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PCS Australia's chief executive Sydney Borg predicted this year's downturn 12 months before it hit Australia's shores.

So he began preparing PCS Australia, his company of nearly 20 years, for an imminent sales slowdown by making an effort to contain costs early on and maintain delivery and service.

PCS Australia has focused on staying close and committed to its customers. During the slowdown, the business tried to deliver a level of service "customers deserve" irrespective of their purchasing.

"We assured them that we were with them all the way, for the long haul," Borg says.

It paid off. PCS Australia has reported162.1 percent growth for financial year 2009 over FY 2008.
His insight was put down to his years of experience in the industry and at the helm of the Sydney and New Zealand-based business.

"It's potentially one of the oldest in the industry today," he says.

Frank Packer launched what is today called PCS Australia in 1971. Back then it was known as Photoset Computer Service.

It was a type-setting bureau - "one of the largest pre-press bureaus in the graphic arts industry in the 1970s", says Borg.

By the 1980s the business diversified into data processing services and software development, becoming a computer sales and support business in association with NEC.

Borg, a diesel engineer by trade with a bachelor of business in marketing, became chief executive in 1991. Customer loyalty is never far off his mind, but to beat the recession Borg ensured PCS' revenue stream was diverse. It concentrated heavily on three areas: private education, sub-distribution and integration. Meanwhile, netbooks were a growing part of business as well.