How Securadyne Is Building a Security Dynasty
Learn how Securadyne Systems went from zero to $70 million in two years in this exclusive interview.
Securadyne Systems President & CEO Carey Boethel says reliability, consistency and uniqueness are high priorities for the company.
Moving forward, in which area do you intend to place greater emphasis?
Boethel: We’re more interested in growing services. We are positioning ourselves as a service business. We like to say we really only do projects so we can do service. We are doing things to drive that mix change and increase the percentage of our revenues that come from service. It’s in how we’re going to market, how we’re compensating our salespeople and managers. It’s in everything we do. We’re placing a lot of emphasis on service and a lot of emphasis on what we call lifecycle services.
We place a great deal of emphasis on the backend of customer engagement. We believe, as a result of the commoditization of security technology, that it will be increasingly important. In fact, it will be mission-critical for integrators to do more in terms of services, professional services, hosted-management services. The common denominator there being service, we’re acutely focused on growing our service business.
Oetjen: The professional services group came after we listened to our customers; we discovered they knew what they wanted. One of the things they’re telling us is they would like to have a remote help desk rather than a van dispatched for every call. We just try to listen to our customers. As we’ve done the past three or four years, we’ve continued to work and look at the hosted/managed services market. We believe there’s a large upside there. We’ve invested heavily in that space, and believe we’ll be very successful in it.
What’s your M&A strategy moving ahead, do you foresee acquiring other companies like IAS, ACC, etc.? What will be the organic and acquisitive growth balance?
Boethel: I would characterize M&A as an enabler of our growth strategy. It is in and of itself not our growth strategy; it’s one component of it. Having said that, it’s safe to expect we will continue to acquire when it makes strategic sense. If and when we can find progressive companies that want to be a part of what we’re doing and grow with us. Our first priority is organic growth through existing customer accounts and certainly the acquisition of new. We grew our business organically over 35% last year. We would be very fortunate to continue on that trajectory, but that is our first priority. When we’re investing in growth, most of that ongoing daily investment is made on the organic side. Of course the investments in M&A tend to be larger.
What are your processes for finding like-minded partners to acquire and grow the business, and also for recruiting key personnel?
Boethel: We have a number of qualifying criteria when selecting partners, but chief among them is cultural fit. We are a high-performance organization. We believe it’s necessary to work very hard and very smart to service our customers, and we hold ourselves accountable for that. In partners, we’re not necessarily looking for lifestyle businesses where the management team and employees have gotten comfortable with the status quo. Rather, it’s about companies like Intelligent Access that have a culture of discipline and growth. I love Ron’s saying wh
en he talks to his management team, “Growth is expected.” I think that speaks to the cultural fit you get with Intelligent Access and Securadyne Systems. Growth is expected. Performance improvement is expected. Perpetual learning and development is expected. Change is imminent. Those kinds of things have to echo in the voices of the owners of potential partners and their management teams.
We also always look for a track record of growth and profitability. We believe if a business is not growing it’s shrinking. If you don’t reverse that trend, it will ultimately die. We’re looking for long, successful track records of growth and profitability. Lastly, we’re looking for partners willing to reinvent themselves. As companies are acquired, things inevitably change. Our industry is changing. Technology is changing. We talk all the time about cloud computing and how that’s changing our industry. So we look for a team comfortable with that, that’s not only able to roll with it but also help drive and facilitate it.
When recruiting people, that’s one of the key attributes we look for on that side as well. We really want people who can adapt, who are willing to get out of their comfort zone and challenge themselves to be better. And to change, and be change agents with us as we embark on this journey.
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About the Author
Scott Goldfine
Scott Goldfine is the marketing director for Elite Interactive Solutions. He is the former editor-in-chief and associate publisher of Security Sales & Integration. He can be reached at [email protected].
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