Ryan Price, who recently became the youngest CEO of a JSE-listed company, is changing the Y3K Group`s business model in a bid to make the beleaguered company profitable.
Y3K, a provider of information security solutions and products, has had a tough time. It is losing money and was told by supplier Sybari that it would appoint additional distributors for its range after Y3K failed to meet certain targets.
Price, 29, is planning to turn the company`s fortunes around.
"When you look at the anti-virus market, all the products are similar and it`s hard to say which one is better," he says. "It comes down to a matter of trying to sell them. The best way is to have good technical team that will be able to install software and fix things at the shortest notice so the client can get the maximum out of the product."
The new model involves beefing up the technical team at the expense of the group`s five salespeople, who have been warned of the possibility of retrenchment.
"I was recently appointed CEO and I have had to look at how to make the company profitable," Price says. "The salespeople are overpaid for what they do and the quickest way would be to retrench the lot. So they`ve been told of the possibility of retrenchment and it`s up to them to tell me what they can do for me.
"We tried a better price structure in the past two months and that didn`t work."
Price says the idea is that if the technical people are the best in the country they will be able to sell the products themselves.
The company is investing in the technical side and recently brought out a team from Finland to train its technical staff, who Ryan says, are now the backbone of Y3K.
Having won a Transnet tender as well as a contract to sell Distributed Firewall to the State IT Agency, Price says he is positive about the future.
"Maybe Y3K is too small to be listed, but I`m not going to do anything until I`ve got the company going."
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