MELBOURNE
TEXTBOOK SUCCESS:
BK TECHNOLOGIES BUILDS WORKPLACE CULTURE THE SAME WAY IT MAKES AND DELIVERS SPECIALIZED TWO-WAY RADIOS: WITH UNCOMMON SINGLE-MINDED FOCUS [ By Michael Candelaria, Writer ]
Photos provided by BK Technologies Inc.
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isten to Tim Vitou for just a few minutes and he begins to sound like a college professor of business who is teaching students how to build workplace culture. Vitou, the president of BK Technologies Inc. in West Melbourne, is exacting in his explanations. He talks about the four core tenets of his company, which encompass customers and employees along with investors and the community. Best partner to customers. Best employers to employees. Best investment for shareholders. Best neighbor in the community. Then he commented, “If we can keep all those people happy, we get the growth that we’re looking for, and that will keep our shareholders happy.” By all accounts, that is happening all the way around. BK Technologies, in tech-speak, manufactures highspecification communications equipment for first responders, public safety professionals and government agencies at the city, county, state and federal levels. Or, as the company’s tagline indicates: “We build radios for heroes.” To illustrate, the company builds mobile and portable twoway radios for field communications and command center communications for police and fire departments, and for emergency medical service (EMS) personnel. One example: the KNG Mobile, which is the industry’s first mobile radio with a touch screen display. The products are what’s referred to as APCO Project 25 compliant, representing a long¬standing partnership among 12: SPACE C OAST B U SI N E S S
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the public safety communications community, standard development organizations and industry manufacturers. These are serious radios, and they’re all the company does. “We have no other business entities,” described Vitou, who has more than 30 years of experience in the global marketplace and in January 2017 was promoted from senior vice president. Until June 2018, the company largely was known throughout Brevard County as RELM Wireless Corp., with the name change made to better align products and brand. The company was established in 1945 near Indianapolis, Indiana, before moving to Satellite Beach more than two decades ago and subsequently to West Melbourne. Approximately 80 of the company’s 115 employees are in West Melbourne. Company stock is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “BKTI,” Vitou also cited. Then Vitou switches gears, again returning what effectively could serve as an information-rich classroom lecture on “how to succeed with a people-first approach.” Following his discussion of the company’s four core tenets, he points to four guiding principles, beginning with quality. “What runs through and permeates throughout the entire organization is a tenacious commitment to quality in everything we do,” he said. “This could involve bidding on a piece of business. Or building and delivering a radio, or post-sales support. … Whatever it would take.” The second principle: continuous improvement. “We’re never
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