We all know that vision is what drives a company forward. Both entrepreneurs and employees equate vision to a purpose and that gives them a sense of belonging and togetherness, even during the toughest times. Organizations of all sizes and shapes have vision statements that talk about their organizational objectives. However, every company has not been successful in instilling a sense of belonging in their employees, while sharing the vision. And this hinders the overall growth of companies.
This is where resilient entrepreneurship comes into play. Researches point out that employees will follow entrepreneurs who articulate the vision vividly and work toward achieving the vision—leading them from the front. Their leadership traits such as innovative ideas, persistence, excellent ethics, and transformational leadership inspire and empower employees not only to work toward a common goal passionately but also to identify them with companies’ visions.
Today, we feature one such entrepreneur, Joseph Joukhadar, who is the founder of Australia’s most trusted company in Lighting Control Solutions—Automated. To know more about the company and how Joseph has achieved his vision for success, we traced back to its humble beginnings.
Automated has been in the business since 1996. In the first fifteen years, Joseph had built a strong reputation within the industry, and he made sure his knowledge and expertise were second to none. But things really changed for Joseph and his company in 2011. In 2011, with a strong vision and a strong business plan in place, he began taking new measures to execute its plan—starting with employing technicians, tech support, estimators, and new project managers.
He shared his vision with the newly hired teams and made them understand how this would contribute to the industry at large. The following days saw the team at Automated working together toward their new vision and thereby successfully growing the business. The company quickly switched from the home office to an office in Chatswood and outgrew that office and moved into another office in Five Dock, where he continued to grow his team. In a nutshell, it was a new beginning for Automated.
Fast forward to today, Automated has a head office in Pitt Street, Sydney and has offices around Australia, with businesses being conducted internationally. The company is continuously expanding its teams and Joseph is now the ambassador representing Australia and New Zealand for Signify and a CVAP (Certified Value Added Partner. Moreover, Automated is also the sole distributor of PerfectPlay, a recreational Sporting Field lighting control system, which offers all required features to control your sports fields effectively anywhere around the world, while reducing energy costs as well as customers’ carbon footprints.
Though the journey has been inspirational, the company had to face a host of challenges along the way. The toughest among them was sourcing the quality candidates since the automation and lighting control was a niche industry. The company overcame this challenge by conducting three day Certified Dynalite workshops across Australia run by one of its certified trainers. “The demand for these workshops has been positive and has opened the pathway to more people wanting to learn automation and lighting control, ” tells Joseph, Founder, Automated.
In the past, lighting control systems were predominantly employed by the high end-residential market. But with concepts such as the smart homes becoming popular, the demand for lighting control systems has tripled. “Our customers’ lives’ are busier than ever and need more things automated, convenient and energy efficient,” informs Joseph. The team at Automated understands this and provides tailored solutions to fulfill customers’ growing demands. As a result, Automated has built a strong rapport with customers, making the whole process positive and seamless.
Today, Automated is the largest distributor for Dynalite products as well as is the member of the Value Added Partner (VAP) program run by Signify. In addition, “we also supply and commission PerfectPlay, Lutron, Rapix, Color Kinetics, and conduct training workshops for Dynalite across Australia. We are also the exclusive distributor for Dynalite in Vietnam,” explains Joseph. Some of its prestigious projects include Barangaroo Carpark, Star City Casino, Shangri-La Hotel, Microsoft Flagship store, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co, and many more.
In an era where businesses prioritize marketing over other important things, Automated focuses on providing the right service to its customers. By doing that, the company’s client base is built by word of mouth, not by paid advertising. This is another factor that separates Joseph and his team from peers in the industry.
The company is making great strides toward expanding its business not only nationally but also internationally. Backed by a strong, elite team, Joseph is positive about the future of the company. With businesses already being conducted internationally, Joseph will have a busy schedule in the coming year which will include a lot of traveling, building strong relationships with customers, and enabling customers to know Joseph on a more personal level. However, his vision for success will continue to remain the same.