[RKDinOKC]

Work has started this new thing called Vision 2030. It is a quest to diversify business away from the oil and gas industry. The goal is $1 Billion sales in 15 years. They attempted the same diversification thing during the oil slump back in the 80's but noting came of it. They have put together a team called the Revenue Team to research ideas.

The only thing the Revenue Team has come up with so far is to save $14K annually by not providing styrofoam cups. That is almost nothing!

It is interesting to me that during the current slump monthly sales is still $12M. I remember in the 80's when the annual sales dropped to $12M and the losses were less than $500K.

I've had several ideas throughout the years and was told I don't know anything.

As one example we used to have an Automation Systems business that made an sold equipment to automate well and pumping sites, data aquisition and control over radio. It was centered on an expensive custom built computer that was capable of controlling EVERYTHING. Told them they should make it more modular, a bunch of small devices so customers could save money by putting only what is needed to control a secific site. The automation business did not do really well and went out of business to companies that sold the cheaper modular devices. I also thought the modular devices could be used for other markets like utilities to read meters on every house remotely. Both the oil field and utilities markets would each be enough match or out perform the valve business.

Another example was in manufacturing. Each lot of castings from vendors is a slightly different hardness. My idea was to check the hardness on each lot and track it through the manufacturing process so tooling and machining could be optimized for that specific hardness. Instead they use the tooling and setup to handle the hardest material. My estimates were the increase in overall production and savings in tooling costs would be enough to put the company back in the black at the current sales level.