An Interview with Mark Garver, GEOS Safety Solutions CEO: ‘We Provide Integrated Safety, Security and Response Solutions for Enterprises of all Sizes’

“We monitor everything from people to places and things, anywhere in the world, all from our globally recognized FEMA certified team inside our secure facility in Texas.”

An increased focus to comply with regulations and the need to reduce safety injuries are driving organizations to adopt new strategies and technologies to ensure the safety of people, processes and products.

In light of the above-mentioned scenario, we’re thrilled to present GEOS Safety Solutions.

GEOS is the leading global provider of monitored safety and security solutions for people, places and things. The company’s International Emergency Response Coordination Center (IERCC) has helped coordinate emergency response and rescues in over 160 countries over the past several years.

GEOS was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in Montgomery, Texas.

Mark Garver, GEOS Safety Solutions CEO, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt.

Q. Why was the company set up? And how did you expand your company and its offerings over the years?

GEOS was originally founded to provide travel services to individuals, groups and companies. Then in 2007, GEOS added GEOS Response – Home of the International Emergency Response Coordination Center (IERCC) offering emergency monitoring services of Satellite Emergency Notification Devices (SEND), which grew rapidly into the first ever Global Emergency Monitoring and Response Center. Over the last 11 years, GEOS has experienced explosive growth due to this one-of-a-kind, global monitoring center. GEOS provides the emergency monitoring for virtually all S.E.N.D. units and currently serves over 10 equipment providers, both in the consumer and the corporate markets. Three years into this growth phase, GEOS began providing the back-end 911/112 services for a number of global satellite phones. Today, GEOS provides critical and emergency monitoring around the globe for people, places, and things.

Q. How successful was your first project? Share the experience.

While the original travel safety and security business was strong, it wasn’t experiencing the growth we desired, that is until we started the emergency monitoring and response coordination business, giving us the competitive edge we needed. Being the only player in this market had unique challenges because there was no existing playbook to follow, no metrics to measure against and no examples or advisors to enlist. It was equally scary and rewarding in those early days as we were developing our plans while growing rapidly.

Q. What kind of responses have you received from your consumers over the years? How have they motivated you to shape your offerings/grow the company?

It is incredibly rewarding to be the first in a market and expanding reach and scope, but with it comes new expectations or recommendations from customers and partners. We realized that we needed to form informal focus groups, as well as listen carefully to what our customers were saying, or more importantly wanting. As we began this analysis, it became apparent that there were many good requirements from customers that fit perfectly with our evolving business model and continued to leverage core competencies. So there was no need to do a reboot or start a different endeavor.

Q. “Earning trust and respect of consumers all around the world is through consistent focus on delivering high quality in all of our actions.” How do you interpret this statement?

The customer or consumer is a direct extension of our team. We don’t let other team members down, and we grow with one another and not at the expense of one over the other. Everyone on the team knows that without our customers, we wouldn’t have the great company we have. In our business, we are fortunate to have direct contact with our customers on a very regular basis, and typically when they need us in time of emergency. Excellence in attitude and execution are our guiding principle.

Moreover, we listen to them in all aspects and develop relationships. In our internal mission statement, it says: “Customers are the source of our livelihood. We are committed to their success and will serve them well. The bottom line is we maintain our integrity at all times.

Q. If you have to list five success factors, what would they be and why?

• Attitude of the team leads to great teamwork and success because no one can do it alone
• In a rapidly growing market, even as market leader humility is a good characteristic to have as you deal with customers and partners, without them you don’t succeed.
• Have courage and conviction in the company vision, don’t self-doubt, push forward and simply expect great things.
• Communicate with the team at all levels; make everyone available, you never know where the next great idea will come from. Share the vision, share the strategy, ask for input and don’t pretend to know everything.
• Trust your team; by trusting in each other we build confidence, we adjust to each other’s strength and weaknesses and become more successful because of the team.

Q. Do you have any new products ready to be to be launched?

We have just launched several travel safety programs and products to support them, and we are happy to announce that we have added several key technologies from new partners to our list of available options for our customers.

Q. Where do you see your company a couple of years from now?

As we continue to expand our core service offering, and staying true to our vision, we are making several key investments in the Internet of Things (IoT) market, primarily in space-based (Satellite) IoT and Machine-to-machine (M2M) technologies.

Mark Garver: A Brief Background

Mark Garver has been key to the success, growth and direction of GEOS since 2007. He oversees all aspects of the company and defines the strategy. Mr. Garver has served in senior management roles, with a number of high-tech companies to include VP/GM at Ascend Communications, VP/GM at Dell and numerous other companies, including several startups, such as Tricord Systems. He has a proven track record of developing companies that provide new products and services into either non-existent markets, or markets that are underserved by the companies currently in them.

“We offer the most complete, certified and compliant asset safety and assurance solutions to over 500,000 clients today. Our focus is on the global delivery of best-in-class safety and security solutions for people, places, and things.”