 Hey, hello, everybody and welcome back to the Think Tech Hawaii studios for the another exciting episode of security matters Today, we have the amazing Rebecca Bain with this from Bain consulting and search She is out of Denver and we're gonna dig into what's kind of flexing in the industry There's a lot of people doing well and a lot of people not doing well And I think things are moving around and Rebecca is one of those people it keeps her finger on the pulse of things So I'm looking forward to an insightful episode here today Rebecca. Thanks for joining me I know you're busy out there, and it's a busy time for all of us in the industry How you how are you and your team doing out there? Our team is doing great Andrew. Thank you so much for having me on your program We're so thankful. We have big open office space So we've been able to work entirely through this thing and thankfully all of our Families are close circles of friends. We're all good Awesome. Awesome. I'm glad to hear that. Well, many of our audience will know you but for those who may not Give us your you know as much of your history as you care to share and kind of bring us up through the Development of Bain consulting and search and you know kind of bring us into the present day and then we'll go from there Okay, I would love to so Bain consulting and search was born from my previous career Working for another company another recruiting firm in the industry SCW consulting I was with SCW consulting for 13 years and after 13 years Approach the owner Tom Berge and asked him if he would be willing to sell me the portion of the business that I'd helped him build which was focused on integration and during that 13 years I focused entirely on security integrators with a team of other people who we all work together and and focused on that space and Tom was willing to do that and it's been a fantastic journey ever since The company was founded on April 1st 2013 so we just had our seventh anniversary. Ah Congratulations, and you I know you've got Three or three or four that you're you're training and you've had some for a while now So how's a how's that development piece going in the I mean we've been through some flux in the industry So how's how's is it a good training opportunity available for them to learn? So I think that recruiting is a challenge. It's never an easy job Lindsay may you has been with me for going on six years at this point and Kelly Latimer has been with me for a little over four Nicole race has almost been with us for three We've had a few others come through here, but really not many It's it's it's typically a thing that you love and you really embrace and you make it a part of your life Because we deal with people's lives every day. Yeah Well, let's get to some of these some points that we talked about a little bit earlier, but the What's what's one of the keys that you think that for the companies that you know that are doing well and companies like yourselves You know what what sort of brought you through? So I would have to say that The the companies that I see they're making it through this time right now Andrew Someone unscathed. I don't think anyone is coming through this without feeling the impact They are companies that had a very very deep connection with their teams and their people Had strong cultures first and foremost so that when Modifications had to happen. Everyone bought into that and those modifications were fair and reasonable I also think that business models had a lot to do with it Hmm company is a good example of that Since you and I do work together. Sure. Yeah, we had um well I know we talked about this this whole idea of positivity and Christine's done a Job here kind of getting information out daily and trying to give it a you know Keep everybody aware of what's going on You know with the local government's position and our clients position on things, but then given it a positive spin So I think that helps, you know with motivation Have you seen other folks sort of just trying to emphasize the the you know the path forward is what we have We have to focus on and we can't you know control a lot of what's happening around us Yes, definitely. I think that one example of a company that I've seen do that They they were always very proactive from the beginning about being vocal with their teams And I think that all of my clients and the integrators that I've spoken with in the past two months Who have done the best again? We're very vocal and transparent about what they were going through and talked about ideas and shared the thoughts on what could Be put forth as options to keep as many people employed So some people voluntarily of course decided to go home and maybe only work part-time schedules, but in some cases companies took 40 hours of PTO and it told everyone please go take 40 hours of PTO and Everyone signed up for that in some cases people took salary cuts across the board some of those companies have already reinstalled those salary cuts and I think that one of the Really more critical things about positivity with companies is that if Teams or specific employees are not comfortable coming back yet Andrew those owners are being very conscientious about not pushing people So there are some people who are dying to get back to the office And there are some who just absolutely don't feel comfortable with it. Yeah Yeah, and I mean, you know the the guidance is unclear, right? I mean, you know contagion's gonna come and go we are kind of all know the future. I think it's kind of scary for some I understand that What about this this generation of folks in our workforce that have never Probably maybe even seen sort of a downtime, you know, it's such a strong growth industry Something like this could be absolute shock if you're early on in your career Maybe you weren't around in 0809 or you know, definitely not in 2000, you know, I've been through a few of those but What do you think about that generation? What can we do to sort of encourage them or help at least? you know Kind of help to understand what they may be going through because it's probably different than some of some of what those of us who survived Some of those things it is I'll share the example of what happened in my own office here. I hope Lindsay's okay with this but Lindsay is my millennial and she Literally at the beginning of this thing was just I think she was Just couldn't believe that something this thing could be happening in our world and he was Just you know like coming in every day with a smile on her face and oh, this isn't that big of a deal And then one day it hit her. She was watching enough news reports were seeing the impact globally and and she was a Bit of an emotional wreck for about a week She just couldn't wrap her head around the thing and she said to me Rebecca even in the last recession I didn't feel that I was just getting out of school. I was you know working at Home Depot Things were different and easier and now she's really seeing the impact on her own family on her mother on her friends And so it was an eye-opener for me to stop and say wow this generation has not gone through this whereas you and I We've gone through three four recessions Maybe and I had to stop and realize how aware I need to be of how she's viewing this I've got a couple of other Employees who are in the next generation older They're a little bit more calm with it because they've seen some other things, but it's different for people based on their age undoubtedly Yeah, the you know the Do you think there's a Sort of a message of consistency that we can share with them about the strength of our industry I mean, you know last time I remember for sure 0809 it was it was interesting We were doing a lot of grant money work for the state But all the other projects that slowed down just came roaring back because security gets like this pent-up demand Yeah, and so the need never goes away. It's just it's kind of a win not an if sort of thing once companies decide to do this Is is you think the younger members of our of our industry can take some comfort in that and in believe in it Or do you think they they're like, I you know, they don't trust us yet Well, I think I think that we've always talked about the fact that security is somewhat recession proof. We're not Impervious to the impacts of that and especially with what's happening here This is a different situation than a recession in the United States. However They're not just hearing that from me and then when we speak to other people in the industry and other young people in the industry They're hearing it from the publications. They're hearing it from the old souls like you and me Talking about what we've been through in the past. And so no, I think that there definitely is some comfort in that Unfortunately in some cases crime goes up in these situations, right? Some clients talking to us about scenarios where they are more needed now than they were before But if a lot of this has yet to be told I had a conversation with Dean Reese at Reese security in Portland and You know, he said because he does a lot of work in the public space They're really not feeling a huge impact right now, but he knows that because public space is funded by taxes That there could be some other kind of impact down the road that we can't foresee right now So we'll see what happens as we move forward 2021. I think it's one day at a time one week at a time one month at a time Yeah, for sure the You know back to this empathy question. Do you have you seen any anybody doing sort of Anything you more a little more unique to help Maybe calm the some of the nerves of some of our workforce because some of this this workforce is young and brilliant And you know, we don't want to lose them right in and you know, they may If if they're not getting You know, if you weren't if an owner was unable to maybe kind of provide for them during these last month or two Or keep them confident They may be thinking about moving on, you know So as have you seen anybody do anything really unique to sort of address that that younger sort of Let's not call them afraid but the group that's concerned for their, you know, their own well-being first maybe a little more Head than the company. They're going through it for the first time Andrew again Some of those younger people so two things In one case I have a client here in Denver SIS Ruben Orr's company and He he said that a few of his younger employees came to him and just said, you know, Ruben This is this is a great opportunity for me to reassess my life I may not walk away from security entirely but right now I want to take a couple of months and I'm going to take a sabbatical and I'm going to go out to Wherever California or wherever and be with my friends my dearest friends And he was supportive to them because You're not you're not going to keep someone by threatening them or not allowing them to do that Those people will probably come back to him eventually another thing that I'm seeing is as far as conferences and Sessions and things that can be beneficial to the younger generation in our industry I'm involved in the rise group through CIA And we have a conference that was supposed to happen in Austin in late July We've the they're they're right now trying to figure out what they're going to do with that conference And if something can be done in a different scenario a different way, maybe virtually There are so many ways that you can reach out to the younger generation and Accelerize and rise in our industry specifically. I think it is going to be very important and probably more impactful now than it's been in the past Yeah, that group is I think over 800 today. It's pretty big. Yes. It's gotten big So I can imagine all of the owners are gonna want to Present if possible, you know or talk to them. I mean what a what a you know Just what a wealth of of young industry knowledge and industry motivation that we are we all know how they're their outlook is You know different and positive and we need those refreshing voices, you know, I've met several of those groups already So there that show may go virtual as well. I Think that right now they have to consider it because I we're not open We're not really open and I don't know about bringing a group of people together Yeah Little plug there one of the most amazing unique approaches to a conference that I've ever attended So we were a plant and sponsor last year. We're gonna sponsor again this year We need that young talent in our industry. Don't we yeah, yeah, it's awesome. Good stuff Well, let's um we're coming up to a good sort of midway point So we have to pay some bills we take about a one minute break We'll let Eric take us to the break and we'll be back in one minute with Rebecca Bain Aloha, I'm John David and the host of history lens on think-tech Hawaii history lens deals with Contemporary events and looks at them through a historical perspective or what we call a history lens The show is streamed live on think-tech Hawaii calm Thanks so much for watching our show. We look forward to seeing you then Mahalo and Aloha Hey, hello everybody and welcome back to security matters We're speaking with Rebecca Bain of Bain consulting and search and we're kind of going through what's flexing in the industry It's a tumultuous time especially if you've never been through it before Rebecca, we were talking about the the rise of the virtual event. You know, it's like um, it's it's I find it more difficult Personally, I mean I'm staring into these boxes. I call them Hollywood squares A lot of people even remember Hollywood that show, you know Hollywood squares But I feel like it's even more intense because you have to really focus on looking at people and It's it's a lot of work. I mean, I think our productivity is up actually I'd say as a result of it Do you think that we can take these virtual conference events and and make them even more productive? I Don't know if we can make them more productive. I think there will be a different kind of impact or benefit that comes from those Andrew, obviously you can do a lot more with Media and Advertising and then putting a message out that way, but I don't think it will ever be the same as being with those people face to face Yeah, a little side note about the amazing increase in requirement for zoom meetings There's there's another company that I work with in Southern California Olivier. They were already a virtual company in many respects In that they all worked from home, right? So Louis Bulgarides the the president there didn't want people to have to commute in Southern California We can understand why and So when this happened, they didn't have to make any modifications or pivot to get people home however suddenly all of their customers wanted to do zoom meetings and Louis said I'm doing more zoom meetings than I've ever done and he said I just finally I had to say hey guys We don't have to always see each other like this So It's a little hot thing. I agree with you But back to the the the concept of conferences I think that I heard recently that Genitech did a very successful virtual conference and I didn't see that but You know with really outstanding Technology and games and all kinds of little virtual rooms and things like that. I don't think it's ever gonna be the same I hope that we're able to get back to being together in person within six months. Sure year Mm-hmm. Could be a while I know that those of us that have been around a while we built relationships We look forward to getting to these conferences and seeing each other and catching up and I mean, I'm missing that myself Although I've seen a lot of people virtually. It's definitely it's not the same and you know from Hawaii You know me I was I hug everybody. Well that that's going away for sure Oh Like I We did play a we played a Jeopardy game and we've done a few things You know just with our team and I mean I do think that the opportunity To leverage a lot of this technology that that maybe we avoided because we were more comfortable Just meeting and shaking hands and doing what we'd always done, you know, I would expect to see a lot more of this sort of Virtual activity maybe even at a booth, you know, where you know, you've got some virtual stuff going on along with the live stuff Sort of a hybrid thing. I can't imagine what it's gonna be like when we come back, but I can't imagine we leave this behind No, I can't imagine either RFI in Northern California Deanne Harn again the president there told me that When she moved a meeting that they were doing twice a week in person To a zoom meeting everyone got more efficient about what they wanted to cover And so now that twice a week meeting has actually gone down to a once a week meeting and It's fine for everyone, but she had to invest a lot of time and effort in giving getting her team Super familiar with and comfortable with the technology because a lot of people have never done this, right? Yeah, we had used teams, but we weren't all that familiar with it, right? So it didn't take long I mean, it's now it's everything and we're now we went the other direction where we we huddled every morning the That's forget what principle that is what we said have a standing huddle 15 minutes So, you know if I need help from ops or ops needs help from sales whatever it could be you get somebody to commit to help and you to solve whatever your issue is, right and so we we've moved that to twice a day virtual, but it's still short and You know, there's nothing remains on the stuck board. That's not kind of waiting on a customer. So you know, I've been happy with that and You know, it's everything's in teams now kind of you know, which is fun I mean, it's a far more functional Tool than then the meetings we used to have in person. I just have to say that, you know, that's been my experience of it What have you heard of other maybe innovative Approaches and anything else that you know comes to mind that other you've seen other companies working on that have been successful and helped I'm kind of get through this or something that grew out of the doing of it virtually Well, the only other thing that I think I would share is that Knowing that there's always a certain team aspect to what security integrators do in the field, right? And and trying to figure out how do you shift? So be effective in the field if you need a team working together and you have to be aware of social distancing and and all of those various aspects I think again addressing it You know, Brian view at BTI said to me, it's we love our work It's not the work that we're losing or that we don't have enough work to do what we're wondering How can we still be as impactful and get as much satisfaction out of this when we're not all together all the time? So they're trying to find ways to do that and Very slowly bringing people back to the office. I I think that there's no magic wand Where we're really going to have to just see how this thing goes True determine what how much more we can do and how much we have to maybe dial things back as we move too quickly Yeah, yeah, I think there'll be a bit of a yo-yo effect for sure Well, let's get into what I think a lot of the viewers really gonna want to know about is what's happening with the workforce So are they? Well, I'm sure it's very you know different spots different things regional things What what can you share with us about your observations of the workforce like today just compared to? You know, maybe this time last year, but definitely, you know two or three months ago Well, I'll be straight up. We lost about 80 percent of the search assignments. We were working on to an on hold status surprisingly None of the searches that we were working on and we work with a myriad of companies from large global integrators to the very small mom-and-pop companies and Nothing was 100% canceled. We have a number of positions though just be put on hold and slowly Those are all being released and they're they're bringing those back active We've been very supportive to our clients at the same time that if they have people who are furloughed That they can shift and put into those roles that they should do that in a number of positions have been filled that way So they can stretch people a little bit further or bring a skill set over to a new role Rather than hire someone from the outside and then have to furlough someone or lay it lay them off for good a Number of our clients are doing that. I will tell you though that we're still filling positions and Companies that are diverse and didn't put all their eggs in one basket in one vertical Are definitely doing the best as our companies that work in the public space state local government and then education of course and Bed gov Yeah, we're very busy with companies that do that sort of work Surprisingly also or maybe not so surprisingly fire related Technologies, which are part of our life safety industry Those all have to be supported. You still have to have companies Protecting their buildings and their people if there are people in there But there's a lot of other property in those facilities that has to be protected by fire technology Mm-hmm fires not going away either it might have slowed down a bit, but it's not going away Yeah, the even construction here They that was an immediate push to keep construction going From the general contractor association from the city the state they in fact Accelerated projects to because that's that's about the only source of income in our economy out here now The rest was altruism Have you heard is that this a similar thing is new construction as far as you know, you know Going forward some states completely locked down construction sites. Oh Wouldn't let anyone on construction sites. I know that that happened in Washington State. It happened in California I Don't know a lot others off the top of my head, but there are some areas where no one was allowed on a construction site I know that in New York City just because of the very nature of The population there and the impact of COVID there was a lot more that went into lockdown there as well But where construction sites could be open projects have continued to move forward Thankfully, yeah Have you heard from owners? Do they do they feel like we'll be Kind of what I alluded to earlier that that that man will be pent up and that we will be doing all these projects It's just kind of built. They're all just kind of delayed. Is that that do you know? Can you resonate with that sort of is of a opinion? Definitely and not just opinion There are some very specific Timelines that have been fed back to integrators with projects that they have were literally the customer just said we're moving that to a start date in August Okay, number whatever the case might be. So there's just a temporary freeze on the project Of course, you know anything can happen between now and then but I don't know that anyone is foreseeing any kind of a major boom I feel like the impact of this is bigger that it's going to be a very slow Revival and then we're just going to be pacing ourselves and Yeah, if people don't get back to working companies don't reopen It's gonna be very slow. I agree that it's not going to go away. It has never gone away Yeah is Are there sectors of our industry that you think won't make it are there integrators who were living? You know, they made their money off hospitality or off, you know, are they gone do you think or have you seen have you heard of companies closing? I mean in Hawaii the security companies by and large are still here, you know, I don't know who all is busy, you know But across the country at what what's your what's that picture look like from your perspective? I don't have any clients I don't know any companies that were 100% dependent on hospitality, but often they were Dependent on hospitality than a near-neighbor industry is often retail, right like that So they definitely have felt the largest impact They're taking in the example from companies like yours and others that have a lot more work with public sector critical infrastructure FedGov and And I'm of course talking to those companies about really trying to open up Themselves to exploring those possibilities as things move forward. There's a lot of work out there for companies that can do that Yeah, I hope um many of them have always been amazed how we tried government all the bureaucracy Ba-ba-ba, but if you if you wade through that you'll find that if you're I think if you're an important part of the national security strategy Then you know when national security is in the spotlight, you're busy, you know, that's kind of what we experienced We've got a minute or so left Share with our audience what what you'd like them to know about going forward and you know, what what you know A little bit of what you folks are going to do going forward The the biggest statement that I'd like to make about how we all go forward holding each other up Andrew is to stay positive one of the most I Don't even know the word to you Pointing things that I've experienced is that as soon as this thing came down People were calling me and everyone was talking about everyone with no real sense of what was true and what was false So please let's be positive. Let's let's look for the good things that companies are doing the wins that we're still all getting Let's hold each other up. Let's share good positive information and We'll make it through this. I we have to be positive. I Agree a hundred percent. Thank you so much for that wisdom. I hope people are listening out there Rebecca, thanks for taking the time to share with us today It was a great interview and I hope I hope I get to see you in person soon. If not, we'll just zoom it up again Okay, thanks Andrew. Take care. Aloha and out there in TV land. Take care. We'll see you soon next Tuesday. Aloha everybody