Meanwhile, a little piece of writing I did, to introduce my guild in a more interesting way than most.
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Aiming for the stars
In a little over five years, Pan Galactic has grown from, “a few rust buckets held together by hope and bubblegum” to a thriving company.
Founder and company spokesperson, Vince Alexander, describes how a group of Navy pilots with no business background succeeded in a harsh universe.
By Akira Suzuki
Probe Vince Alexander, 38, on his formal business training and you get a smile. “None,” he replies happily. “I never write business plans; I wouldn’t know how. To this day I can’t even read a balance sheet.” Yet thanks to his vision, hard work and at times, sheer will, Alexander has helped to transform a group of former UEE Navy pilots into a much larger company, spanning multiple systems and employing far beyond its original roster of just ex-military fly boys and girls.
The atmosphere is casual inside the company’s main office space in Prime, the capital of Terra. Set against a backdrop of brushed concrete walls and chunky wooden tables are entertainment machines and a well-stocked bar. If it feels a little masculine and industrial, that’s by design. The atmosphere is unashamedly straightforward and workmanlike, echoing the company’s way of doing business and without any hint of the faux military posturing often seen in companies with a similar history. Indeed, to all intents and purposes, it feels like there’s little hierarchy at all. As staff continually walk in and out of the space, going about their business, Alexander sips on a scotch explains what makes the business different.
“The Pan Galactic style is remarkably different to other companies and corporations and I think that’s because neither I, nor the people who started this with me, have a business background,” he says. “We started as a small group of pilots with a few rust buckets held together by hope and bubblegum that we purchased straight after leaving the Navy. We began with small contracts — courier work, mostly. From there, we got to make new contacts and take on larger roles. That brought money. Money bought new ships. Suddenly we needed more pilots. Mechanics. Admin. Then we met people in industries we’d never dreamed of working with, like mining. It’s tended to flow in a weirdly logical progression for us.”
Alexander started in the UEE Navy in his early twenties. “I had rejected the concept of university and spent several years hitching my way around the ‘verse after school. After I got bored with that, I went into the Navy with a view to becoming a pilot,” he recalls. “It sounds ridiculous but it all seemed pretty easy at the time which, in hindsight, I think just shows that I had an aptitude for it and had happily got involved with it at the right time in my life.”
After 10 years in the Navy, Alexander felt something of the restlessness of his late teens and early twenties again. Along with a number of pilots he knew through his military service, both currently serving and already discharged — including some of his original classmates — a plan was hatched to invest in some ships and then head out to see what kind of fortune, if any, could be made on the back of their collective skills in a cockpit.
Initially, Pan Galactic wasn’t even ran like a traditional company. Instead, Alexander and his colleagues worked “mostly cash jobs” and didn’t even maintain a formal office. “We had a name and a logo, but we were nothing like a real company,” explains Alexander. A hangar on Terra provided a place for ships to dock when not in operation, with the pilots sleeping on board their ships or in some cots spread among the tools and spare parts. “It was a bit wild for the first six months or so, but coming from the military, we’d dealt with worse, so it didn’t actually seem that big a deal to us. We were just over the moon that we didn’t have to shave every day, or get up for patrol at certain times.”
From there the company began to grow apace. While there have been setbacks, including occasional pilot fatalities (not uncommon in any business of this nature), the rise and rise of Pan Galactic has been to the envy of similarly sized businesses, pitching for the same work. “It’s never easy to lose employees, whether they are old military schoolmates, or people we’d brought into the family more recently,” Alexander pauses, focused on his near empty glass. “But you have to go on. You have to keep moving. Sure, you think about them while you’re on the move; especially sitting in that cockpit. But if you stop to think about them too much outside of that, you might as well stop for good. It can become too overwhelming.”
Having started humbly with a modest number of employees, Alexander now leads a team he is loathe to put a figure on, citing that not all are full-time employees so the numbers could be considered deceiving. Industry estimates suggest the company has somewhere under 100 staff, a figure that Alexander won’t confirm but doesn’t dispute.
REPUTATION IS EVERYTHING
Aside from its earliest contracts, Pan Galactic has, “never touted for business. It’s all been word of mouth and recommendations. We’ve built up a brand over the last five years or so. It’s all reputation.”
That reputation was built in no small way thanks to Pan Galactic hitting upon a lucrative spot of business for the Musashi Industrial & Starflight Concern (MISC) in 2941-42 as one of its standby courier companies. “I got contacted out of the blue asking if I could have a ship on 24×7 standby for courier work. I said ‘Of course’, and then we had to figure out how to actually do it,” he laughs. “That was good work though, and led to us meeting a lot of people, both inside MISC and also at the other end of those courier jobs.”
Not only did the work put Pan Galactic on the map as a reliable operator, it cemented a relationship with MISC that continues to this day, although not in the same line, according to Alexander. “Everybody knows business is built around relationships and that’s one of the reasons we’ve been successful. We say what we mean and mean what we say and business people appreciate that. MISC particularly appreciates it. Some of our largest contracts have even been agreed with a handshake alone — we’re still that kind of company, and it suggests there’s still a market for being a little old-fashioned in some areas.”
Has Pan Galactic’s growing status allowed it to inflate prices? “Not at all. Our mark-up ratio is no different than when we started,” Alexander says simply. “We charge a fair price for what we do, and we make enough money so the fleet and our safety standards are industry-leading, but we’re under no illusions that we’re the only game in town. We might be simple pilots without business training, but aren’t about to price ourselves out of the market.”
With a team of managers but no deputy, Alexander relies heavily on his accountant and lawyer, not to mention gut instinct when it comes to taking the business forward. With the company having long outgrown its ex-military fly boy and girl underpinnings, the main business interests for Pan Galactic today include courier work, exploration, xenoarchaeology, escort and guide services, flight training, logistics, engineering and mining. The company has even provided x-ship test pilots to several manufacturers over the years, notably MISC. This has seen the employment of a diverse range of employees with no military background at all in some cases, for both direct and indirect roles.
Where will it all lead? “Well, we’ve got the ships and we’ve got the ability; the future is really in our hands,” Alexander says as he rises from his chair. It appears the interview is over. “We’re calling the tune, which is the only way I’d have it, quite honestly.” And, with a smile and a firm handshake, Vince Alexander has left the building but not, in all likelihood, these pages.
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