Jerrold Electronics

"By 1970, two years after joining the firm, I knew I had to move. One of my last clients at McKinsey connected me to was someone who would change my thinking forever. A company called General Instrument had started as a sleepy electronics firm in New York in 1923 and had evolved into being the owner of assorted electronics businesses. GI had just bought a Philadelphia-based company called Jerrold Electronics; it was a massive acquisition for a company that size, roughly 40 percent of its value at the time."

"Jerrold Electronics began building components of these community antenna systems and selling them as turnkey businesses to eager entrepreneurs. After the war, a lot of the coaxial cable manufactured for communications was sold in surplus, and much of the cable in the early days came in odd sizes. By the 1950s, Jerrold had standardized cable wire and had begun making or buying connectors that could hook up these wires to large antennas. One huge strength Jerrold had over rivals was a team of crack-shot engineers, who had a head start on competitors, and were first to market standardized fittings with almost no leakage in the signal. As an enticement, the company would guarantee that as new equipment was developed, Jerrold would replace the original equipment you had installed at no extra cost."