36 GENIUS INTERVIEW David Ross
When we buy a small company, instead of looking for a fallen giant or a big company in distress, we look for the company that’s going to be the next big thing. I think it’s harder to find, but you find that gem out there and it’s like in A Charlie Brown Christmas where they had that small Christmas Tree. You water it, you take care of it, you fix it up and all of a sudden it’s this awesome tree. DAVID ROSS: In the past, we did extremely well – and we still do extremely well – in stadiums, while our competition was focusing exclusively on broadcast. Now I see press releases going out about how stadiums are important. After stadiums, we moved into esports, and now I see the competition talking about how important esports are, and so on. There are some interesting new places where we see growth FEED: How do you go about looking for new sectors and verticals?
technology support people, product managers and demo artists – and there’s a huge buzz of conversation going on in the company all the time. We also work hard connecting all these people together – whether that’s through technology, such as forums and email connections, or regular face-to-face meetings and so forth. It’s not painful, it’s fun. And I think the sharing that happens inside Ross Video with the people plays a big part in it as well – of finding out what to do next. FEED: So, what will the future bring for Ross Video? DAVID ROSS: That’s an interesting question. A lot of people are talking about Ross as a company that’s arrived. And it’s funny because since I started in ‘91, the company has grown on average 17% a year and if you look at any five year period, you’ll find we basically doubled every four or five years. Last year, we grew by about 20% and, so far this year, it looks like we’re growing at least another 20%. This is just business as usual for us. It’s part of our DNA and we’re having a lot of fun. I expect Ross Video, over the next four years, to double again and just keep innovating. I think we’ve got the magic formula and it’s working really well. If people feel like they’re just now getting to know Ross, especially in places outside North America, they’re going to see a lot more of us.
areas, but I would prefer our competition to find out a year or two from now. One thing is, I typically travel about a week a month, visiting customers and my sales staff and business partners. It’s one thing to get a report on your desk that says, ‘We’ve done an analysis and there’s a 13% chance this is going to be successful’. It’s another thing altogether to go out there and see it for yourself and make it part of the daily discussion. My dad used to say, ‘You can sit and argue all you want in a boardroom, but if you actually get on a plane and go someplace, the answers are out there’. I swear, a lot of the other CEOs in the industry have stopped travelling and meeting customers. Maybe it’s because a lot of them are not from our industry, so it’s difficult to talk to a customer about their needs. It’s hard to innovate without having knowledge of the industry and the technologies that are available. The second thing is having a lot of really good, open conversations inside your company. We have some fantastic trainers, WE’VE REORGANISED R&D TO BE ABLE TO SAY YES TO EVERYTHING
DRAMATIC ANALOGUE Ross Video started out producing analogue production switchers like the old beauty pictured above
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