{"id":87080,"date":"2010-04-22T22:40:40","date_gmt":"2010-04-22T14:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/satellite-ceos-rely-on-customer-relations-to-recover-from-economic-downturn\/"},"modified":"2010-04-22T22:40:40","modified_gmt":"2010-04-22T14:40:40","slug":"satellite-ceos-rely-on-customer-relations-to-recover-from-economic-downturn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/satellite-ceos-rely-on-customer-relations-to-recover-from-economic-downturn\/","title":{"rendered":"Satellite CEOs Rely on Customer Relations to Recover from Economic Downturn"},"content":{"rendered":"

[04-22-10] CEOs from a cross-section of the satellite industry \u2014 fixed satellite services, imaging, and satellite ground equipment segments \u2014 are stressing the value of long-term customer relationships as the global economy recovers from one of the worst recessions in histor.
\n    EADS Astrium<\/strong> CEO Eric Beranger said his company\u2019s strategy of building strong relationships with clients has prevented his company from relying on the capital market \u201cMeeting customer requirements while commercial risks, when done properly, requires a lot of vigor. This in turn creates credibility. In a selective market, credibility is an absolute must,\u201d said Beranger.
\n    Rob Bednarek, president and CEO of SES Americom-New Skies<\/strong>, said the operator is closely intertwined in many other companies\u2019 businesses as part of an overall connectivity solution, which tends to reduce some market volatility. Although he expects tougher financial times for some of his customers, Bednarek is confident that opportunities will continue to present themselves. \u201cLong-term, sound business plans, highlight the fact that money is very expensive right now. So, you must insure you have the margins on any new ventures,\u201d said Bednarek.
\n    Peter Jackson, CEO of AsiaSat<\/strong>, points to recent troubled times in the Asian market, offering the satellite operator\u2019s changed perspective. Jackson said Asia went through a regional financial crisis and then the region was rocked again by the SARS health crisis, highlighting the global aspects of the economic crisis. \u201cCustomers don\u2019t just happen,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cGrowth is going to be affected next year and the one after that. When customers have problems, we encourage them to talk to us to see if we can work something out. It is a painful process but without us, they don\u2019t have a business.\u201d
\n    Mary Cotton, president and CEO of iDirect<\/strong>, said her company has stressed the importance of helping clients find new and innovative ways to lower overall costs of ownership during difficult times in the market by continuing to fund new initiatives but stressed they must be strong business cases. \u201cIf finances start to tighten up and capital budgets get cut, we may have to offer ways for customers to finance their network hardware,\u201d she said.
\n    Mark Dankberg, chairman and CEO of ViaSat<\/strong>, is more upbeat about the future, buoyed in part by the progress of the company\u2019s Ka-band satellite project. \u201cSeveral years ago we were asked \u2018Why are you doing this?\u2019 But now people see the value proposition. No one has followed us yet and we have a big lead,\u201d Dankberg said.
\n    Matt O\u2019Connell, president and CEO of satellite imagery provider GeoEye<\/strong>, said that while the majority of its business is pre-sold and the company is fairly well insulated from unfriendly capital markets, but noted that the growth rate might slow in the future.
\n    \u201cCompanies should start selling what customers need rather than what the customers have to sell. Good business plans are customer-focused not \u2018thing-focused,\u2019 such as a piece of hardware or technology,\u201d said O\u2019Connell.
\n     O\u2019Connell added that the biggest threat to his market segment is looming international competition with 11 different countries planning to enter the imaging market. O\u2019Connell also expressed concern over the challenge of finding enough bright, young engineers. GeoEye gives away a lot of imaging to college programs, thereby exposing lots of young engineers to the company. \u201cThere is definitely a \u2018cool factor\u2019 to it and it helps us recruit against some bigger companies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[04-22-10] CEOs from a cross-section of the satellite industry \u2014 fixed satellite services, imaging, and satellite ground equipment segments \u2014 are stressing the value of long-term customer relationships as the global economy recovers from one of the worst recessions in histor.     EADS Astrium CEO Eric Beranger said his company\u2019s strategy of building strong relationships […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87080"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87080\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}