Message from the President:
By: Robert Few, President & CEO
If 2020 taught us anything, it is that anything can happen. If you followed this newsletter last year, we discussed the importance of setting goals and driving them to fruition. Although setting goals is extremely important, it is equally important to stay agile and flexible in your approach. Great military minds from Sun Tzu to Colin Powell have said that the best-laid plans last only until initial contact with the enemy, leading us to the US Marine’s “Credo” Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome. When things do not go as planned, you can either stop, quit, shut down, or you can improvise. The more rigid you are, the less likely your ability to improvise, adapt, and overcome any given challenge along the way.
Everyone in a leadership position at GMS must set goals for the year. These goals need to be SMART, and they need to tie directly to the company’s overall goals. That is the easy part. The hard part starts on day one. Each leader needs to drive their goals to success, be nimble enough to overcome challenges, and know when to call in for support. This is a team sport; one person achieving their goals when another person or department does not, is not success. It is like trying to row a boat using just the left oar; you will be spinning in circles before you know it.
Here is a glimpse of what that looks like for us at GMS:
- Dealer Support needs to ensure the data that comes into our system is as clear and concise as possible, and events are automated where they can be.
- Operations need to handle events in a quick, caring, and professional manner every time.
- Human Resources needs to acquire talented, dedicated, and caring individuals to support our growth and develop meaningful incentives to keep our people engaged.
- Sales and Business Development need to onboard relevant technology and services that support our existing customers and attract new business to partner with us moving forward.
- Our Technology teams need to keep our systems operating at peak levels and respond to events, outages, and an overall need to keep up with the ever-changing technological world.
- The Finance team needs to ensure we are billing our customers accurately and in a timely fashion, collect from our customers efficiently and manage our investment strategy so that we may continue to invest in our infrastructure and our team.
If one or two of these areas misses their goals, we will still do alright, but alright is not good enough. GMS is dedicated to becoming the highest-rated and recommended contract monitoring company in the nation. We do not want to be the biggest. We do not want to be the go-to for all the new big-tech companies, and we certainly will never be the cheapest, but we want to be the best. We want to continue to service our clients better than any other company in the industry. We want to continue to be the company that people want to work with, develop new products for, and generally lead our industry forward.
2021
As we embark on 2021, here are some areas that we need to pay attention to and be sure we use what 2020 has taught us. Remote workers are not going away anytime soon, and we need to ensure we have the infrastructure to support them. Video conferencing has become part of our everyday activities, and we have adapted to this new norm that is as close to in-person meetings as we can get right now. If you haven’t adopted video conferencing to stay in touch with your client base, I highly recommend it. Communication is paramount. If you are not building and maintaining relationships with your customers and prospects, someone else will.
In addition to the ways we connect, the landscape of our finances has changed. Travel budgets will continue to be slashed throughout 2021 because many companies have found that they faired quite well without the added travel and event expenses. Margins are more critical than ever before to maintain and grow our profitability. Setting acceptable margin ranges for your products and services is critical to your success. We must also understand our changing customer needs and work with them to the best of our ability while still holding them accountable.
On more of a macro level, we must keep our eye on the statehouse and DC. Two things are certain, more regulations are coming, and taxes will change. Do you have a great accountant on your side? If not, now is the time to find a CPA that understands our industry and will work hard to protect the profits you have work so hard for. If you need recommendations, please reach out to me. We have some fantastic CPAs in our industry like Charles Schwager and Mitch Reitman that do an excellent job for their customers.
We also expect that employment laws will change. This will likely affect hourly wages as well as requirements around managing Covid-19 within our business. We are in this with you, so please use GMS as a resource if you are looking for help navigating this new world. We are happy to help point you in the right direction or recommend experts that you can work with to protect your business.
Here in California, we have already seen some changes to contract law. The three day right of rescission has been extended to 5 days for seniors, and I expect more things to come. If you haven’t had your contracts reviewed and updated in the last 12 months, I would highly recommend reaching out to Ken Kirschenbaum, and I’m happy to connect you if you don’t know Ken already.
My final piece of advice for this month is to get involved with your State and National Associations. There is safety in numbers. During unprecedented times like these, it is so important to stay plugged in and informed about changes in the industry, local and federal laws, technology, etc. If I can be of assistance to you, as always, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We are always looking for new ways to support you and your business.
Happy New Year!
Sincerely,
Robert Few - President & CEO
General Monitoring Services
(201) 838-0091
