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A price war has erupted in the personal computer industry, but Shakil Ahmed isn't about to lose any sleep over it. Instead, the president and chief executive officer of local computer manufacturing company, PDC Systems, is making lemonade out of lemons.
"You got to change with the times," explains Ahmed. Since its inception PDC has gone through numerous cycles of growth and diversification. Ahmed started the company 10 years ago with a focus on business and technology consulting. The company slowly evolved until services included networking, computer training, hardware development and software programming. It wasn't until 1993 that Ahmed realized there was a niche in manufacturing computers.
The shift into a new market proved successful. Company sales grew from $40,000 in 1991 to $200,000 in 1993. PDC rode the high-tech wave into the start of the new millennium, and revenues continued to flourish. Last year the company had sales of $4.8 million, which Ahmed hopes will increase to around $5.5 million this year. The recent shake out in the technology sector, however, has resulted in the diversification of services offered by computer manufacturers nationwide, and PDC is no exception. Profit margins from its primary line of business, hardware manufacturing, have shriveled from nearly 20 percent to single digits over the past five years.
"Pretty soon computers are going to be just like appliances," says Ahmed. "In five years, I think your ISPs and ASPs...