CUI  Inc., was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Tualatin, Oregon.  CUI Inc., (a subsidiary of CUI Global Inc.) is a technology company focused on the development and distribution of electro-mechanical products. Taking its cue from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), the company imports and distributes electro-mechanical components for OEMs and design engineers. Its power, motion control, and component product portfolios allow engineers to address design challenges across a range of industries and applications. Its product lineup includes industrial power supplies and converters sold under the V-Infinity Power brand, as well as such other components as speakers, buzzers, and connectors. CUI has international operations in Japan, Sweden, and China. Its three top competitors are Power-One, XP Power, and TDK-Lambda.

More than 23 years ago, CUI based its company on a foundation of core principals.  Although it has experienced a lot of growth and change since that time it has held true to these values: service and philanthropy.  As a company, CUI closes a few days a year to go out into the community and volunteer time and resources while encourages its employees to carry this service into their personal lives.  Even more, this company wanted to see how it could serve individuals beyond its local communities by allowing the partners that it does business with to also participate. A program is set up with its manufacturer representatives to contribute money based on their level of sales into the communities where they operate.  Its partners are able to select charities of their choice, which has had a huge effect, not only for the individuals assisted by the charities, but on the CUI partner companies as well. A percentage of total revenue generated by CUI’s representative network is set aside and donated to each firm on an annual basis as a charitable commission intended to be passed along to the charities of their choosing.

CUI’s goal is to create a line of communication with component suppliers that are as efficient as possible, while ensuring a visibility into its demand, and conversely, get an understanding about the supplier’s current capacity challenges. The biggest challenges that CUI facesdoes not lie in the actual manufacturing process of power supplies because it put the necessary processes in place to ensure the output of reliable products.  Its biggest challenge is in managing its supply chain as the economy ebbs and flows. Over the next year, CUI is managing its growth in a way that there are now a number of opportunities in front of them.

The corporate culture of CUI has an informal, family atmosphere relative to a small company. The benefits of being small are the ability to get work down quicker and nimble.

“I would classify our culture as a driven, energetic, and optimistic.  People here really do enjoy coming to work and taking part in the company’s success.  This environment energizes me in my personal life.  I don’t go home tired and exhausted; rather, I am ready to take on life’s challenges outside of work”, said Jeff Schnabel, 
VP Global Marketing.

Their customers, especially the design engineers, are being asked to do more with less.  Because of this, many of the customers are relying upon CUI to be their power expert because they no longer have the time on internal expertise to manage the definition of their power system independently.  The design process is moving much more to a collaborative effort because power is seen in a different light.

CUI believes that over the next five years growth will come from the products and technology being developing in its Novum Advanced Power product group.  This area focuses on power products for next-generation distributed power architectures.  It is also developing a new technology that provides higher efficiencies, great power densities, and faster transient response.