Today we’d like to introduce you to Ken Walker.
Ken, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
In 2001, I left a 20 year Fortune 500 career in the broadcasting business, 11 of those at CBS. Looking to do something different with the second half of my life, I started Sound Design Systems in 2003, to follow a lifelong passion for electronics. As our business grew and evolved, we shifted our brand to become Artisan Electronics Group in 2012 and focused on catering more specifically to the needs of the design industry. This turned out to be a great move for us, and as a part of that move, I joined the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID). Through my involvement with ASID and the greater Chicago design community, I found myself attending events in the Merchandise Mart with continuing regularity, and I fell in love with the building and its magnificent representation of the very best of the design industry. A path was set, and we knew that we wanted to do business in the Mart, and believed there was a way to do that successfully in our industry.
The next big step was to seek participation for manufacturing partners in our industry who could share our vision for an electronics showroom in the Merchandise Mart. As incredible as it seems, there has never been any sort of electronics experience center in the Mart, nor a furniture showroom featuring custom theater seating. Within our industry, there are a couple dozen manufacturers, both domestic and foreign, who truly understand the notion that high-performance electronics can co-exist in a highly designed space, with some level of concealment to their products, or other strongly identifiable “designer element” to their product.
We began our build-out in late April, and because I believed that our needs were much more specialized than the “average showroom,” I was on-site every single day during the eight week period it took to transform this space. We had the system just operational enough to do a soft opening during Neocon, and then tore the system down again, and opened full time right after the 4th of July.
It would be greatly remiss me not to include my wife Georgeann Leo in this story, and she is an integral part of what has become a fantastic brand. She left a 28-year career in Fortune 500 marketing to go all-in with me on this project, which we funded entirely with our own savings. In the Merchandise Mart, that means $$$$$. Gerogeann has taken on the role of Marketing Director and is superbly qualified to do that job well. For as much as our consultants tell us not to use the term “Mom and Pop operation,” (because our brand is really bigger than that), the fact of the matter is that at the end of the day, that’s still what we are.
As for getting the showroom itself built, that was mostly short-term pain, but plenty of it! We’re delighted with the way the showroom turned out, and are thrilled to be doing business here. During the six month period from when we signed the lease until we opened the doors and turned up the music, there were definitely several occasions when I just put my head down on my desk and thought “this is never going to happen.”
Has it been a smooth road?
That question hits me like a ton of bricks. Nothing like being a “14-year overnight success,” as we like to joke. When I left the broadcasting industry in 2001, it was largely because I had become fed up with job changes that were driven entirely by mergers. Fortunately, in my last position in that industry, I had some skin in the game, and when the company got sold, I was able to benefit financially. In choosing to leave the broadcasting industry, I felt that starting my own business would at least give me some control of my future, with the opportunity to make my success or failure rest only on my shoulders, for better or worse. That plan was working very well, and the work that we did was quickly recognized within our industry, and we were published and getting awards from the outset. How little I knew what an economic downturn such as that which took place in 2008 would impact my business.
In our first five years in business, the vast majority of our work was in large-scale luxury-residential new construction. The very first project we did was a 12,000 square foot home in Northfield, right out of the box. As has been all too well documented, the luxury new construction business all but ceased to exist from 2008-2012, and business came to a screaming halt. The work and products we provide are anything but a necessity, and even though there were plenty of rich people still around, they were not building new homes. Our industry shrunk by more than 50% and was it not for Georgeann having a very good job, I’m not sure that we would have survived, let alone be writing about opening a sensational showroom in the iconic Merchandise Mart.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Artisan Electronics Group (AEG) – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
This is a big question, for sure. At its most basic essence, we consider ourselves to be a “best in class provider” in the category of high-end residential electronics. We are a complete Design+Build company, meaning we take it from the earliest stage of the process, in the engineering and product specification phase, to every aspect of the installation process, to the programming of complex systems and all of the follow-up service that comes with that. As a lifelong “stereo junkie,” it is my personal love of enjoying music on a fantastic sound system that brought me into this business, and my personal skills to engineer and design systems of any scale, from a single room to a 20,000 square foot home will always be a very significant part of our “calling card.” Within our industry, we would use the term “large-scale, high-fidelity, distributed audio.” By definition, that describes a very select group of customers and prospects, but for those who want that, we believe that we can offer a “product” that is unmatched not only in the Chicago market but anywhere else in this country, (or any other country, for that matter).
As for differentiating ourselves from our competitors, I believe that it is our ability to get a precise understanding of our customer’s vision of how they see themselves living in their homes, and design and build a system to that vision, that adds so much to what makes us unique. No two systems we build are the same, and we are as far from “cookie cutter” as a practitioner in our industry could be.
As for what makes me proud, it is sincerely as simple as knowing how much enjoyment we add to the way that people live in their homes, and enjoy what well designed and well-built electronics systems can do today. Not too many years ago, I had a customer say to me, as he handed me the check for the final payment on his system, “I always imagined that I someday I would have a system this, but I never dreamed that it would be this good.” When people tell me things like that, it gives me a tremendous amount of personal satisfaction.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
The biggest challenge we face is that we live in a world that is driven on project-by-project basis. It can be a very scary way to make a living. If we don’t have active projects under way, we have no other source of income, and have to rely on our ability to squirrel money away when the pipeline is flowing. We have deliberately chosen to pursue a relatively small niche, and our “specialists in a specialty industry.” Our clientele is much smaller than one percent of the population.
Contact Info:
- Address: Artisan Electronics Group
222 Merchandise Mart Plaza. Suite 1486
Chicago, IL 60654 - Website: www.ArtisanElectronicsGroup.com www.AEGMartShowroom.com
- Phone: 312-600-9615 630-562-4600
- Email: ken@artisanelectronicsgroup.com
Image Credit:
Professional photography by David M. Ward, Photographer
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