Security Sales & Integration August 2022 - 58

EXECUTIVE DECISIONS
Big Idea by Ron Davis
Planning for
Tomorrow
IDEA OF
THE MONTH
If you could share one
really great idea with
the industry, what would
it be?
" Go to as many
trade show events
as you can manage
each year. Attend
seminars that focus
on new products
coming out now and
in the future. Ask
questions. "
- Steve Richards
▶ THE COMPANY that I founded over 25
years ago does M&A work exclusively in the
alarm and the security integrator markets (yes,
that's my day job, and I love it!). However, for
20 of those 25 years, I have also done monthly
interviews with probably hundreds of dealers. I
love doing that also, and those interviews appear
as this column in Security Sales & Integration,
one of the best publications in any industry. Th e
luxury of doing this is a key to developing contacts
and relationships throughout the industry,
many of them lasting a lifetime. And that brings
me to Steve Richards, the CEO of Becklar.
Looking at him today, one can imagine a time
he was into athletics, as well as academia. He
spent the last 10 years managing M&A companies,
private equity companies and investment
companies. He seems to be a genuinely nice guy,
and he sure gets excited when he talks about the
people who have joined him at Becklar, one of
whom enjoys the position of executive chairman
and founder, Josh Garner. A good man and one
of the sons of the predecessor company to Avantguard
(that being Rod Garner), a real visionary
and good businessman. Th e cadre of young people
that have come on board at Becklar is fi rst
class, and it is the key for Becklar.
Josh, and his brother Eric, are two mainRon
Davis is an SSI
Industry Hall of Fame
inductee and President of
Davis Mergers and
Acquisitions Group Inc.
Also known as The Graybeards,
the company is
active in acquisitions and
mergers exclusively in the
alarm business.
58
streams of the industry, and after an appropriate
amount of time, took the company that their
father and my good friend, Rod, had started,
Mountain Alarm, to Becklar. Th at gave the
company a huge security platform, which today
is 1.2 million subscribers, and their short-term
goal is to reach 1.5 million subscribers by the
end of this year.
In talking with Steve about his long-range
programs, he mentioned that the industry has
a plethora of monitoring centers, and he thinks
that consolidations of some of the larger ones
will bring about real economies of scale. He casually
mentions that he would include private
911 companies as part of that market. He envisions
new technologies providing signifi cant
answers to the questions today's industry asks.
Security Sales & Integration AUGUST 2022
rdavis@graybeardsrus.com
But he hastens to add that he's got a pretty good
job getting the company, as it is today, to the
point where it could be a launching pad for new
technologies and new products.
It seems as though the company is rapidly
heading towards a whole new destiny that
is probably not known today. And regardless
of when the new technology comes about, the
company is headed for signifi cant size. Th ink of
all the airlines that used to be around, or all of
the banks that were scattered all over the landscape.
Th ose industries consolidated and today
they are led by a relatively small number of operators.
Although the industry has not fi nished
with consolidation, both Steve and I feel that
a great deal of it is going to take place at the
wholesale monitoring level.
Th e wholesale monitoring industry has been
given a new life as a result of the rapid growth
achieved by companies like COPS Monitoring,
Rapid Response and ADT all having (seemingly)
rapid growth and successful integration of
large numbers. Th e company that Becklar acquired
as its platform, Mountain Alarm, is also
among the largest in the industry. Just like the
original alarm industry, which consisted of over
18,000 independent operators that had to go
through major changes that aff ected smaller
dealers, but managed to bypass the larger companies
(i.e. ADT, Honeywell, Smith Alarm,
Vivint and others), it will probably include 911
centers in the mix.
And this leads me to the conclusions that
Steve saw as part of the answer to " If you could
share one really great idea with the industry,
what would it be? " And of course, you, my dear
readers, are going to ask the obvious question
of " What shall we do now? " Steve had an answer
for that.
" Go to as many trade show events as you can
manage each year. Attend seminars that focus on
new products coming out now and in the future.
Ask questions. Formulate your own theories for
your own company. And of course, keep this
magazine and other trade publications coming
to you, but focus on new technologies and products
and after you read each article, ask yourself
the question, 'How does this apply to me?' "
Never has the phrase " plan now for tomorrow "
been more appropriate and to the point!
Oh, and make sure you have fun in everything
you do.
securitysales.com
http://www.securitysales.com
Security Sales & Integration August 2022

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