Londonderry News

Earlier this week on November 14th, Ernst & Young presented the Entrepreneur Of The Year awards in Palm Springs.  The 2009 national winners, were chosen by independent panels of judges from among more than 240 winners from 26 US regions who were contenders for the prestigious award.

Selected for the Entrepreneur of the year in Distribution and Manufacturing
Ken Solinsky – President, Insight Technology Incorporated located in Londonderry, New Hampshire

With his determination and iron will, Ken Solinsky has gone from growing up in a neighborhood he watched deteriorate throughout his childhood to becoming president of the global leader in providing night vision and electro-optical systems to those in the US military and law enforcement.  Read more

Solinsky did not want to spend his life in the sort of neighborhood in which he grew up, a tough New York City housing project. “Going to an inner-city high school was a good thing in terms of later being able to relate to a wide variety of people within a workplace,” he says, but “I joke that I got an advanced education because my school was into drugs long before suburbia was.”

Raised by his mother alone since he was five, Solinsky remembers her having to borrow money from friends and neighbors on Wednesday so that she could buy food on Thursday before getting her paycheck cashed on Friday.

It wasn’t until his junior year in high school that his passion for learning — particularly,geometry — appeared. Until then, “I would not have been tagged as someone likely to succeed,” he says.
An offer from Uncle Sam

Solinsky attended Clarkson College, where he met his wife, Grace. When he graduated in 1971 with a BS in mechanical engineering, the economy was ailing, and job prospects were poor. Solinsky accepted a civilian position with the US Army in a program under which he was able to earn an MS in industrial engineering from Texas A&M by committing to work for the Army for an additional three years after earning the degree.

Upon graduation he was assigned to Fort Belvoir in Virginia, where he worked for the Army’s Mobility Equipment Research and Development Command. “I stayed therefor about 18 months,” he says, “and couldn’t wait to get out of it. It was the epitome of government bureaucracy.” Solinsky has a deep disrespect for bureaucracy.

The Army’s Night Vision Lab at Fort Belvoir, by contrast, was “a very dynamic organization,doing a lot of exciting things,” he says. Solinsky was able to secure a position with the Lab, and his skills and strengths grew. While employed by the government,he was sent on a one-year educational assignment as a Sloan Fellow at Stanford University,where he earned a master’s degree in business management. Soon after, he was named program manager for night vision devices, becoming one of the few civilian employees to hold such a position.

After nearly 15 years of government service, Solinsky had reached a crossroad. Asa program manager and engineer, he would find himself asking suppliers, “Why can’t you do things better, faster, cheaper?” He wondered if he could sit on the supplier side of the table and do any better.
Grabbing the gold ring

“That was part of it,” he explains. “The other part was if I spent my entire career as a civil service employee, I could have had a comfortable life, but I’d get to be 55 and say, ‘You never took a significant risk. You never reached for the gold ring.’ There was something in me that said I had to at least try.”

Solinsky left government service to work for a company in New Hampshire. But itwasn’t a good fit, and he no longer felt that his work was meaningful.

“I came home after just another mundane day at the office,” he recalls, “and said to my wife, ‘I can’t keep doing this. I’ve got to start something on my own.’ Without hesitation, she said she’d support and be there for me.” Together they founded Insight Technology Inc.

The following year, the new company responded to a request for a bid from the US government for infrared aiming lights. To back his vision, Solinsky took a second mortgage on his home and maxed out a number of credit cards to fund the effort.Facing stiff competition, Solinsky — who had no office at the time — was chagrined when he learned that the government wanted to conduct a pre-award survey to verify that Insight could do the job.

The solution? “We rented a conference area at a local hotel and taped out on the floor where the various pieces of equipment would be. We spent a day and- a-half with presentations and then a half-day touring this empty loft area with masking tape on the floor. And we got the contract.”

In the years since then, Insight has experienced steady growth through an evolutionary increase in product offerings and expansion of its customer base. Solinsky’s mantra of better, faster, cheaper has guided the company’s success, providing it with a competitiveve edge.
In for the long haul

“If you are in for the long haul,” he emphasizes, “it’s important to do what you say you’re going to do — and then do even more. That’s particularly important in what we do, because people are literally staking their lives on our product performance.”Solinsky is a firm believer that “people have to be responsible and do the right thing.”

Also important for Solinsky is the company’s obligation to do anything and everything possible to make sure its products are delivered on time. “Too many times,” he argues,“I’ve seen companies go back to the government asking for a delay on delivery. It’s almost as though it’s expected. I firmly believe that if we run into problems, it’snot the government’s fault.”

To meet Insight’s exacting product standards and to ensure the availability of supply sources, Solinsky took the initiative of acquiring and forming several companies to consistently supply needed optical glass and precision plastic optics.

Despite entrepreneurial classes 20 years ago at Stanford that argued for building a company, then taking it public, Solinsky chooses to remain private. “The changing landscape has significantly upped the cost and complexity of being public without a commensurate benefit,” he says.

In starting a business, Solinsky says, an entrepreneur should not be focused on making money, which is just a by-product of doing a good job. A business must be able to provide something of value, he says, and should be managed on the basis of customer satisfaction.

“I don’t think you can sit back and say, ‘I want to be an entrepreneur,’ any more than you sit and say you want to be rich,” he advises. “You have to find something you’re passionate about, because if you’re passionate about it, you’ll do well.”

To read the transcript of Ken Solinsky accepting the award read the rest of the story.

A lot has been said this week about customer and caring about your customers and listening to your customers.   In our case I can think of no group of customers that are worth listening to and working hard for then the men and women in uniform.  we work hard at Insight Technology and I think everybody at the company puts their heart and soul in to what we do but compared to what we do the sacrifices of our customers, make us look pitiful. They are away from home for months and months at a time they are putting up with miserable conditions ranging from the heat in Iraq to the cold on the hillsides of Tora Bora, and it is the least we can do to honor and give them the best and finest equipment we possible can.

I,d like to take a moment to thank my wife, who when I came home one night and said I’ve got to do something different with my life was supportive and said I’ll be with you. and to the employees who joined the company particularly in its infancy I would like to say a big heart felt thank you very much.  And to all of you to Ernst & Young for putting on this wonderful occasion and to TD bank which was originally was Bank of New Hampshire who support us again thank you to all of those involved thank you.

The Insight Technology Website has further information on this Londonderry, New Hampshire Based company.