Ali Siblani is an engineer and a founder of the EnvisionTEC, a multimillion company that produces and sells 3D printers and is especially prominent on the jewelry, dental, hearing aid, prototyping and many other markets. Ali Siblani originally comes from Beirut, and his parents made sure he had the best education. However, when he was studying in a New York-based college in the mid-80s, the financial crisis in Lebanon prevented his parents from paying his tuition, so the man had to learn to provide for himself. As he was studying in Lawrence Technological University as an international student with no financial aid, his attendance to classes was very poor, as he had to work 70 hours a week to pay the tuition fees and make a living. At the same time, the man still managed to receive a Bachelor degree in 1990 with 3.90-3.95 GPA, while taking 18 credits each semester. He said that the hard life he had during those years of his life helped build his character that subsequently brought him to successful leadership.
After graduation, Siblani worked as an engineer for a small company for 9 months, but was fired for refusing to meet the request of the company’s head, as it contradicted his own beliefs in how things should be done. After leaving the company, he listened to the advice and founded his own company called Sibco in 1993. Developing this company from 1993 to 2002, he wanted to move forward and create a better solution for his clients, which led to creation of the EnvisionTEC in 2002.
Nowadays, EnvisionTEC is a big company and one of the market leaders in dental, hearing aid and jewelry industries with divisions in Germany, Canada, the UK, Michigan and California with over 700 employers (lawrencetech 2012). According to Siblani, the success of the company depends first and foremost on its leader (lawrencetech 2012). The leader needs to be constantly evolving and know the latest trends as well as know how to adapt to the changing conditions of the markets. Having such leadership, EnvisionTEC managed to reach 35% of exponential growth in 2011, a year before his speech at Lawrence Technological University (lawrencetech 2012). Another key feature is to never concede one’s beliefs, just like he did when decided to leave his first job. Another advice of Siblani is to stay interested in everything around oneself, as it makes one interesting for the people around, who will want to spend more time with such a person. Gradually, such person can develop trusting relationships with his or her clients that will stick with such a vendor for a long time. Being dynamic and having desire to meet the customer’s needs and offer solutions to their problems, rather than simply sell products is another key to success. In such case, in order to be successful as person needs to be a professional in his or her field in the first place, rather than become a salesman. Keeping one’s eyes open, see opportunities and grab them is other great feature for a successful entrepreneur. However, in this regard, a person, who wants to penetrate a new market, needs to remember that once such decision is made, he or she needs to get to know the specifics of the new market as deep as possible, because failing on a market may shut the door into it forever (lawrencetech 2012).
Along with many other struggles, Ali Siblani has to defend his company from the bogus lawsuits and cheaper Chinese copies that are in constant development and infringe intellectual property rights. The key is to constantly innovate and create products of the best quality because in such case EnvisionTEC will not have to struggle with the competitors. One of his missions is to make the world a better place, and one of the actions that bring him closer to his aim is the creation of a 3D printer that can create very cheap dental crowns that can be available for people in the third world countries. He is also aiming at creating much cheaper printers that can be more available to the customers.
Works Cited
lawrencetech. " Ali Siblani 3/22/12." Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 16 Apr. 2012. Web. 24 Nov. 2010.
