Unmanned Magic
Defense: Newest U.S. Navy Squadron Has Local Business Tie
Northrop Grumman is giving the Magicians a new trick. Officials at Naval Air Station North Island recently held ceremonies to inaugurate the Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 35, nicknamed the Magicians.
Cubic Reports Increase in 2nd Quarter Sales and Net Income
Cubic Corp. reported a 7 percent increase in second quarter sales and a 16 percent increase in net income compared with the same period one year ago.
Leaders Pave Way for Defense Sector Diversity
DEFENSE: Women in Top Jobs, Programs Open Industry
Those wondering about opportunities for women in the defense sector may be heartened by developments at General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin Corp.
The Women Behind the Win
DEFENSE: Three Execs Team Up to Get Big Defense Deal
Georgia Griffiths, CEO of G2 Software Systems Inc., was on vacation when she realized an opportunity to grab the largest deal in her company’s history.
Vacation Rental Market Heats Up for Summer
PROPERTY: Busy Season Begins Late June Through August
The coming of summer means it’s high season for businesses such as Penny Realty Inc. The Pacific Beach firm rents out 90 vacation homes, largely but not exclusively in Pacific Beach and neighboring Mission Beach.
Technology’s Pathfinders
TECH: Qualcomm Sees Need to ‘Clear the Way’ For More Data, Devices
Qualcomm Inc. sees a torrent of data in its future — and ours. The amount of data going to mobile devices is doubling every year, said Rasmus Hellberg, senior director for technical marketing.
Layoff Threat for 665 Is Lifted at Nassco
DEFENSE: Signed Bill Clears Way for Some Planned Work
A changed federal budget picture means that the General Dynamics Nassco shipyard will not have to go through with 665 layoffs announced earlier this year.
Having Competent IT Help Can Be a Lifesaver for Small Businesses
TECH: Needs for Assistance, Backup and Security Require Pros
Clive Harrison of San Diego-based CentrexIT says he sees the phenomenon much too often: business leaders making their information technology choices based on price alone.
Air Force Steers Away From Global Hawk
DEFENSE: Northrop Grumman’s Drone Is Big Part of Navy’s Plans
The recently released White House budget request for 2014 allocates fewer dollars to Global Hawk, Northrop Grumman’s high-flying unmanned spy plane.
Teradata Continues to Make Big Data Manageable
TECH: Data Can Now Be Moved Between Teradata and Hadoop
Teradata Corp. continues to refine the data-crunching options for its big-business customers.
Understand and Deliver
MANUFACTURING: Firm Turns Clients’ Ideas Into Working Prototypes
Leardon Solutions has seen it before. Its principals have been through the process of getting manufacturing right. Earlier in their careers, each of them saw firsthand how a company at the top of the Fortune 500 worked through its challenges.
Jack in the Box Plants ‘Seeds’ in Heartland for Franchise Growth
DINING: Company Continues Move To Franchise Model
For Jack in the Box Inc., business growth stems in part from territorial growth. There are still parts of the United States that have never seen a Jack in the Box restaurant or the company’s other format, Qdoba Mexican Grill. The $1.55 billion corporation is working to establish those eateries on new turf.
Sempra Energy’s Many Diverse Holdings Power Its Business
ENERGY: It Looks To Future With Green Energy, Natural Gas
Sempra Energy is a San Diego colossus. With $9.65 billion in 2012 revenue, the energy holding company is second to no one but Qualcomm Inc. among the region’s public companies.
UC San Diego Renames Research Unit in Honor of Qualcomm Support
RESEARCH: Company Supported Research With $26 Million in Gifts
The University of California is giving Qualcomm Inc. a nod in thanks for more than a decade of support. It is renaming UC San Diego’s branch of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology after the company.
WD-40 Is Focusing More on Its Strengths
MANUFACTURING: Home Care Line Is Under Review
WD-40 Co. may have spring cleaning on its mind. Management at the publicly traded company recently got board approval to review “strategic alternatives” for its home care and cleaning product line, which has become a smaller part of its business.
Business Lines
SPORTS: Sport Fishing Operators Must Manage Many Tasks for Success
Never mind that his workplace floats. Jack Rader is really in the hospitality business. Rader, 32, works as a captain on the privately owned Premier, an 81-foot vessel that operates out of H&M Landing on Point Loma. Every day, the Premier takes patrons out for half-day sport fishing excursions.
Innovation, Profits Could Soar in a ‘Drone Zone’
TECH: Groups Seek FAA Designation for Southern California
Business will benefit if the Federal Aviation Administration decides Southern California should be an unmanned aircraft test zone. That’s the opinion of several business groups and observers in the San Diego area.
Medical Automation Equipment Is Prescription for Growth
MANUFACTURING: Automation GT Is Moving To Bigger Facility, Hiring
Automation GT feels the squeeze. These days, space is tight in its offices and in its shop. One reason is that the Escondido firm has plenty of work. Several of its custom-built factory automation machines sit on its production floor, in various stages of completion. Their inner workings are encased in big, glasslike boxes. No two of the machines are alike.
Device Would Add to Arsenal In Fight Against Breast Cancer
TECH: In-Home Use Adds Convenience and Consistency to Monitoring
Eclipse Breast Health Technologies Inc. plans to apply new technology to the fight against breast cancer.
Ai-one’s ‘Artificial Brain’ Has a Real Eye for Data
TECH: Software Can Dig Through and Decipher Information
Software writer ai-one Inc. doesn’t just promise code. The company promises to pull new perspectives and second opinions from seemingly inscrutable data.
Kratos Is Helping Satellites Stay Out of a Jam
TECH: Company Grows Its Software And Hardware Business
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Inc. sees a market in making satellite communications better — particularly when others are trying to jam or disrupt their signals.
Getting Stronger
SPORTS: Hoist Fitness Works With a Successful Growth Formula
When Hoist Fitness Systems designed its custom headquarters in Poway, its executives knew they wanted several things. One was a shower near the showroom.
Real-Time Bus Schedules Arrive Via Cubic Corp.
TRANSIT: N.Y. System to Pinpoint Times, Notify Riders
Cubic Corp., which provides electronics for mass transit systems around the world, will soon help answer the question on New Yorkers’ lips: When in the world is the bus going to arrive?
What’s in Store
TECH: Qualcomm Aims To Customize the Retail Experience for Shoppers
Name a vertical market normally associated with Qualcomm Inc. Chances are you didn’t say retail.
Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce Is Strong at 90
LEADERSHIP: 1,500 Member Companies Give Group a Wealth of Talent
Carlsbad is a place for business: upstart businesses such as California Pacific Airlines, deep-thinking firms such as Life Technologies Corp. and ViaSat Inc., and vacation resorts.
Northrop Consolidations Bring Jobs to Region
DEFENSE: Unmanned Systems Efforts Land Programs in S.D.
Two Northrop Grumman Corp. aircraft programs are leaving other states and coming to San Diego, and with them, scores if not hundreds of jobs.
Serious Business
TECH: CEO Puts Education, Connections To Work in Software Firm
Every day, Cypher Genomics Inc. musters its resources to make sense of the human genome. Three of the company’s founders are life sciences luminaries in San Diego.
Achates Takes Page From Past to Create Futuristic Engine
DEFENSE: Firm to Deliver Fuel Efficiency And Power for Army
Achates Power Inc. is working to adapt its innovative diesel engine technology for use in U.S. Army vehicles. The San Diego company and partner AVL Powertrain Engineering Inc. are now fine-tuning designs under a recently received, $4.9 million contract.
Serious Business Part 2
EDUCATION: Rady School’s Reputation Grows With Its Graduates’ Success
Companies such as Cypher Genomics (see related story) show that entrepreneurship is alive and well at UC San Diego’s Rady School of Management.
Swiss Company Buys Local Cargo Tracking Firm
TECH: Expansion Needs Required It To Find Partnership
ABB, a $39 billion Swiss company, is wrapping up its purchase of APS Technology, a small Kearny Mesa tech firm that specializes in helping transportation companies keep track of shipping containers.
Casinos Invite You to Spend the Night at Their New Properties
GAMING: New Viejas Hotel Is Part of Trend Toward More Amenities
San Diego County casinos are giving prospective gamblers more chances to turn a getaway into an overnight stay.
East County Wants to Chart a Flight Path for Commerce
BUILDING: Leaders See Opportunity to Create Aerotropolis at Gillespie
The East County business community has the world at its doorstep. The valley where the city of El Cajon meets Santee is a nexus of three freeways and an airport. With those assets, El Cajon’s Gillespie Field could increasingly shape business and development for several miles outside of its perimeter fence.
Shipbuilder Maneuvers Deftly in a Budget Battle
DEFENSE: Nassco’s New Process Saves Money and a Key Contract
Eighty percent is beautiful. That is a philosophy that brought the U.S. Navy and General Dynamics Nassco together as they refined a deal to build the Navy’s newest ship.
Speedy Mass Notification Is Software Firm’s Forte
TECH: Messaging Takes on Many Tasks, Including Saving Lives
To promote his business, CEO Amir Moussavian hands out a device roughly the size of a highlighter pen. It’s a combination screwdriver (with four interchangeable blades), LED flashlight and carpenter’s level (the old-school variety with the floating bubble).
Region Is Ready for the ‘Internet of Everything’
TECH: Firms Well Positioned For Machine-to-Machine Needs
San Diego sits at a technological crossroads. London-based business intelligence firm ABI Research sees strong growth ahead in a space where wireless communications meets cybersecurity. San Diego businesses specialize in both.
Slacker Updates Interface and Launches New Marketing Campaign
SOFTWARE: Internet Radio Service Sees Big Opportunity Ahead
Slacker Inc., the San Diego-based Internet radio service, is taking aim at its rivals. The company just unveiled a newly refreshed user interface, and plans to spend millions of dollars in marketing this year. One source said the marketing campaign will be worth $5.5 million, while another source projected a $10 million campaign.
Surfdog Records Has A Legend on Board
MARKETING: Years of Work Play Part in Eric Clapton Deal
From Surrey to Swami’s. That is the long trajectory that Eric Clapton has taken. The English-born guitarist has tapped Encinitas-based Surfdog Records to distribute his latest album in the United States and Canada. The compilation, called “Old Sock,” goes on sale March 12.
FirstWatch Software Plots Hidden Data Trends
TECHNOLOGY: Safety, Fire, Disease Among Uses for Incident Tracking
Mardi Gras and the Super Bowl in New Orleans. With that city’s reputation for craziness, it sounds like mischief in the making. An Encinitas company called FirstWatch, however, helped New Orleans authorities keep their cool during both events, including the mysterious blackout at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
Carrier Deployment Is Next Mission for Drones
DEFENSE: Big Contractors Expected to Compete for Work
While the U.S. Navy prepares for further tests of its X-47B aircraft — an existing, experimental unmanned plane designed to fly off of aircraft carriers — as many as four prime contractors are positioning themselves to build the next big thing.
Contractors Prepare for Worst When Budget Cuts Hit
DEFENSE: Massive Layoffs Loom Large Over Industry, Local Ship Repair Yards
Claudio Rivas is looking at the prospect of layoffs. He may have to let the majority of his workers go because of impending federal budget cuts.
Securing the Future
TECH: New Incubator Aims for Innovation in Cyber Security, Analytics
Cybersecurity is a business worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the region. ESET, Norman AS and Websense Inc. all make San Diego home. So do the many defense contractors working silently in the cyber realm: firms such as BAE Systems, Booz Allen Hamilton, General Dynamics Information Technology, Lockheed Martin and SAIC.
Compact Video Gear Makes Waves With Navy
DEFENSE: BAE Seeks Production Contract After $72M Development Phase
BAE Systems employees in Rancho Bernardo and Point Loma have caught the attention of intelligence specialists who serve aboard the smaller classes of U.S. Navy ships.
Do you have it in camouflage?
DEFENSE: Technology, Robots and Ships Can Be Bought ‘Off the Shelf’
This cousin to R2D2 cuts a squatty, homely figure at 21 inches long, 20 inches wide and 16 inches tall. But it has a tenacity that military commanders like.
How Military Technology Changes the World We Live In
TECHNOLOGY: The Internet, GPS, CDMA, Among the Examples
The military frequently adapts civilian technology for its own uses. But the process also works in reverse. Military technology frequently goes commercial.
Locals Fear Ripple Effect From Federal Cuts
DEFENSE: West 2013 Highlights Potential For Huge Work Losses
Some $220 million worth of ship repair work in the Port of San Diego is in jeopardy this year because of federal budget woes.
Commitment to Community
EDUCATION: UCSD Crafts a Plan to Serve Campus, Industry, Region
With successes such as Qualcomm Inc., Cymer Inc. and San Diego’s biotechnology cluster, UC San Diego has been an economic catalyst and a job generator for the past 52 years. Pradeep Khosla wants to extend that streak.
Eyewear Targets the ‘Site-Seeing’Crowd
OPTICS: Computer Glasses Need Is Big in an Online World
What makes a good business plan? “You look for uncharted territory with little competition and massive market potential,” said Joe Croft.
SweetLabs Finds Window(s) Of Opportunity in Start Menu
TECHNOLOGY: Firm Also Aims to Improve ‘Neglected’ PC Platform
Microsoft is moving on, moving on with a dramatically redesigned Windows 8 operating system. But some personal computer users aren’t so eager to follow.
Disaster Plans Must Be Tailored to Each Business’s Needs
PLANNING: Versatility Is Also Required to Ensure Continuity in a Crisis
The market for business continuity and disaster recovery services is definitely not one-size-fits-all.
Data Centers Offer Workspace for Customers in Emergencies
TECHNOLOGY: Clients Can Maintain Key Services At Functioning Facilities
San Diego area data center operators are offering more than just space for computers. They are making space for people too.
