From Projects to Products: Making the Transformation

A Case Study with RedZone Robotics

Wednesday, May 14, 2008  5:30 pm to 8:00 pm

Rivers Club, One Oxford Centre, 301 Grant St., Pittsburgh PA 15219

Open for PSN Members and non-members

The evolution of a new business often begins with the selling of services and the management of projects to deliver unique value for each customer. It's a practical way to fund the development of a new business and technology, and to gain insights into a market opportunity. Along the way a company's leadership may elect to pursue commercialization of products or productized services to achieve goals for growth, margin, ROI, and scale. Making this transformation from a project model to a product model can be one of the most challenging changes to execute; it's one that has stymied many leaders and innovators.

In this PSN Forum event, our guest presenter will be Eric Close, CEO and President of RedZone Robotics, who has led this successful project-to-product transformation with three companies. He joined RedZone Robotics in 2002 as CEO, after the bootstrapped company became of victim of its own success with selling custom industrial automation solutions. He will share his strategies, practices and lessons learned with making this transformation work.

TAKEAWAYS

You’ll gain the following useful takeaways by attending this event:

• The key differences between achieving success for project-models and product-models
• How to start to transition from a project to product based company
• When you should choose to build a new culture or build off of the old culture
• How to initiate change in sales, engineering, and marketing to enable the cultural transition to product development
• The crucial decisions to make and the goals to set
• The key processes to implement and replace
• Techniques for evaluating and selecting product-market opportunities
• The talent, skills and leadership that are needed to make this change happen successfully 

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Eric Close, CEO and President, RedZone Robotics 

Eric Close is responsible for the overall strategy and direction of RedZone Robotics. He has extensive experience building and managing both product and serviced based emerging companies. Prior to Redzone, he co-founded and successfully sold 2 companies: PartsZone, a provider of parts for lifts, and ProLine Services, a provider of railcar manufacturing and maintenance. He also helped finance and successfully sell the software development firm, Blue Fish Labs, Inc. Mr. Close also served as a management consultant for Coopers and Lybrand. From 1991 to 1995, Mr. Close served as a design engineer, product line manager, and sales engineer at Performance Controls, Inc., a motion control and robotics company.

Mr. Close received the 1999 Western Pennsylvania Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. He is the primary inventor on two patents and has three patents pending. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Lehigh University and an M.B.A. from Carnegie Mellon University.

AGENDA: 

5:30 - 6:15 p.m. Networking reception  

6:15– 6:30 p.m.   Opening Remarks 

6:30 – 7:45 p.m. Presentation and Q&A

Eric Close, CEO and President, RedZone Robotics

7:45 - 8:00 p.m. Q&A

8:00 - 8:30 p.m. Meet the Speaker and Additional Networking      

IDEAL FOR

This event is ideal for any manager or executive who is evaluating, leading, planning or managing the strategies to transform a project-oriented services model to a market-oriented product or productized services model. This includes CEOs, Presidents, and GMs; Vice Presidents of Product Management, Business Development, Professional Services, Technology, Product Development, Innovation and Marketing; and product managers, product planners, and program managers.

FEES

Free for PSN Members. $30 per person for non-members if payment is received by 6 PM Friday May 9, 2008. Afterwards and on-site, the fee is $35.00 per person.

(Click here for more information about PSN Membership benefits including free admission to all Member Roundtables, Forum events and Web Forums.)

TO REGISTER

This Forum is open to both PSN Members and non-members. 

Online registration is now closed. On-site registrations are accepted.

CANCELLATIONS

Full refunds will be provided if cancellation is received in writing no later than 6 PM, Monday, May 12. Write to us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

QUESTIONS:

Contact the PSN by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , or by phone: 1-888-580-3329 ext. 2