by Héctor Gómez Pérez
When Arsen Dernersissian replied that he was born in Armenia, the feeling left to the interlocutor was one of confusion. And it was not for less because this municipality is the capital of the department of Quindío, an area located in the center of Colombia known as the Coffee Axis for its important production of coffee, the drink that par excellence has made this country known to the world. It is not strange that our professional of the month was born in that Colombian region until it is taken into account that most of its inhabitants have surnames such as Restrepo, Gómez and Jaramillo.
And it is that indeed Arsen Dernersissian was born in Armenia in 1957, but the former Soviet country located between Europe and Asia and whose flag (three horizontal red, blue and yellow stripes) coincidentally resembles the Colombian one that is yellow, blue and red. It was a long journey for our Professional of the Month from this small European country to Venezuela, as long as the road that led him to the security industry to occupy his current position: Vice President of Corporate Business of Global Security, CG Security Group.
The New World
Dernersissian arrived in Venezuela at the age of two and describes that situation as "a rather complex experience due to cultural, language and customs differences, but extremely enriching because we took advantage of the best of each culture to combine it and adapt it to the day to day."
When he finished high school our Professional of the Month was attracted to psychology, but eventually turned to study marketing and advertising. At the end of his degree he teamed up with a Chilean and set up an advertising agency with which he worked for 15 years until he finally wanted to rest from the medium and sold his shares.
But it was coincidentally his work as a publicist that in one way or another was taking him to the security industry. While he was at the agency a security company sought his services to manage his account. This initiative was bringing new security clients because they already had a lot of knowledge of the niche, until it became one of the lines of specialization of the agency. At that time the work was developed in the elaboration of advertising campaigns, advertisements in newspapers, magazines and designs of stands for exhibitions and security fairs.
The great leap to the industry was made after leaving the world of advertising and after a meeting with the engineer Carlos Gamero, president of the CG Security Group, at that time Segutronic, a company specialized in electronic security mainly in the banking and corporate sector. At that time Gomero offered Dernersissian to be part of the business area of the company, precisely when they were moving to Miami to promote from there, as a technological distribution center of important brands of world recognition, the Latin American market.
"Clients who had offices in different Latin American countries contacted us to seek regional service, technological approval, high-level after-sales support and personalized attention. With this vision we decided that it was a model to follow to provide technological support directly to the end user, that was how we took the interest and dedicated ourselves to creating the offices of Panama, Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, "said Dernersissian.
From doors to inside
Arsen has been married to Virginia Mazzei for 30 years and from this union were born Michelle, a social communicator and Arsen Germán, who is finishing his computer engineering career. Our guest is a full-time cinephile and enjoys each film identifying its digital effects, performances, scenery and photography. At the same time as the cinema he is also a music aficionado and finds in various genres the perfect company for every occasion; he declares himself a fan of dance, especially tropical music of which Venezuela has been the cradle of important groups such as Los Blancos, La Billos Caracas Boys or Los Melódicos.
The world of security
When talking about the subject Dernersissian is aware that in this industry the company that is not constantly evolving and preparing for continuous technological changes is doomed to disappear; that is why he considers that being updated is part of the dynamics of his work. "To be able to keep up, training in the factories is basic. The United States, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium are the countries where these sources of development are located, directly there, I have the opportunity to know in detail each technological possibility within our area of consultation, with the aim of being able to provide adequate and efficient guidance in each situation, "said Arsen.
In the same way, he referred to the oversupply that there is currently of security products and the purchase decision based on the price that sometimes makes customers take wrong paths. "The multiple offers of the market with equipment of Chinese, American, German, Japanese manufacture, etc., make the saying that 'cheap is expensive' is reaffirmed. On the other hand, technology-based solutions with recognized brands of world quality, tend to be always more economical over time, because in addition to lasting longer, they are more reliable and will work properly even in the most demanding moments and when they are needed. " However, he pointed out that it is hard work to make customers understand that you pay for what you get and added that "the best solutions tailored to the client are neither the cheapest nor the most expensive, but simply those indicated for their needs. I transfer this every day to each of the collaborators, so that they transmit it to the clients".
Latin America, industry and the future
For this professional, although the security industry and technology in this area have always had good economic health, he considers that they are still sensitive to the financial cycle and that for this reason many industries will be forced to request credits in these periods of turmoil. He also considers that at the moment companies have to enhance the differentiating aspects against their competition, in addition to seeking greater savings in production costs and increasing quality as an added value to maintain the growth of the industry that he calculates from 3.5% to 4% depending on the country.
Particularly in the case of Venezuela, Darnersissian considers that in terms of security it has had an accelerated growth, as have many countries in the region. But he pointed out that if technologies have moved at the pace of globalization, crime has also become more technical, offering new challenges to security companies. "Just as security and technology are in a globalized world, crime has also advanced and become more technical, forcing more efficient implementations. Banking is among the most desirable market niches by criminals and this has forced new government regulations, technological updating in shorter periods of time, information protection, greater shielding and automation of processes. All this seeking to increase and extend efficiency, in addition to having greater and better technology that allows upgrades with lower costs."
That same globalization and technification of crime are what have forced measures to be taken such as urban monitoring, monitoring of assets and facilities and the greater registration and access controls to certain facilities.
Keys to success
For Arsen Dernersissian the reasons for his recognition in the security industry in Venezuela and the region were summarized as "the experience in the plurality of Latino markets of both users and technological solutions in the different areas of electronic security". In turn, he pointed out that the success of Global Security, CG Security Group can be summarized in that it is a visionary company, with constant training, with punctual development of the business and approach, with a robust support and service structure and that it is a global company due to its presence in several countries.
"To be an integral manager, you have to have as a premise to be renewing yourself daily in technology, be prepared, manage the concepts and know how to transmit them to your employees. In turn, managing as an integral manager allows you to seek greater efficiency with the least dependence on any human error. Processes should be automated as much as possible, minimizing margins of error and reducing losses or high costs," Arsen said.
Faced with the issue of training, which he considers key in the security industry, the professional of the month said that "it is a long way to go and high demand. Constant training, the use of suitable resources and professional platforms are the key to effective solutions."
Finally, he considered on the subject of convergence between technologies that "large manufacturers today work on developing universal protocols, in order to seek greater use of each technology and thus seek integration between their own equipment and that of other manufacturers."
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