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PROFILE REICHLE & DE-MASSARI


relatively free to pursue our own strategies at a regional level, as long as it fits broadly with the global R&M vision,’ explains van Essen. ‘We have a relatively simple portfolio of four product areas, but there are different strategies at work in the different regions.’ Te four main product areas are:


components, office cabling, data centres and FTTX – and all four are at different stages of development in terms of their market maturity. Te components business is run from the


head office in Switzerland, whereas the data centre business is largely based around the three European cities of Amsterdam, London and Paris – where, van Essen reports, much of the global data centre activity is based. Office cabling is a fairly mature and stable market – emerging economies of course represent new business opportunities but ‘steady’ rather than ‘spectacular’ would better describe the state of that particular sector. In terms of FTTX, van Essen admits that the


market has developed as quickly as many had forecast, but says it is steadily gaining traction,


It all comes down to quality. If you buy a Bang and Olufsen stereo system, you would not use some cheap cables from a supermarket to connect it up


with the help of the FTTH Council and Neelie Kroes, vice-president of the European Commission and its commissioner for the digital agenda. ‘Tere has been a lot of progress, but to be honest we wish it had been faster,’ says van Essen. Over the five decades of its existence, van


Essen says R&M has striven to set itself apart from the competition by producing the highest-quality components on the market, while keeping them smart, modular and reproducible – as well as bringing in a decent margin to be fed back into its own R&D: ‘To be the best in class has always been important to us – we feel this is the best strategy and, as always, the key challenge is to multiply our market and this involved convincing buyers that our quality is essential for them.’ Van Essen says he has his work cut out in


Issue 3 • Spring 2014 FIBRE SYSTEMS 13


The R&M headquarters in Wetzikon, Switzerland


convincing customers that they need to buy the best, but uses a very effective example to illustrate his point: ‘It all comes down to quality. If you decide to buy a Bang and Olufson stereo system, you would not go and buy some cheap cables from a supermarket to connect it up, as you would surely lose a lot in terms of quality. ‘For some reason, people designing data


centres can lose sight of this – oſten they will go for the best active equipment but they don’t put the right amount of effort into finding the cables and connectors.’ In some situations, says van Essen, the


relation between latency and cabling is obvious: ‘Imagine a stock exchange, where a


delay of a fraction of a second could potentially cost huge amounts of money, it does not make sense to choose anything less than the best.’ ‘So, that is the challenge for us. We know we


have the best products – we can prove that, and we are proud of it. But unfortunately the message, that the quality of the cabling is crucial, has not always got through to data centre designers. It’s a fast-growing market and we are having to fight against brands that are competing in terms of price alone, and do not really contribute to improving standards. ‘However, this is a commonplace situation in


many markets and industries, and we are used to it. It’s just a question of convincing the customers!’l


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