This year, Pulse Technology celebrates its 70th anniversary. Our CEO, Chip Miceli, has been with the company since the 1980s and has led it through periods of growth and expansion – and, like most companies, through a few challenges and road bumps along the way.
Chip is a believer that each challenge comes with an opportunity – or maybe even several opportunities. Every challenge provides a reason for a change of direction, and it is that flexibility and sense of optimism that has brought Pulse Technology to where it is today.
The ability and willingness to adapt is key to the success and growth of every business. He learned that early on in this business. When he joined (then) Des Plaines Office Equipment, his father told him, basically, “go out and sell stuff.”
What Chip learned early on in those discussions with business owners was that they often were seeking products that their company did not offer. At least not yet.
He came back to the office with a customer “wish list,” and they began to add products that seemed to make sense.
That “lesson learned” followed Chip throughout his career. Today, Pulse Technology follows the same principle: listen to what customers tell you they need, and where it makes sense, add that product or service to the company’s offerings. “We’ve worked to become a one-stop shop,” Chip says, noting that he and the Pulse team have long been advocates of diversification.
This is advice that Chip offers to dealerships throughout the networks he is affiliated with – that diversification in business is critical to success. Pulse expanded from Managed Print Services (which it still does) to IT, Audio Visual (video walls), furniture sales, promotional products, archiving, and more.
Diversification in business is critical to success
Chip advises business owners to see challenges as opportunities.
One unexpected challenge the company faced came in 2017 when a tornado ripped the roof – literally – from its Elk Grove Village headquarters and rendered it uninhabitable. They didn’t miss a beat – and moved personnel and resources around to other locations while they made plans to find new headquarters. A social media post from 2017 showed the damage from that day (Sunday), with the announcement, “We’ll be open for business Monday. Would you be?”
The roofing of the old DPOE headquarters in the lake after a tornado.
Although the loss of a building was a significant, the damage was mitigated somewhat by the fact that the company’s ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) was in the cloud and therefore accessible – with no loss of data.
Following the closing of Elk Grove Village, Pulse saw the opportunity to expand further, and went into Indiana with the purchase of Kramer & Leonard, and McShane’s. At the same time plans were underway for a new headquarters in Schaumburg.
With the acquisition of the Indiana businesses and the expansion of services beyond the original scope of what Des Plaines Office Equipment offered, it seemed time for a name change. That was an interesting and fun challenge for the company – to come up with a new name that better reflected the service and scope of what the company offered. The challenge was taken up internally, with a committee of employees being tasked with recommending a new name. And that is what introduced Pulse Technology to the world! This challenge that the company faced led to some opportunities, including Chip being invited to speak to a national group of office technology dealers on the subject “When is it time to rename your company.”
“Be open to new ideas, be nimble, don’t be afraid to experiment or take chances. Diversity is what will make businesses stronger.” - Chip Miceli
In 2020, Covid posed a significant obstacle for Pulse Technology and many businesses throughout the United States. With mandatory closings forced upon businesses, the workplace culture changed. “Covid disrupted our businesses in many ways,” Chip recalls, with mandatory “work from home” mandates from state and federal government. Many businesses, Pulse included, took a financial hit during 2020 and beyond. And, while there were some remedies available (Paycheck Protection and other grants), one path forward for Pulse Technology was to focus its efforts on an area of the business that would thrive during Covid.
That challenge led to the opportunity for ramped up IT offerings, helping make home office connections secure. In addition to increased IT services, Pulse invested in building up its ecommerce site and began selling products that were in demand during Covid: gloves, masks, personal protective equipment, and hand sanitizer. In fact, Pulse teamed up with a distillery in the Midwest to produce hand sanitizer together.
There are other recurring challenges post-Covid that have required some navigation – including supply chain issues. One way that Pulse Technology minimized the disruptions was by building up strong and solid relationships with dealers and manufacturers so that Pulse requests and orders were given top priority even through the tough times.
The latest challenge that Chip sees is with the tariff issue that the country is facing. “There’s a lot of uncertainty over what will happen with the tariffs, and this uncertainty is causing problems for the world. I’d like to see this issue resolved so that it does not impact dealers.”
All of that being said, Chip views 2025 as a year with unlimited potential. “Be open to new ideas, be nimble, don’t be afraid to experiment or take chances. Diversity is what will make businesses stronger.”
