Tom Roche, managing director of SNP Security, says the company excels at embracing technological changes. Photo: Rob Homer
When it comes to security services, SNP Security has its market covered: security officers, mobile patrols, alarm response, disaster-proof monitoring and electronic security form just part of its offering.
“We’re very good at identifying – from an innovation point of view – market trends in technology, embracing it quickly, and delivering it to market,” says SNP Security managing director Tom Roche, whose family founded the privately held business in 1923.
However, fostering growth in the security business – a low-margin, technology-centric one in which clients can easily shift to a rival – is no mean feat. It was a question high on the agenda of SNP, which was one of six companies to attend a University of NSW Australian Graduate School of Management mid-market consortium (sponsored by GE Capital), aimed at developing leadership, understanding customers, bolstering innovation and meeting strategic challenges.
SNP Security’s general manager of people and partner strategy, Darlene Winston, says the company’s attendees were about to present their recommendations, focused on its extensive work in the aviation sector, to SNP’s senior management group.
That strategy involves expanding its traditional security services – SNP provides passenger screening services at Sydney Airport and other terminals around Australia – into related services. For example, travellers could elect to book an SNP service officer via the company’s website to accompany a traveller with higher-care needs (such as an elderly relative) through the check-in process.
“We’ll have someone who is service-oriented – they don’t necessarily need to have a security licence – pick that person up from a designated area at the airport, take them through check-in, take them through the screening services and take them right to the boarding gate.
“So there’s peace of mind for their loved ones because once you get to customs you can’t go any further,” she says.
It is a concept that blends a strategic vision with innovation, through the use of new web technology, to foster growth – a challenge many mid-market companies regularly face.
The sector (loosely defined as companies with revenue of $10 million to $250 million) comprises just 1.4 per cent of all Australian businesses but is a major employer, accounting for one-quarter of all full-time jobs, according to GE Capital’s March 2013 Australian mid-market report.
However, it is a sector which can also be overlooked, with small business represented in cabinet (the portfolio now held by Bruce Billson, a bona fide small businessman) and big business having the lobbying power to have its voice heard loudly within the halls of government.
Many companies in the mid-market sector, still driven by that initial entrepreneurial energy, remain privately held, giving them a longer-term outlook that allows them to see through downturns without having to make radical changes to keep shareholders happy.
“They’re last in to a downturn and first out of one,” says Aaron Baxter, managing director, commercial, of GE Capital Australia and New Zealand, which firmly targets the sector. “They’ve been deleveraging their balance sheet over the last few years so as things pick up, they’re in a good position to go after growth here and internationally.”
Many mid-market companies also have low overhead structures, which gives them an initial competitive leg-up, and management, including the owners, often retain close customer relationships. But maintaining those strengths in a growing company remains an ongoing challenge.
To read more on this article please head here: http://www.brw.com.au/p/business/mid-market/beyond_study_starts_company_market_1xDcfkvGj471EycgIAJV2H
Published 18 November 2013 10:08 by Brendan Swift from Business Review Weekly