For CEO, it's strictly no assembly required.

• Position: Brief Article

Michael Norris has a hard time with instructions that come with kids' toys. Fortunately for Charlotte-based InvenCom LLC, its president and CEO doesn't have to assemble the devices it sells to gun owners and law officers. His job is to build the company, using experience that includes a stint with Compaq Computer Corp.

InvenCom security products -- mountable gun locks and lockboxes -- generated nearly $1 million in 2000, the first full year on the market. Due in July is a high-powered door jimmy, which lets cops break into houses more quickly and safely than with battering rams. InvenCom also recently landed a $1.3 million Marine Corps contract to design a propulsion system to launch rockets from indoors without harming gunner or building.

The military contract and door jimmy should help boost revenues to more than $3 million in 2001. Profits won't come until 2002. Norris owns 8% of InvenCom. Most is owned by Chairman Felix Sabates Jr. -- one of the original owners of the Charlotte Hornets -- and Sabates' son, Chany, InvenCom founder and COO.

InvenCom's focus on safety and security comes partly from the Sabateses' money and high profile, which attracts people pitching new products. InvenCom itself grew out of RAMTech LLC, which Chany Sabates started in 1998 to develop the door jimmy. It's now an InvenCom subsidiary.

Norris, 50, moved to Charlotte partly to be near his family in Virginia and his wife's family in South Carolina. He had met Felix Sabates...