ARCNET History

technology would broadcast phone signals for cWireless d phones.<br><br> People would be able to communicate from any location. At the time, Juengert owned a small Retail/Commercial Architecture firm in Englewood New Jersey with clients like Macy 9s and Bamberger 9s. Juengert 9s firm had been established in 1969 and employed 6 people.<br><br> As the projects for wireless telecommunications antenna installations began to increase, Juengert began to expand the department. In 1982 he hired a junior draftsman, named Al Galdi, who was distinguishing himself at New Jersey Institute of Technology. Al Galdi 9s innovative ideas and initiative led to the rapid expansion of his division.<br><br> In 1992 the original firm was restructured under the name ARCNET. Galdi was named CEO and partner. In 1996 he purchased the company and became Managing Principal.<br><br> ARCNET 9s decision to concentrate on the telecommunications industry proved to be an auspicious one, causing ARCNET to prosper as a pioneer in the field. The company has grown and evolved from its original 6 employees to more than 50 today. ARCNET has completed major projects for AT&T, Bell Atlantic, Cellular One New York/McCaw Cellular, Comcast/Metrophone, NYNEX Mobile Communications, and Omnipoint Communications.<br><br> The company has worked on nearly 6000 sites since its inception. ARCNET takes an individualized approach to each project, no matter how complex, helping clients from the initial planning stages through final implementation. Innovative Approaches Under Al Galdi's focus, ARCNET has committed all of its efforts toward providing A&E and CM services for only the Telecommunications Industry.<br><br> Although a bold direction, this total concentration on one market proved to be very successful for revenue and profits, but was very difficult logistically due to staff turn-over, motivation difficulties, limite d diversity, and specialized training. Galdi needed to stimulate a staff of primarily "creativity driven" Architects, and give them a sense of accomplishment and diversity when working on the small, repetitive wireless equipment installation projects. He achieved this by encouraging and challenging all employees and managers to always find better ways for designing and detailing the "little things", as well as empowering them to seek out and implement the best way to build a typical communications site.<br><br> The company established a dedicated Research & Standards Department, which became the most effective tool for collecting and distributing the best-of-the-best ideas and designs to the entire staff. ARCNET also formed a Construction Management (CM) division that not only provided clients with excellent post-design assistance, but also gave Galdi the avenue to promote even more learning through open communication between construction personnel and his in-house design staff. This is something that has always been "a wedge" between Architects/Engineers and Contractors that he wanted to overcome.<br><br> It was this consistent enthusiastic and challenging approach toward everything the staff touched, that Galdi always promoted, and eventually produced an excited, proud and talented Team of workers at ARCNET. As for other product innovations, the company holds the U.S. Patent for a unique solution to typical "aesthetically displeasing" communications towers.<br><br> This invention is called "The TREE", and it is a tower that is disguised as a non-deciduou s white pine tree. After many years of R&D, and joint efforts with AT&T, a tower manufacture, and a "Disney-type" artificial environment company, the ARCNET TREE has been installed throughout the world wherever local zoning restrictions made it too difficult to construct a typical steel tower or monopole. The TREE is just one of many innovative designs that ARCNET has developed to "hide" wireless antennas throughout the American landscape.<br><br> In designing nearly 6000 communications sites over the last 18 years, ARCNET has cleverly installed (or concealed) many wireless antennas on light poles, behind stealth panels, in church steeples, inside roof cupolas, on chimneys, etc. It has been this unique and innovative approach toward minimizing the visual impact on the public that has given ARCNET and Al Galdi the reputation as creative problem solvers in this growing industry. ARCNET History 3 Page 2 of 4 Future Plans Al Galdi has firmly committed his company ARCNET, to only provide services to the Telecommunications Industry.<br><br> This is what they do best, and what the core competency of the company has been for the last several years. In doing so, he has realized that there is potential risk (by not having more diversity as an A&E firm), but he also knows there is operational and marketing strength gained from not being distracted by "trying to be all things to all people". It is this dedication and intense focus on a specific "niche market" that he is building a valued reputation as well as skilled Team members to strengthen ARCNET for many years to come.<br><br> With promotion of the many training programs, management empowerment and staff incentives, Al Galdi would like to take ARCNET into the future with the same sense of accomplishment and pride that has flourished in the past. He would like to "grow" the company not necessarily in size or revenue, but more importantly in personal skills, satisfaction, and overall "quality of life" for his staff. He truly believes that if you focus on the work, and perform the best service that you can, t hen additional work will come, and the company will prosper.<br><br> It has to be in that order. Even in ARCNET's fiercely competitive market (Architecture and Telecommunications), Galdi has professed to his staff many times: "Don't worry about what others are saying or doing, just focus on our work, and if we perform, we will prevail." This is the basis for the positive work environment that he created, and how he wants to go forward and continually improve upon it, no matter how many obstacles or non-believers he encounters. He simply wants to attract and hire the best staff, treat them and teach them to be the best, and then provide the best service to his clients.<br><br> Again, the order of those accomplishments is very critical, because he knows that you can't provide the best service without the best staff, and you won't get the best staff if you don't treat them the best way that you can. That's the continuing mission for Al Galdi, as well as the Mission Statement for ARCNET: dTo constantly improve ourselves and the lives we touch by designing creative, intelligent solutions to tomorrow's challenges." Management Team In a never ending process of teaching and mentoring his 10-person management staff, Al Galdi has always promoted an open-management style to include all of his managers in almost all of the company decisions. Sometimes criticized for too many meetings that include his entire management team, Galdi believes there is a greater benefit of having all managers present for these company discussions.<br><br> They can learn from each other's issues and/or problems, as well as be exposed to his values and styles. Galdi also uses the internal email system to answer one manager's question while effectively educating the others by intentionally copying them on all important discussions and decisions. Galdi continually encourages development of his fairly young Management Team, whenever the chance arises.<br><br> In addition to his own personal advice, he has hired outside Management Consultants to come in and train this team with weekly work sessions, formal lesson plans, annual strategic retreats and follow-up company planning meetings. He has even sent them to external seminars with management experts such as Steven Covey, Tom Peters, Ken Blanchard and Michael Gerber. He recognizes that it is this team that will be the future of the company, and he never lets an opportunity be missed to teach them about "the business".<br><br> As for positioning senior management, Galdi has established two direct reports to oversee the other eight managers, and handle all company day-to-day issues: Tom Wiseman as Director of Services is in charge of all design, drafting production and project management, as well as all business development for new clients. Mr. Wiseman has been with the firm since 1984, and has been most influential in developing many of the company policies and procedures for providing all A&E and CM services.<br><br> He has been very instrumental in the success of ARCNET's Research & Standards Department, as well as managing the company's overall production workflow for the many wireless projects. He has been closely "groomed" by Mr. Galdi to be his eventual successor.<br><br> Tony Vitullo is the Chief Financial Officer, and a more recent addition to the ARCNET senior management team. Mr. Vitullo was hired in 1997, and comes to ARCNET with 27 years of experience.<br><br> He is responsible for all non-production departments including Accounting, Administration, Human Resources, Information Systems and Facilities. He was brought on board by Galdi to fill the void of not having a "senior" person to oversee these support areas of the company. To date he has made many improvements to ARCNET's systems and staffing functionality, while increasing cost efficiency.<br><br> He too is slated for eventual partial ownership of the firm. ARCNET History 3 Page 3 of 4 Culture, Values and Incentives The culture that Al Galdi has built as a foundation for his company revolves very closely around his own personal core values and beliefs. He is driven to create an environment for his employees that is enjoyable, enriching and educational, and always places the well being of his staff high above all else.<br><br> This is why the company's core values are so focused on personal beliefs, as opposed to business issues: ARCNET Values: " Caring for the quality of life, health and safety. " Working together with mutual respect and cooperation. " Taking pride in every detail.<br><br> " Friendliness. " Integrity and Honesty. Galdi has also modeled the company purpose around his personal dedication to others: ARCNET Purpose: " To always be a good, caring and honest company.<br><br> " Continually strive to improve ourselves and teach our staff through innovation, creativity and patience. " Seek to be appreciated by others who are visionary like us. " Create a good place to work that 9s rewarding, enthusiastic and fun.<br><br> " Provide quality work with pride and passion. In order to achieve this purpose and maintain these values, Galdi consistently seeks ways to improve the skills, motivation, and quality of life for all his staff. The employee incentive and benefit programs at ARCNET are quite unique and extraordinary.<br><br> The standard benefits include a 401K plan, health/dental/life/LTD insurance, tuition reimbursement, continuing education, holiday party, summer family picnic, etc. To go even beyond typical employee benefits, ARCNET also provides annual Health Club Dues, Performance Reward Bonuses taken from 5% of a total company salary pool, 25% of Salary Bonus at 5 th Anniversary, and most recently implemented an exceptional benefit of providing a brand new BMW 3- series automobile for all staff after one year. In addition to paying salaries that have been analyzed to be nearly 20% higher than the industry norm, Galdi is committed to recognizing and rewarding his staff for the energy and hard work that they put into their jobs.<br><br> He believes that money should not be the only motivator, and that family and personal perks should be provided to enrich the employee's entire lifestyle. He also respects their contribution to the firm's success by always encouraging the staff to build teamwork and foster better inter-office communications by holding monthly "town meetings" and maintaining an open-door policy to his office. Through donations from his company, Galdi has supported many community services by sponsoring events for Muscular Dystrophy Association, Unico National, The Manna House and others.<br><br> Externally, Mr. Galdi's wife Christine has dedicated most of her weekly time toward volunteer services such as summer coaching program for under privileged children in Jersey City, The Holly Center orphanage child volunteer, Meals on Wheels, food delivery for the Soup Kitchen, driving elderly and cancer patients for the Starfish program, and many more. It is this generosity and caring attitude that Al Galdi gains from his wife and family that he brings into his business for his staff.<br><br> ARCNET History 3 Page 4 of 4 Project and Employee Philosophy As a 30-year multi-disciplined firm, ARCNET has worked on over 6000 telecommunication sites since 1982 - yet we treat each project individually. Whether the design is strait forward or complex, we assist our clients from the initial planning and acquisition stages, through final implementation. More than any other firm in our area, ARCNET has provided A&E Services for major network build programs for clients such as: AT&T (Wireless and Local Service), Bell Atlantic/Verizon, Omnipoint/Voicestream, Nextel, Sprint-PCS, SprintSites-USA, Metricom/Ricochet, Cellular One-NY/McCaw Cellular, Comcast/Metrophone, NYNEX Mobile Communications and many others.<br><br> ARCNET currently has an in-house staff of 30 dedicated professionals, and access to hundreds more through long-standing consulting and partnering business relationships. With our carefully selected, highly skilled team of architects, engineers, designers, and technical specialists, ARCNET has built a reputation for exceeding our client 9s requirements. Our commitment to client satisfaction begins with our employees, and we have been most successful because of our perseverance toward collective teamwork.<br><br> We empower our staff through knowledge and training. We encourage and arrange for each person to acquire continuing education in technical and professional skills throughout the year. We train all of our staff on a continuing basis - not just in technical areas but also in the important communication and interpersonal skills.<br><br> We continually go to extraordinary lengths to find, train and retain the best performers for our dynamic and growing firm, in order to best suit our client's needs. Please visit our website- http://www.arcnet.org 3 which includes more specific company information regarding ARCNET. ARCNET --- cExcellence in Architectural and Engineering Services for Telecommunications d<br><br>

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