VTM, Inc. President and Chief Consultant Rich Baek featured in the Portland Business Journal
May 2006
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Not a standard accolade
Rich Baek keeps technology standards in line, and picks up major honor along way
The Portland Business Journal - May 12, 2006
by Wendy Culverwell, Business Journal staff writer
Rich Baek is a standard guy with an outsized reputation.
Recently named Oregon's Small Business Person of the Year by the Small Business Administration, Baek saw his future while working for one of Oregon's largest businesses, Intel Corp.
The engineering grad from University of Portland was working with Intel's architecture group and studying for an MBA when he saw an opportunity bringing clarity to the frequently chaotic world of technology industry standards.
That insight led to the launch of Vital Technical Marketing Inc., subsequently shortened to VTM. Baek's firm manages the associations responsible for developing technology standards. Eleven years later, his firm is growing at a 15 percent clip, adding employees and closing in on eight-digit revenue. In April, it moved to the former First Technology Credit Union on the western edge of Beaverton. Baek bought the a spacious 28,500-square-foot building to accommodate continuing growth.
The former credit union not only houses VTM employees, it is the virtual headquarters for nearly two dozen technology associations VTM manages. Most notable is the USB Implementers Forum.
The Implementers Forum is responsible for setting and policing the technical standards that let computers connect with ordinary items, like mice, through their USB ports, regardless of manufacturer.
USB -- for Universal Serial Bus -- is a handy example of why various manufacturers must agree on certain technology standards. Through their USB ports, computers interact with a staggering array of devices. Cameras, MP3 players and Blackberries all connect to computers through the ports. Imagine the number of products associated with computing and you begin to get a fix on the size of the market at stake.
"Anybody who touches a computer I'm confident owns two or three of these devices," Baek said.
The forum currently is creating standards for the next generation of USB technology -- wireless. Wireless USB is a tidy example of why outsourcing management to companies such as VTM is a good idea.
The USB Implementers Forum is led by Jeff Ravencraft, an Intel technology analyst whose employer is heavily promoting its own edition of wireless USB after being beaten to market by a rival.
VTM's involvement eliminates even the appearance of a conflict of interest by bringing unbiased management to the process.
"It's kind of the Switzerland of association management," Baek explained.
Ravencraft said there's no way a volunteer president with a day job could manage the complexities of a 900-member technology association. The forum conducts a half-dozen compliance workshops a year and more than a dozen events across the planet last year. Just keeping up with the tax accounting would be overwhelming.
"This is not a job that one person can do," he said, noting that he and his board members are all running the Implementers Forum while holding down demanding jobs.
"It's my job to oversee [the association], but if I had to do it all, I couldn't do it."
VTM, he said, brings flawless execution and a worldwide network of partners to get the work done.
"They're experienced and they're seasoned professionals."
The new wireless USB promises to bring even more devices to customers. Industry analysts estimate billions of wireless USB-enabled items will hit the market in the coming year.
Between the Implementers Forum and its other clients, VTM's portfolio touches every aspect of the computing market.
VTM's 70 employees coordinate industry groups, produce events such as the periodic "plugfests" where makers test the performance of their new products and run the groups that certify that devices comply with the technology.
VTM's new quarters, 3855 S.W. 153rd Drive in Beaverton, can handle about 40 additional people and the campus has room for another 10,000 square feet of office space. Baek expects VTM will expand to fit the space by expanding the existing company and adding new operations. In a typical business arrangement, he bought the building and leases it back to the company.
Baek was 9 when his family immigrated to Portland from Korea and he likes to call himself a "1.5" generation American. Following high school in Aloha, he studied physics at the University of Washington, then returned home to Intel and graduate degree programs at the University of Portland.
He hails, he said, from a family with an entrepreneurial spirit. He and his sister were the first to work for major corporations.
His father had exported medical equipment to Korea and dabbled in real estate development.
In college, Baek exported medical gear to China from his fraternity in Seattle.
Not surprising, he formed VTM with big plans for growth. He tends to refer to the company's earliest days in the plural -- as in "when we started" -- even though it was just him.
Tellingly, Baek leased an office as soon as deciding to go into business for himself.
He could have begun in a spare room or den, but said having an office to go to every day imposed discipline -- he had to dress for work, report to the office, sit down and actually work.
Knowing he had to pay the rent was another form of motivation, he said.
Baek speaks often with business students. Students commonly ask about back-up plans -- Baek doesn't believe in them and tells students to put themselves in a position where they have to perform.
"No back-up plan," he said, smiling.
For him, it works.
VTM reported $7.8 million in revenues in 2005 and will top $9 million this year. Its main competition is a firm in the Bay Area with about half the number of employees as VTM.