CVI Melles Griot – “Review of Melles Griot inside the CVI-Melles Griot Organization”

Pros

A business where the individual has an opportunity to standout and make significant contributions that impact the overall success of the company.

Cons

Each North American office (NY, NM, CA) operates very differently with a unique culture that may or may not be desirable to everyone. Melles Griot has struggled to achieve anything better than "also-ran" status for too many of their core future growth technologies. As a result, business growth has been largely flat for the last several years leading to internal budget tightening and increased work loads.

Advice to Senior Management

As a manufacturing company, unless the CVI-MG develops significant optical component technology that is truly original, protectable, economically valuable, and with multiple customers (a difficult and expense task), it will be hard to achieve grow significantly greater than the general economy (few % per year) without acquisitions or a revised product strategy. The current OEM component product lines are under attack, brand loyalty is eroding everywhere while manufacturing quality levels are increasing around the world as prices drop. As a result, every year it is more difficult to maintain sustainable differentiation for OEM component products that end up buried inside the finished device. I suggest adding an instrument or major sub-system (reprographics or biotech light engines, for example) presence in NA to fuel future growth.