That Honeymoon Didn’t Last Very Long
Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
In this week’s Creative Realities, Inc. (CREX), SEC filing, management and operations update it was confirmed that CEO Paul Price has been ousted, having been replaced by John Walpuck who has served as Chief Operating and Financial Officer of Creative Realities since they merged with WRT despite being the subject of a lawsuit from his past employer.
Mr. Walpuck takes the hospital pass and is named Interim Chief Executive Officer.
Creative Realities stated that for the year ended December 31, 2014, they anticipate reporting net sales of approximately USD 14 million as compared to approximately USD 11.6 million reported for the year ended December 31, 2013, an increase of approximately 20%.
Mr. Walpuck was quoted as saying “Our near-term objectives are very simple: leverage technology to design and deliver industry-leading shopper marketing experiences across our diverse client portfolio; continuously improve best-in-class recurring services; acquire new retail and brand clients through a vertical market-focused sales approach; and achieve operating profitability in the immediate future.”
Mr. Walpuck and his management team have a hell of a job on their hands. When we met with CRI, the one ace up their sleeve they had was Paul Price’s knowledge, network and love of retail.
April 21st, 2015 at 15:26 @684
Today’s integration clientele shouldn’t support something as immoral as a design house, who offers its own software, performing its own integration, looking after its own deployment, proactively dispatching its own technicians. A reputable systems integrator has a division of church and state. Software vendors, OEM’s, design firms, and marketeers should all have their own unique value. A systems integrator pulls everything together, evaluates, and then deploys what is right for the CLIENT; not the bottom line.
The other, harsh, realty is it would take a massive amount of capital to sustain designers, high-end engineers, programmers, an R&D group, a NOC, field force, project management group, warehouse and production facility. I don’t believe there is enough projects out there to afford a business like this. This is why successful design firms work across verticals. Same with OEM’s. Same with managed service providers.
This is a true lesson for all the digital signage vendors out there. Venture capital isn’t always a smart idea. There is too little of a market to sustain the explosive growth one would need to turn a fair profit. You can’t go from an average of 15 million a year to 100 million when it comes to digital marketing and advertising deployment. Especially not with the plan of becoming an all singing, all dancing epicenter of all things digital. Hyper-focus. Do one thing amazingly and you’ll create a business that stands the test of time. Unfortunately for this little business, it just had a BHAG that couldn’t be obtained. Sadly, it happens all the time.
April 21st, 2015 at 15:47 @699
BHAG = Big Hairy Audacious Goal