In dialogue with Ventas de Seguridad, Annie Martínez Ardila talks about her life story and her career in the security industry.
By: Álvaro León Pérez Sepúlveda
Active, resilient and focused on results, Annie Martínez Ardila assumes the responsibility of her leadership with discipline, which has allowed her to understand like few others the importance of safety, as a decisive factor of development for society.
Born in Bogotá, Annie has a degree in Business Administration and is specialized in Management and Finance. In addition, he completed a Senior Management Program in Management and Leadership at the Universidad de los Andes. Currently, he serves as general manager of Security Shops, a renowned Colombian company of integral electronic security solutions, of which he has been the leader for 15 years.
Ventas de Seguridad: What memory do you have, Annie, about your professional beginnings?
Annie Martínez Ardila: I started my working life in service and commercial companies as a security user. Since then, I have had important questions about the problem of security from the user's perspective and also about the scope that security companies should achieve.
VDS: Over the years, how has the company where you currently work evolved?
HOUSEWIFE: Security Shops is an electronic security company that has gone through important challenges, from transforming itself into a monitoring company to becoming an engineering and high-value technological solutions company, based on the needs of customers for the design of its solutions.
VDS: How does a successful executive like you balance work and personal life?
HOUSEWIFE: My priority is my family and I seek to integrate them into every part of my professional life. The time I share with them is what I treasure the most. For this reason, I seek to work on myself constantly to always find my best version in the face of the personal and professional challenges I face.
VDS: How is your family group formed?
HOUSEWIFE: I am the daughter of separated parents, with the fortune of having a mother who was a great example of strength and love. I have been married for 14 years to a great travel companion who supports all my dreams and challenges. I also have a wonderful six-year-old son who I have been able to enjoy at every stage of his life.
VDS: Could you share any memories of your own childhood?
HOUSEWIFE: From my childhood, I remember my mother's efforts to make me happy in the face of many difficulties that life presented us with and how her love made me the human being that I am.
VDS: In addition to sharing with the family, what kind of activities do you do when you are not working?
HOUSEWIFE: I love reading biographies as they inspire and project me, and I enjoy practicing outdoor physical activities, which balance my being. Among the ones I enjoy the most is hiking and running.
VDS: Already in your work: how do you describe, in a few words, your leadership?
HOUSEWIFE: I consider myself to be a leader who achieves goals and objectives. In addition, I have been fortunate to be accompanied by great teams, both in my personal life and in my work life.
VDS: What goals and objectives are you working on now and how do you plan to achieve them?
HOUSEWIFE: In our company we are in the expansion stage in Central America and I believe that being a market with challenges similar to Colombia, we must carry our philosophy of not selling products but of arriving with real solutions that generate value, which is what our customers recognize us for. Also in Colombia, we are looking to continue building the country through our projects in banking, industry, and the Government, without neglecting the most valuable thing we have, which are our collaborators. Not losing that philosophy is part of our greatest challenges.
VDS: And in the personal sphere?
HOUSEWIFE: I believe that looking for my best version, both personally and professionally, leads me to train, connect and work constantly to lead from coherence and example. I have a wonderful family, I am fortunate to have a great team and I know that if I manage to work on myself, that will impact them.
VDS: Speaking of teams, what is your vision of the importance of a good relationship with your employees?
HOUSEWIFE: Security Shops, the company that I have the honor of leading, is a company that has managed to stand out for the quality of its collaborators and also of its leaders. We are firmly convinced that the only way to build a country is when there are opportunities for development within companies, where bets are made to achieve teams with high levels of belonging, whose members see how their work improves their quality of life and contributes to the achievement of their personal dreams.
VDS: What initiatives are taking place in Security Shops to achieve all this?
HOUSEWIFE: In our Company we have several well-being, training and education plans that positively impact our employees and maintain our organizational climate with 98% satisfaction. We are coherent and we seek that our business philosophy is always in line with our actions and that is what our collaborators can talk about.
VDS: What was your reaction to being recognized as Professional of the Month?
HOUSEWIFE: I believe that positioning our company as a totally reliable company has impacted recognition within this market. In addition, being a woman gives me a different vision of the environment and the passion necessary to work for this sector. Finally, business vision helps us to lead our company to think a lot about what our customers expect and not only about generating sales. I believe that this has contributed to recognition in this market.
VDS: How has the security industry changed in Colombia during your time working there?
HOUSEWIFE: As I mentioned initially, my first approach to the security industry was as a user and customer of this segment, and what we found at that time was a unique service that did not focus on needs but on a specific product. Today, security is a value that must generate efficiency, perception, information. In addition, it must be articulated correctly and achieve integrated solutions that cannot ignore the needs of our users. In Colombia we have a market that faces constant challenges, derived from changes in society, and greater articulation is required for technology to achieve the necessary impact on the transformation of cities, companies and industries that we project and that we deserve.
VDS: And at the regional level?
HOUSEWIFE: At the level of Latin America, I believe that the changes are similar to those that occur in our country. However, I believe that the security challenges that Colombia has faced mean that we can make contributions that generate great value in the regional market.
VDS: What are your forecasts and prospects for the future of this industry?
HOUSEWIFE: The great challenge of our industry is to ensure that technology generates real value in the problems of each sector: in banking, mitigating challenges at the level of fraud; at the industrial level, in the contribution to efficiencies in production processes and control of goods; at the level of safe cities and territories, to support not only the improvement of security, but also issues of garbage, road and trade challenges. Without security, it is impossible to generate urban development that has a positive impact on employment, tourism, and quality of life. We need to continue working in our sector to transform our cities.
