Commercial Integrator January 2023 - 17

companies to the largest companies. We
provide information and training about
how to be successful in the industry, whether
it be from a contractor's point of view, or
an integrator's point of view, or a solution
provider's point of view. " He adds, " We are
there to train and make companies better. "
A Mission for Quality
Products and Services
When devising the business plan for LSC
in the early '90s, Bailey decided early on
to create a mission statement. Even to
this day, the business still adheres to that
founding vision.
" There was no regulation back in the
early '90s, " Bailey acknowledges, " so I
wanted to be a high-quality organization.
I wrote a mission statement, and it reads,
'We will deliver the right product to our
customers - that product can be defined
as either service or equipment or both -
on time, the first time, every time, with no
exceptions.' [It's been] our guiding light
over the years. "
As part of its mission to deliver
high-quality products and services, LSC set
out to achieve company-wide ISO certification
in the early 2000s. " We wanted to
deliver a very high level of quality, and that
quality is defined by our own high standards
- not anybody else's standards, " Bailey
says. " We set our standards higher than
other companies and the industry itself. "
Ray Bailey, founder and president of Lone Star Communications, wanted the organization
to be a high-quality one. Thus, he drafted a mission statement that has
been its guiding light from the very beginning. That mission statement reads as
follows: " We will deliver the right product to our customers on time, the first time,
every time, with no exceptions. "
businesses well into the future.
NSCA has come a long way since its
inception. Bailey recalls that, when he first
joined, it was an association so that those in
the industry could gain information about
products that were in the market; ultimately,
it became an expo, sponsored by manufaccommercialintegrator.com
turers.
Eventually, the association pivoted to
what it does today - namely, help integration
firms grow their businesses.
" [We've really] homed in on the fact
that the thing that we're really good at is
helping companies be successful, " Bailey
reflects. " And that's from the smallest
Learning from the Past
With the benefit of three-plus decades
as an integration business owner, Bailey
has the benefit of hindsight with regard
to his own decisions. Recalling early in his
career, he describes it as a mistake to have
set out to service four distinct markets:
education, healthcare, long-term-care
facilities and detention centers. " After we
started in the first three years, we did all
those things, " he describes. " And that was
probably one of the bigger mistakes we
made because it took us a long time to get
started with some of that stuff. "
What Bailey found over time was that,
by specializing and becoming good at one
thing, LSC would be much more successful.
" And that one thing turned out to be
education, " he declares. " Between 1991
JANUARY 2023 Commercial Integrator
17
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Commercial Integrator January 2023

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