Whew. The last few years, and right up to now, have been busy for some of the big boys out there. Securitas, Allied Barton and Universal Protection, just to name some of them, have been buying up companies right and left. Allied Barton itself was just sold by Blackstone and purchased this year for well over a billion dollars. Universal has bought Guardsmark, Brantley, Valor and more. It seems that these huge security companies are gobbling up the smaller regional and central market companies one by one. Where does this leave the customer on the street? There are less options than there used to be.

The key question becomes "is bigger the better?" I think not. Yes, there are greater resources to draw from, both from manpower and equipment standpoints. High powered cash behind you, being well capitalized is nothing to sneeze at but it doesn't make an agency better. In point of fact, there can be a great deal of confusion especially as new companies are acquired and brought into this huge gigantic mountain of people and policy. Exactly what policy is to be followed? Who reports to whom? Orders? Protocol? Which manual to read? Trust me that it can be very confusing. And if it is confusing to management, then imagine how employees in the field must feel.

The boutique security agency concentrates IN a particular market or ON a particular market for the most part. This strategy allows focus and delivers a specialty brand of service to the clients involved. These clients understand they are paying more but they are getting a level of service that is not being seen as regularly. A key item here is consistency. Smaller organizations have less overseeing management thus same orders and style being applied to situations whereas the larger groups, despite books and orders and all the business they can catch, they have different management thus different styles and philosophies approaching business in different ways thus less or no consistency. Its just reality. I would rather have the small agency feel and still the small agency in truth. The interesting thing here is that having the small agency was considered insanity until recently. Now there seems to be a resurgence of small companies opening and with a marketing strategy that spells BOUTIQUE. I recently dealt with one of these groups. They are going to make money. And they will not compete with the majors. They will simply go the way of the tortoise and win a race. Thats the race to the bank by the way.

Service is a critical factor of course. This is being handled with better conditions for the staff in the field, more recognition of them as human beings let alone security officers. The pay is somewhat better, and in some cases, really great for non union staff. A key leveling of the playing field is technology. The use of incident management reporting systems from companies like ISS 24/7 (you know I am going to plug once or twice) or TrackForce, Silver Trac, or Officer Reports.com as examples, is huge as well as modules for location, tour and equipment inspections. This hardly names all possibilities but gives you some idea as to what is out there.

Service means relationships with your clients. That doesn't mean a golf date on Tuesday to get someone out of their office. It means community interactions and not just for photo opportunities. It means hanging out and spending time. It means that the majors don't have this kind of time typically. There are some large companies that still get this but, for the most part, they are still independent and/or family owned. Great examples of this are Whelan, McRoberts, Imperial and Security Engineers. Great agencies. The majors can strive to come back to this if they consider that every office branch should be independent in service and should meet not a quota of sales but a quota of relationships. They should be genuine and because management cares. Oh, someone is saying that I need to get real and this is Utopian! Nope. You need to get with it and understand this.

To all the boutique security agencies and consulting practices that are out there or just starting, I applaud you for your courage and for the wonderful service you will provide. Don't sell out. Take your clients to that next level of service which is great and that only you can provide.

This article is my opinion and only my opinion. It represents the views of no one else other than myself. No portion of this article may be reprinted without the author's (myself) express written permission.

Safe travels to all