The Little Company that Could!
In 1990, a miniature mom-and-pop telecommunications company was born. This birth was the direct result of
the downsizing of a larger company which shall, for the purposes of this narrative, simply be referred to as "Fortune 1000".
Operated at its inception out of the basement of the owners residence, on Global Court, the mini-company, Global Communications Group, began with two employees, Robert Colee and his wife Anne. There were just two customers: a medium sized company and a fortune 500 company. Global not only repaired and refurbished "Fortune 1000" telephone systems but it managed to achieve this at lower prices, quicker turn-around time, and an absence of the red tape which typically plagued bigger companies.
Word of Global's fast, accurate, inexpensive, personalized service gradually spread. Soon Global had many customers and some new employees. The first new employees were garnered, for the most part, from the Colee's friends and family and other slightly disrgruntled ex-Fortune 1000 employees. If you can't join them fight them!!! Like its biblical counterpart, David, little Global put up a good fight against many of the Goliath-like inequities besetting bigger companies. Of course, being only human, Global made its share of mistakes. It had the same problems with office politics and faulty company alliances that beset virtually all companies, at one time or another. Through all adversities, through all times, good and bad, Global managed to prevail.
In 1992 Global incorporated. With an eye to getting accounts in the ex-Soviet Union, particularly Russia, Global worked with many American companies to form strategic alliances in Russia, especially in the field of telecommunications. Global published a bilingual newspaper, "The Global Communicator". The Colees wrote a series of articles, "The Russian Adventure", detailing some of their findings. Colee made a business trip over to Russia, spending one week, each, in Moscow and St. Petersburg. After Global had made tenative joint ventures with two companies in Russia, the bottom fell out of the Russian economy, making it impracticle for Global to continue its business plans with the country. Incidently, the technology which Global proposed in 1993, for Russian telecommunications, was later allowed for implementation in the United States Telecommunications Act of 1996.
Global carried on, moving out of the Colee's residence, and into its own building, in 1994. In the next couple of years, Global was doing well enough financially, so that it decided to expand its business into other avenues. Global rented a second building. The Colees set up three businesses in the new building: a new-age bookstore, "Camelot's Curios", a motorcycle shop, "Superbikes", and a plant shop, "The Garden of Eden". The new building opened in the summer of 1996, just on time for the Atlanta Olympics. Also on time for the 1996 Olympics, Global created web sites for its parent company, the three new companies and a site called "Mars Colonization". In the next couple of years,"Camelot's" and the "Garden of Eden" were closed for personal and financial reasons. "Superbikes", which had been around in various forms (albeit, sometimes on a figurative back burner) since the early '70's, eventually merged with Chandler Motorcycles Inc."
In November, 1998, Global sold the telecommunications part of its business. The agreement Global made with
the buyers left Global free to work on the "Fortune 1000" DX, HD200, and EX10 products. Global Communications Group still repairs and refurbishes "Fortune 1000" machines. However, it has now also brought its focus to bear on other telephone systems, such as Macro Voice and Computer hardware and software services as can be seen in its HP products.
The Global of today also sells information products,
and much more! Come shop at Global. You'll
be glad you did...!
- Anne Colee
Mail: bobcolee@yahoo.com
Global Communications Group
7216 Williams Rd.
Flowery Branch Ga. 30542
global33.com
