INDUSTRY INTERVIEW: Raydon Corporation
Don Ariel
CEO
Raydon Corporation
Q: Who is Raydon Corporation and what is its primary focus?
A: This is a question we try to ask ourselves every year! We are first and foremost a virtual learning company. We look at the world as having an insatiable appetite to learn or train. Our job is to feed that demand. Our primary focus is to aggressively invest in science, technology and product that saves or improves lives. The trick is to provide that desired platform, application and/or content solution when the market needs it the most.
Q: What is Raydon’s background, especially when it comes to providing services for military training?
A: My partner Dave Donovan and I [both engineers] were recruited by GE during the Ronald “Ray”gun era. We both held various positions on the Army’s first ground-based virtual trainer program, the Conduct of Fire Trainer [COFT], which generated over $500 million in revenue for GE. We formed Raydon with our personal mentor Ray Hockney in response to the decline in defense spending and the clear interest of the military to reduce cost…anywhere. Although we thought we were going to change the world, we had no idea just how much the world doesn’t like to be changed. I tell folks we were the only truly disadvantaged company. We were a small firm owned by three Caucasians. The early days of the firm exposed us directly to users. We saw what users liked and didn’t like. These hands on relationships allowed us to ask why certain trainers were used and others were not. What we found was that often the requirements process overlooked the most important features: usability and reliability.
Q: Could you talk about what makes Raydon the top provider of convoy trainers to the U.S. Armed Services and the largest domestic commercial source of novice driver trainers?
A: Probably the single most important factor is time to market. We constantly roll all we have learned in the early stages of the business into products that are well timed with market interest. We are typically months or even years ahead of competition. A close second is that we enjoy a loyal customer base. Any customer that has worked with us and enjoyed our willingness to adapt to their needs, irrespective of what we first negotiated, never hesitates to give us an enthusiastic thumbs up. We also have great products. We have never lost a fair side-by-side comparison. Our products are compact, mobile, easy to set up and use, and always have the freshest learning technology.
Q: What sets Raydon apart from your competitors?
A: Our competitors focus on meeting a requirement. We focus on better training. Our focus inevitably leads you to three cardinal customer commitments: We must reduce the cost of training, shorten the time it takes to develop a cognitive or psychomotor skill, and reduce frequency of refresher training. It’s all about effectiveness and efficiency.
We are also organizationally unafraid to do what’s right. If that means building a private fleet of convoy trainers to meet an immediate demand or investing in science and technology that completely disrupts our own cost structure…If it’s right for our consumer, the Raydon team attacks. Larger firms tend to fall into what I like to call analysis paralysis. Smaller competitors lack the resources or conviction to push the market.
Q: What does the future have in store for Raydon Corp.?
A: I often tell my team I only have two small objectives: Change the world and become the dominant supplier of immersive learning technology. Our technology is a solution looking for a learning problem…and the world is full of learning problems. The key is picking the right problem to solve when the market is ready to pay for that solution.
Virtual learning is rapidly becoming an audience-based sport. If you are servicing an audience then you must first focus on the seats. We have the best, most affordable seats in the industry. Second you must see where the big audience is and have a plan to impact them and keep your first, best audience happy. Look for us to offer products for larger audiences while improving the learning experience of our current audience…and change the world. ♦