Pros
Pros….Let’s take a moment and discuss the present (we will come back to the past under cons) currently ARC has re-aligned it’s market strategy putting its strongest attribute front and center. “Basic Business Services” that most firms use on a daily bases. Although these services lien to the AEC industry many other firms do outsource the same items in different industry. Ask this simple question to yourself…does my current employer have or use on-site print devices, does my current employer outsource any items to be printed off site, does my current employer use color graphic for trade shows, mailing, marketing, does my current employer use cloud storage or third party vendors like box or others…my guess is you said yes to some of these questions. So you can see that there is a need for “Basic Business Service” in most industry today. Let’s talk future… when speaking of future you must talk about technology, this is what drives most business today in several fields. Again ask yourself this simple question…does my current employer have accounting, need to retrieve information, store records, have a facility management department for the company. My guess is you answered yes to some of these questions. ARC offers “Basic Business Services” in the technology side as well so ARC has a good offering for today and for tomorrow and beyond. No company is perfect the old saying is you cant please all the people all the time, but you can please some of the people most of the time is still true today. You get what you put in not what is handed out.
Cons
Cons….Let’s talk about the past, 10 years ago every company had struggles and was looking for ways to survive and wait out the down turn in economy. Many firms folded, down sized or filed for bankruptcy during this time and many had to retool or offer new products and services. When you try to offer new services in a struggling economy it can be very difficult to get it right or even make a splash at keeping them afloat. Not all ideas are good ideas but if you don’t try something you will go under by doing nothing. That is what Arc did they tried something, not always getting it right but always trying to make it better until they hit on the right mark. Ask yourself this question… If I was in charge of a large firm and my industry just collapsed what would I do to keep the company a float and what new services could we offer to stay healthy and relevant to the industry, not as easy as it sounds. Don’t look bad at a company that had struggles but how or did they come out of those struggles. I have notice over the years that most people will easily quit when things get tough, I heard it like this one time…..the only difference between a quitter and a hero is the hero stood for 5 minutes longer to become victorious.