The Big Idea with Ron Davis
March 2021

Use 'Em if You Got 'Em

If you had just one really great idea you could share with the alarm industry, what would it be?

Jamie Kurth, Independent Alarm, Pennsauken, NJ

Kurth's BIG IDEA:
“Use resources that are available to you.”

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AST SEPTEMBER, I got a call from Jamie Kurth, president of Pennsauken, N.J.-based Independent Alarm. The conversation started innocently enough, with Kurth saying, “I was wondering if you could spend a few moments with me to answer some questions about your view of the future of the alarm industry?” Simple enough, and that started us on the rather complex topic of the answer to the question of where is the industry going?

And the reason that Kurth was asking the question was simply to help him plan out the future of his company. Now, Independent is not your average burglar alarm company. It is a 40-year+ integrator that installs not just commercial systems, but also highly complex residential systems, medical alert and you name it. With sales in excess of $10 million a year and more than 40 employees, this is certainly a company on the rise. Kurth was quite complimentary over the advice that I gave him, which of course, pumped my chest out just a little bit further.

I figured fair is fair, and I started asking Kurth questions. Starting with, “What are the most important lessons you learned in running a company in the middle of the worst pandemic this country has ever known?” He was fairly quick with an answer. His answer was, “Use resources that are available to you.” For example, when he called me he was utilizing an industry source which, thankfully, was not going to bill him. Next, he mentioned associations, and the treasure of resources they have immediately available. Following, was to utilize your banker for financial advice. And then he said, “Ron, when I gather up my audacity to ask experts questions that are going to help me, I want to listen.”

>h5>He listened to my comments, applied those which were applicable to his business model, and apparently developed a budget and business plan that allowed him to generate more profits in the year of COVID than in most any other years. He told me about the fact that he considers the business to be a family environment. Seems to work well, and that if you check out their website, you’ll see an awful lot of pictures involving their employees, all of whom seem to be very happy, well motivated and successful.

I asked him where he got his ideas, and he started laughing, and said “Ron, I bought your book, ‘The Greatest Ideas of the Alarm Industry’s Greatest Thinkers!’ Now, that one stopped me. No, this is not a pitch to sell a book, but if you’re interested in learning more about it just go to our website, graybeardsrus.com. You see, I believe Kurth and I are both big believers in getting ideas from every source from which there is a great idea available.

We then talked a little bit more and I realized that Jamie was getting ideas from me, and I knew I was getting ideas from him. Kind of validates the old expression “if I give you a dollar, and you give me a dollar, all we have done is exchange dollars.” However, if you give me an idea and I give you an idea, we probably have both received an opportunity to continue growing. We wound up the conversation with me telling Kurth the story of the common denominator of success.

“The common denominator of success … the secret of every man who has ever been successful … lies in the fact that he formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do.” And if you’d like to read some more on the subject, I just went to Google and asked for the story behind the common denominator of success.  ere was a history along with a two-page synopsis of the history of the common denominator of success just lying there, kind of like acres of diamonds. You just have to know what a diamond looks like in the unrerefined state.