PETE DENES
COMPANY: Hitachi
TITLE: Vice President Of Sales Of The Business Group Which Is A Subset Of The Ubiquitous Platforms Systems Division For Hitachi America Ltd.
CHALLENGE: Introducing himself with his complete title and teaching those in the marketplace about the Ubiquitous Platforms Systems Division.
BACKGROUND: A strong foundation in advertising and marketing.
Hitachi's Pete Denes
SCN: What is your position and what does it entail?
Pete Denes: I was promoted on April 1 to vice president of sales of the business group which is a subset of the Ubiquitous Platforms Systems Division for Hitachi America Ltd. I have responsibility of sales for Hitachi brand LCD projectors, professional plasma monitors, interactive panels and whiteboards, and some security and observation system products.
Prior to that I was the director of sales for our former digital media division here at Hitachi America. At that point it was primarily the LCD projector business. The digital media division merged with the consumer/home electronics division in San Diego. That also became effective April 1. That's how the new company came to be called Hitachi America Ltd. Ubiquitous Platform Systems Division.
How would you describe your basic responsibilities?
I oversee sales in the U.S. as well as Latin America. We work very closely with our counterparts up in Hitachi Canada. We're giving the direction for sales and marketing efforts for those product lines in North and South America.
How did your background prepare you for your role?
I've been directly with Hitachi since 1996. Prior to that I was in the rep business. Even prior to that I worked for a dealership. I have a background in advertising, sales on the rep side, sales here at Hitachi. Since 1977 I've been in the AV business. I've been around a long time.
How have things changed since when you started?
The presentation market is a very prevalent part of the industry right now and it has been for many years. We're trying to combine all these product lines into the one stop-shop for presentation products. We're trying to make it into one business group so the reseller can present a whole product offering.
Networking seems to be the current trend or standard-bearer. We're seeing a lot of things evolving out of the network. Wireless won't be far. We see that a lot in the corporate and educational markets. We see that also progressing in the home market.
What are your short- and long-term goals?
Short-term goal would be to get through InfoComm. That's always our big thing. Everybody seems to know the Hitachi name but nobody really knows what we do. There's been an initiative from Hitachi Ltd, the corporate office back in Japan to increase Hitachi's namebrand recognition. You're going to be seeing a lot more advertising out of Hitachi both to the consumer and to the business markets. The product has always stood on its own because of its reliability and its performance, but just getting the name brand out there I think is our long-term goal. Trying to get that out there as quickly and as efficiently as we can.
Are there new initiatives we should be looking out for from this new Ubiquitous division?
You'll see us coming out with a more effective message. Again, we're pushing to become the one-stop presentation products manufacturer to go to. By the merging of these different divisions and product lines I think we have a very good product mix and I believe we can offer more products than any of our competitors out there right now.
How does your background affect the way you work now?
Prior to working with the rep company, I worked for a division of an advertising agency and I was involved in that for nine plus years. At that point we did many new account presentations. So I learned a lot about advertising and marketing and how to develop advertising campaigns and marketing initiatives by learning from the process that the ad agency went through to get new business from new clients. I've taken that learning portion of my life and then going into the rep business you had an understanding of what it takes to develop a dealership and helping the dealer market their own name brand as well as coming up with programs and initiatives to help them increase their sales and bringing that knowledge to Hitachi has been very helpful for me over the years.
