HARTFORD, Conn. — With the purchases last year of security system software developer Lenel and fire systems producer Kidde, United Technologies Co. (UTC) proclaimed itself as the latest conglomerate to enter the electronic security industry.
United has big plans for its fire and security division that start with Lenel and also include integrators Chubb and ACP Engineering Inc., as well as alarm monitoring firm Counterforce USA.
Jim Clark left behind his post as vice president of global sales and marketing at GE Security in November to lead UTC Fire and Security’s promotion initiatives as its vice president of marketing and marketing strategy. Now, Clark gives Security Sales & Integration an exclusive peek into UTC’s plans in the fire and security market as well as where the firm positions itself compared to other conglomerates like Honeywell, GE, Tyco and Bosch. He also explains his reasons for leaving GE.
In a nutshell, what is United Technologies about, especially when it comes to the safety and security industries?
Clark: What we’ve done is acquired our way into the industry — a lot like GE did, a lot like Honeywell did years ago. We acquired some companies that have some pretty significant brand equity — Chubb is very well known outside the United States, very much like ADT or GE is known here. Probably one of the only places Chubb is weak from a brand recognition standpoint is the U.S., so it does create a challenge in determining what the right brand strategy is going forward. That’s something we’re looking at right now, and that’s part of the reason why I’m over here.
I think a lot of people hear of it and they’re aware of it, but they can’t connect. Do you have any idea how big Chubb Security is? In effect we’re like two-and-a-half times the size of GE Security. So worldwide, between our fire and security group, we’re almost a $4.7 billion organization.
What can United Technologies do for security dealers that other companies haven’t up until now?
Clark: What we want to do is bring a lot of integration capabilities to the marketplace, but we also want to bring a lot of service capabilities to the marketplace. As Lenel kind of demonstrates, our focus is more on the high-end commercial and enterprise phase. So we’re trying to bring things like more integration capabilities.
Do you see UTC being among the industry’s Tycos, Honeywells, GEs and Boschs or is there a unique niche for UTC?
Clark: I believe we’re more in the unique niche space. We are not today, and we don’t have any plans to be, a mass product manufacturer. We’re not going to be manufacturing commoditized products. What the world doesn’t need now is another intrusion panel or another camera. But if we can bring some differentiation to those, those are the spaces we’re going to play in.
How vital is Lenel as a component of your overall strategy?
Clark: As far as moving forward, I think Lenel is one of the most visible acquisitions in the U.S. and it raised our profile because it seemed to be doing something outside of what we had normally been doing. But by far, Chubb and Kidde dwarf the acquisition of Lenel. Remember, Lenel on scale is still a relatively small company compared to the billions of dollars in these other companies.
Lenel is a critical piece of that strategy, and it just shows our investment in wanting to forward integration and bring additional value to existing security systems and new security systems. We believe we can really do that with the offerings of companies like Lenel.
Is there anything on the horizon that we can look forward to? Are there areas of the industry that UTC would like to add to it to fill in the hole that it’s not filling at this point?
Clark: You’re going to continue to see us add in the security market space and, again, the areas you’re going to see us add are places where we can offer a differentiated service tailored more toward the higher-end market. From an equipment standpoint, where GE plays a lot in the residential with its SecurityPro programs and things like that, we’re going to play a lot more on the higher-end systems. And that’s evident by the acquisition of Lenel and some of the capabilities we’ve already had in-house.
GE Security has seen a lot of change personnel-wise in the past year. What’s going on there?
Clark: GE is a first-rate company and that’s evident in its performance though the years. GE sets a standard that most companies work to duplicate, so I have nothing bad to say about GE. For me, it was just a career decision. And this is important: GE is a $1.9 billion company; this is a $4.6 billion company, so, as I said, it’s two-and-a-half times the size of GE. It has a much broader global presence in the security market space. I was offered a hell of an opportunity to come over here; it was a very difficult decision to leave GE, but I’m very happy to be here.
