Hi Jill! I found this interesting co in the paper this morning.....It was in one of the high tech Redstone Arsenal papers.......
ADTN -- Adtran
Never Change Your Core Values... ADTRAN
President and COO, Howard Thrailkill, is strikingly unassuming and humble. Who would imagine that he heads one of the country's most prolific suppliers of communications products? But his attitude is indicative of all ADTRAN, where no one toots his own horn - everyone considers himself ADTRAN, not an individual.
"Mark Smith is a brilliant entrepreneur. He has great insight. When he and Lonnie McMillian began ADTRAN, they put into place some very high ethical standards. They stand as giants because of the good they've brought to Huntsville," said Thrailkill.
ADTRAN was formed in 1985, and production began in 1986. The name ADTRAN is a diminutive for Advanced Transmissions, on which ADTRAN is focused. They design, develop, and sell a very broad range of high speed digital transmission products to telephone network systems. When AT&T divested the Regional Bell Operating Companies, they imposed barriers which prohibited these smaller companies from producing their own equipment. The door was wide open for companies like ADTRAN to move in and begin a hugely successful partnership. "We had six or seven engineers then, and one salesman," said Thrailkill
From such small beginnings came great advances. The telecommunications industry has had several lives and re-creations over the last sixteen years. ADTRAN boasts the ability to serve both the carrier and the enterprise markets, and they have the credibility to pull it off handily. "We have always hired the best engineers. This is an engineer-driven company. We've been extremely fortunate to have really good quality people in these good engineers over the years, " smiles Thrailkill. With the explosion of the diversity in communications came similar fireworks in the development of new products to serve new and existing clients at ADTRAN. They currently supply innovative network access products that enable today's widespread digital telecommunications applications. Included in the extensive list of offerings are: Internet access, telecommuting, corporate connectivity, distance learning, video-conferencing, and teleradiology applications. They market these products to private and public enterprises worldwide. Some of their clients include incumbent local exchange carriers, independent domestic telcos, competitive local exchange carriers, interexchange carriers, and Internet service providers. They provide custom-designed products for many well-known Original Equipment Manufacturers. Use of their products and services reduces operating costs and enhances productivity for their clients' networks.
The company now employs 1,800, and has a presence in seven countries, and 28 states. The revenues for 2000 were $463,000,000.
Currently, ADTRAN's top products include the Total Access System. This system is a distributed access solution that includes Carrier Class broadband and narrowband multiservice access platforms, TDM- and ATM-based IADs, and GR-303 concentrators, along with system management and professional services. Designed with "grow-as-you-go" modularity, Total Access promotes strategic network planning that breaks down barriers to profitability, overcomes logistical deployment issues, and expands customer reach with the latest, copper-saving technologies.
As technology advances, ADTRAN will continue to be at the forefront. Key technologies for the future include virtual private networks (VPN) and G.shdsl technology. ADTRAN will debut a new family of products later this year dedicated to VPN applications. G.shdls is a new worldwide standard for DSL technoligies. ADTRAN has already introduced G.shdsl in some of its Total Access products and expects to expand this technology to other product lines in the near future.
With such head-spinning terms and figures , you might be thinking: How does a small company come from a single vision and encompass the world - literally? Some might say: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it..." "Oh, no!" exclaimed Thrailkill. "If you stop changing, you miss everything. You have to continually seek, and fix, and grow, and learn, and never, ever, change your core values!" He added, "Our core values were established when the company was. They are: to have the highest ethical standards possible, produce superior engineered products, and always provide the best customer service in the business." Looking around ADTRAN's newest addition, the East Tower. "You notice that when you came up here, there were no guards or anything like that. We're very open. We often conduct business in the hall. I like that kind of culture, where we know how informal things are, yet we produced and shipped 2.5 million units of products in 2000. We're the dominant supplier of our kind of equipment to telephone companies in the country."
Thrailkill enjoys several things about his company. He genuinely likes the people, the attitude, and the culture. "These are the smartest people you can imagine. They operate with fairness and honesty. And it's just fun here. It's intense and loose at the same time - I guess that's another way of saying it's Southern." He is of the South and is proud of his roots and of Southern gentility. "This is easily the nicest place I've ever lived. The people are real."
If he could send a message, it would be to convey to his hometown the hopes he's earned their respect. He wants ADTRAN to enrich our community, and to make this a better place to be because they are here.
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