When you gotta go, you gotta go.
Racing to find a men’s room in the cavernous
Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta
for the Society of Cable Telecommunications
Engineers’ Cable-Tec Expo last Tuesday, The
Wire stopped cold at a booth for a product that
seemed heaven-sent.
The “Brief Relief field-lavatory system,”
sold by a company called Potti
Corp., offered “a clean, sanitary hygiene
alternative for both men and
women” for times “When Relief is
NOWHERE in sight!”
The products, made by American
Innotek, are aimed at cable,
utility, forestry and rescue industries,
but cable linemen in far-flung
places may find the Brief Relief
pouch particularly useful.
The line of products ranges from
a 4-millimeter-thick plastic fold-out pouch
filled with a substance that gels liquid on contact
to a bucket-sized commode to a tall portable
privacy tent to take care of business.
How are sales? “It’s really a recession-proof
business — everybody’s got to go,” Colin
Kryski, manager of Potti Corp., told The Wire.
“In fact, it can be a cost savings” in terms of
time spent searching for a restroom or worse,
getting caught “going
where they shouldn’t go.”
The company has few
competitors, and the orders
keep flowing in.
BTW, Kryski said he’s
heard every joke in the
book. “It’s rare that we get
a new one.”
Thankfully, our correspondent
found a standard
men’s room in time.
Cox’s Janet Barnard
Takes Familiar Path
To Leadership Post
The Wire has always been impressed at how
many employees at Cox Communications
are able to move into
key operating jobs at the cable
company and at other Cox Enterprises
businesses, regardless of
what they were hired to do when
they joined Cox.
The latest: Janet Barnard, the
general manager of Cox Communications’
Central Region, is leaving
the cable company after 24
years to become chief operating
officer at Cox Enterprises-owned
automobile reseller Manheim in
Atlanta.
“Janet is a proven leader
with a remarkable track record
of achieving both financial and
operational results,” her new
boss, Manheim president Sandy Schwartz,
said in a statement.
As Cox Communications president Pat
Esser — who started out in local programming
and ad sales at the company — told
Multichannel News in 2009, “Cox’s development
programs really do give our people
an opportunity to grow, and I am a perfect
example of that. It’s a mindset here.”
Other examples he cited:
Leo Brennan, the chief operations officer
promoted to that role after running the Las
Vegas system, came from marketing.
Steve Rizley, the head of Cox’s Arizona
operations, came from ad
sales.
Jacqueline Vines, the
general manager of Cox Louisiana,
started out in human
resources.
Barnard — who started
out in accounting at a Cox
system in Georgia — came
to the Wichita, Kan.-based
Central Region two years
ago to replace Kimberly
Edmunds, after Edmunds
was promoted to senior vice
president of customer operations.
Cox is looking for a
replacement for her in the
Central Region.
SHARP-DRESSED QUIP
“You’re going to see us
wearing jeans more.”
— Dan Moloney president of
Motorola Mobility, to John Schanz, EVP of
national engineering and technical operations
at Comcast, about how being acquired
by Google will affect employees at Motorola.
He spoke on a panel at last week’s Cable-
Tec Expo in Atlanta.
