It's been a year since Brent Wouters took over as president and CEO of Cirrus Aircraft, based in Duluth, Minn. Since then, he has overseen a number of changes at the company, a Cessna Aircraft competitor.

"The whole strategy, the way we operate, is entirely different," Wouters said.

Cirrus builds the SR22 and SR20 single-engine piston aircraft. It's also moving forward with a small "personal jet," the Vision SF50.

Cirrus has $100,000, nonrefundable deposits from 428 customers for the jet. That's after 15 percent of deposit holders canceled their orders.

"We signed many more deals than we canceled," he said.

The downturn has affected the company.

Cirrus delivered 270 aircraft in 2009, down from 549 in 2008. The number of employees has fallen from 1,350 in September 2008 to 500 today.

Wouters joined Cirrus in 2002 as executive vice president and chief financial officer. In 2008, he was promoted to president and chief operating officer.

In February 2009, he took over as CEO after the departure of Cirrus co-founder Alan Klapmeier.

Cirrus lost money last year, but operating cash flow was positive in the fourth quarter. How is the market now and how are orders?

"Things are very stable today.... (Still), you have to scratch and claw for every delivery, every sale.... But we sold 31 airplanes in the month of January. Most people would knock themselves silly to have that kind of a month."

What's the outlook?

"I've budgeted and planned for flat demand. While I have a tremendous number of initiatives to drive much higher levels, I don't know when those will come to fruition. I have several things (going) that could put us as much as 50 percent higher in 2010."

You worked to get supply and demand in line so you could sell planes at full price. Can you explain?

"We are not discounting airplanes. I worked hard to try to get to that point by making sure our supply and our demand were well balanced. Cirrus had a history of overproducing. You end up undermining the pricing for your new products, which undermines the pricing for your used products."

How so?

"You have to create scarcity in your product. You have to underproduce so prices go up and you're not giving airplanes away."

Your strategies changed in the way you operate and sell and build airplanes. For example?

"We used to talk a lot about how we were a lean manufacturer, and we have all these lean principles. I argued... it was all lip service because it didn't show up in the numbers."

What happened?

"We spent the last 18 months with a focused strategy. We're going to focus on financial performance and use that as a guide to whether we're actually achieving things. No more telling ourselves we're doing a great job without being able to see it in the numbers."

How did you do that?

"We were extremely focused on understanding your cost structure on every step of the operation, understanding your processes.... It's about having specific goals and measures, driving down inventory, making sure our supply and demand are balanced — driving costs out of the system in processes and people."

How are plans for the Vision jet going? You mentioned the project is on a three-year schedule, but you need investors.

"We're working as hard as we can. The biggest thing will be if we can attract enough capital. It all comes down to money."

How much do you need?

"We need $50 (million) or $60 million of external (investment) in addition to our own cash flow.... The whole program is more expensive than that."