(Click here for Part 1 of the interview)
Here is Part 2 of my interview with Murray Levine…
So your son is now president of G4S North America correct? How’d that happen?
Drew, who started as a supervisor, progressed from a sales representative for Miami to eventually taking over the Fort Lauderdale office. In the end he worked his way up to finally becoming President of North America. Fortunately, he turned out to be tougher and smarter than his father. I am very proud of him!
In my blog posts I often talk about innovation and how companies, big and small, need to always be innovating. What do you see as the role of innovation in the security guard industry?
I have always believed that innovation is the key to success. To the credit of G4S’ management, they determined and implemented technology conjoining it with security personnel to include: hard-wired and wireless perimeter protection, video, specialize cellular communications, computerized access control, electronic reporting, and so on. This move resulted in better service with fewer officers providing G4S customers with significant cost savings.
How did you come up with the idea of the Custom Protection Officer program?
In 1988 I received a call from the director of security of Eckerd Drug Stores (Which is now part of CVS Pharmacy). Eckerd was a long-term client and advised that they were going to 24 hour stores. Due to that fact, their management decided to engage off-duty police. It was at that point I saw an opportunity to institute the Custom Protection Officer Program, which was just a pipe dream at the time.
The proposition put forth to the director was that Wackenhut would institute an upgraded program deploying ex-police, military police, police academy graduates, and former military (combat armed). This would be accomplished at a 50% increase over the commercial guard rate and at the same time yield a 25% lower cost than off-duty police. Since the director was a retired NYPD officer, he understood that off-duty police officers did not appreciate taking orders from civilians, plus they could not guarantee the same officers continually. As a result, we had a deal. At that point we designed a special uniform and wrote a new training program. That was the beginning of the Custom Protection Officer Program offering highly trained armed security personnel.
At that juncture, G4S started to upgrade existing clients to the CPO program and have retained a minimum of 98% of these clients. Due to the quality that the CPO provides, low-ballers have consistently failed to unseat the program.
How important is the CPO program to G4S?
My intelligence to date is that the CPO program exceeds 50% of G4S’ entire North American business.
So if customers choose to use CPOs they are going to be paying significantly more than they would for typical security guard service. How does G4S and its customers justify that additional cost. Especially to purchasing departments?
Theoretically, the client is better off with seven qualified CPOs than 10 commercial guards and incorporating technology where it is advisable. The cost is approximately the same or slightly higher. In today’s threat heavy environment (e.g. ISIS, the Taliban, Russian aggression and the like) the USA has an abundance of soft targets. CPO customers understand that they are at greater risk than any time in our history and want well-trained security officers to help protect them from those threats. Let’s keep in mind that security related issues and problems will always occur, our belief is that CPOs will always yield fewer incidents and respond better to those incidents.
If an incident should occur, security personnel are subject to scrutiny by lawyers, judges, and juries. The difference in civil lawsuits is the background and training of security personnel. This is a determining factor between $10,000 nuisance suits and multimillion dollar verdicts. Lower-level personnel will cost dearly in the long run. Pay now or pay later.
Can you give an example of what committing to high quality service means for a company?
A young man that I hired over 20 years ago, Mr. John D’Agata, is now a Regional Vice President (RVP) for G4S in Florida. One of the reasons he became an RVP were the results that he got from his belief in providing high quality security service to his customers through the CPO program.
If there is one thing that you would encourage security guard professionals to do what would it be?
I encourage all of your readers to Google the Anti-Pinkerton act of 1893 and digest the cause and effect of this law.
Any closing words for the readers?
E badee badee…That’s all Folks!
The intent of this interview was to let you gain an understanding of the man and the idea that was the genesis of G4S’ CPO program. But in talking with Murray for this interview I began to realize how much more he meant to the G4S organization. I struggled with how to convey that in words, but I think his son Drew summed it up much better than I ever could:
Your vision and laser focus on performance and quality are the foundations of now two generations of business leaders in G4S.
Eckerd Drugs to … to ICE, to now 10,000 active CPO’s, to technology, to competitive intelligence, to honest selling, to truth-telling, to fighting for the guy or gal in uniform, to area supervisors, to paying bonuses for hard work, the list goes on and on and on….
You are a star who has taught a generation about being a professional and having a good time while building a billion and a half dollar business, in which your innovations run through every office, every manager, and every customer.
There will never ever be another Murray Levine and we are all incredibly lucky to have had you and your brilliance…
Thanks for taking the time to read through this interview. I hope that you found Murray as informative, entertaining, and as insightful as I did. If you have questions or comments for Murray, please leave them in the comments box below and I will make sure that he receives them.
By Courtney Sparkman
