SIW Executive Q&A: Thomas Jensen feels Milestone matches his skill sets

It is a match that even Yente, the matchmaker character in the Broadway hit "Fiddler on the Roof" would approve. Thomas Jensen, a veteran global executive who had been serving as Executive Vice President at Bechtle in Barcelona for the last two years, admits he wasn’t looking for a job when Milestone approached him about becoming their next CEO, but once he had an opportunity to absorb the corporate culture, the leadership style and the long-term growth strategy the organization featured, Jensen realized this was a perfect match for his skill sets.

Jensen promises to maintain the vision and growth path that has propelled Milestone to become a global leader in video surveillance technology and software management, with an eye on strengthening its posture on surveillance and data privacy. His leadership style is foundational, opting to lead shoulder-to-shoulder with an eye on team building rather than eliciting orders from on high. When he accepted the position, he candidly admitted that this was not a career move he viewed as a step upwards since that would indicate it was above something else. He prefers to call it “a step inward” as he steps into the Milestone helm as a co-player.

SecurityInfoWatch.com Editorial Director Steve Lasky had the opportunity to present some questions to Jensen recently about his new job and his goals. Here is that conversation.

SIW: How did your previous experience at HP and Bechtle prepare you for this new role at Milestone?

Jensen: That’s where I learned how the channel works, working at Bechtle and HP gave me a strong insight into what IT partners were looking for from their suppliers. However, I resisted becoming a specialist in IT because I think it’s stronger to be a generalist. I wanted to get a broad understanding of organizations and industries. More important for me, I wanted to understand what motivates people, teams and partner communities. I am a big believer that your success as a leader is the sum of the successes of your team. Working at Bechtle strengthened this belief for me and shaped how I think about organizations. In fact, that’s one of the things that attracts me to Milestone, here the culture aligns with my ideas as a leader.

SIW: What are some of your primary goals as you take on the role of CEO at Milestone? What are some of your short- and long-term goals for the company?

Jensen: I’m a people person, so my first step is to talk with as many people as I can, at all levels in the organization. I want to use the time to really understand how Milestone works. Once I have a good understanding of Milestone, I will start to reach out to our partners and end-customers. I want to listen to them and learn what they want for the future of their businesses and how the Milestone team can help them.

When I look to the longer-term, I would say that’s still work in progress. I don’t want to make the mistake of saying something that might sound good like, “double the business in twenty-four months,” without knowing how we could do that. Instead, I want to understand Milestone’s business and our customers first, then I’ll base my long-term thinking on that.

SIW: What do you see as some of the biggest challenges facing the video surveillance industry and what role will Milestone play in addressing those?

Jensen: Right now, I think the big challenge for everyone is the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, both in terms of its broader economic consequences and the knock-on effect on particular vertical markets. Some other key challenges that I see that are not directly related to COVID-19 are:

• Getting the right skills and expertise for the future. As video surveillance continues to move closer to IT, access to relevant skilled personnel and resources is a growing issue.
• The industry is going through a period of increasing competitive challenges and price pressure. This is pushing hardware prices down, which is positive for some, but negative for others.
• Addressing public concerns over increased surveillance, especially the ways in which private enterprises use video data and maintaining a good level of security within the framework of GDPR.

As for Milestone’s role, of course, I want us to lead innovation. And equally important for me, I want us to role-model the responsible use of technology by respecting the cultural and legal diversity of each region where we do business.

SIW: What kinds of added complexities has the Covid pandemic introduced into the security market?

Jensen: As you know I am new to this business, however, we recently asked some companies from the industry how they were being affected by the COVID pandemic, so I will base my answer on what they told us. One concern is that COVID has reduced growth prospects in some vertical sectors, for example, retail, airports and especially hotels and the travel industry. Plus, budgets and overall investments in video surveillance are constrained, which is putting an increased emphasis on the industry to prove the value it can add.

Limitations on access imposed by COVID have prevented installers from being on-site for installation and maintenance. This is one area where Milestone has tried to help. In March, we launched a special campaign for our Care™ service and support program, partners can sell and install Care through the internet, so they do not have to be on-site. 2020 has been a tough year and I think this has really helped, one of our partners in India sent us this comment: “the Care Campaign was a significant contribution to our business during the difficult Covid19 times.”

SIW: What technological innovations do you believe will have the greatest impact on the video surveillance space over the next 5-10 years? 

Jensen: Video will get smarter, faster, and less expensive; that’s just Moore’s Law at play. In terms of innovation, I think 5G, the cloud and Machine Learning will advance video in novel ways. As we move into the mid-term future, you will see video being integrated into more and more devices, sensors and everyday objects. Milestone is on the lookout for ways to help end-customers use these innovations to optimize their business processes and increase growth as well as protect their assets.

In addition to driving innovation, we have to make sure end-customers are aware of the many new ways they will be able to use these advances in video technology. Of course, sophisticated organizations that do their own research are well aware of the opportunities the future of video technology will bring. However, the majority of companies we spoke with believed that not all end-customers are aware of the many ways you can use even today’s video solutions beyond crime prevention. This tells me that there is a job to do to educate, inform, and encourage all end-customers across our industry.