In modern Hebrew, the word "Scitex" (SCIX) is not the name of a high tech company with 3,000 employees and annual sales of over $400 million. No, Scitex is another word for heritage. For the legend of Israeli impudence of 30 years ago, in the pre-high tech days, which made Efi Arazi decide he could make a global revolution in the oldest industry in the world, and carry it through almost without means.
Today Yoav Chelouche bears the weight of this legend on his back. His company's share has doubled its value during the past year, but still lags far behind its glory days. The discouraging industrial environment renders its judgements according to the value of Internet shares.
During his five years of service, including three as company president, he suffered almost every kind of crisis that can confront a company manager. A sales crisis, rumors of acquisition and company split-off, the need for recovery and rebuilding of entire divisions without managers, cutting losses and getting rid of units like digital video, while rebuilding the company and imbuing it with fighting spirit and optimism. Just to add to the fun, a Canadian company named Creo moved into part of Scitex's market, while its share lunged out of control.
On the way, he made almost every possible mistake, including a failure in following up on part of sales, which led a year ago to a dramatic share dive. You can't say that Yoav Chelouche isn't a good student, though: his own student. Today, with the help of a team of assistants, who went with him through all the crises, he demonstrates the confidence of someone who believes in what he does. The share is back on the recovery track, the profits and sales graphs have finally stabilized in the right direction, and the color is back in his cheeks.
Chelouche acts modesty, perhaps as a byproduct of his seriousness. He is not a show-off. Even his salary, according to the press, is not among the highest in the high tech industry. When he traveled with the entire company management to a meeting with analysts and customers in Europe, the entire company traveled tourist class. At management meetings, however, he shows himself as the natural leader that he is. The others may suggest ideas, but Chelouche decides.
Actually, his serious intentions could have been discerned over two years ago, when Scitex announced its entry into the field of digital printing, which had belonged to dreamers and fortune-tellers, like Benny Landa of Indigo. This year, Scitex is starting to harvest the fruits, which is to say that the current structure is also too small for it. "Every production worker has noticed the changes in Scitex", he recently explained. "The machines are bigger and the manufacturing rooms are larger". The big question for Chelouche, about which not a word is being said, is whether the shareholders and investors also notice the changes.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on December 29, 1999