be until you get there, but for some rea- son, we clicked on all cylinders, and they felt super comfortable with me taking over the account; they were very excited. Like anything, you try to find ways of gaining trust in those compa- nies. I give tons of industry information to them, which is what ended up happening. I gave them more information on the economy in China to what the expectations were and what we saw in the marketplace. I also helped the purchasing manager do some reports for their customers that had more to do with circuit boards to try to help mitigate risk. Once you start to get into the risk mitiga- tion portion of it, then you pass that informa- tion along, which sealed the deal. I was able