Why Garrett Chose ASPP

Why Garrett Chose the Active Shooter Prevention Project (ASPP)

Beginning a new relationship is exciting.  Whether it’s a personal relationship or a business relationship, it’s natural to project into the future the paths that the partnership might take.

When Garrett decided to request membership in ASPP, we were at that point where the possibilities seemed endless.  Garrett has been involved in the prevention of active shooter situations since the 1980’s and we were among the very first pioneers to develop technology to address the issue of gun violence in schools.  The mission of “Never Here” resonated deeply with the entire Garrett team, as that concept had been the unspoken motto of our Security Division since its inception.

As the relationship between Garrett and ASPP launched and grew, it became clear that we share more than just a mission; we share values.  And that was a great confirmation of our “fit” and the high degree of like-mindedness that exists between Garrett, the ASPP team, and the ASPP affiliates.

After our last Founder passed away in early 2022, we did some soul-searching as a leadership team to remember, define, and codify the values that made our business successful over five decades.  The resulting study has been captured in what we fondly call Garrett’s Four Pillars.  These principles are both historical and aspirational.  They are intended to be actively applied as strong guiding principles for Garrett, and they resonate with the mission and the character of the ASPP organization and its “Community of Experts”.

Our First Pillar is Authenticity.  Garrett, like ASPP, seeks to be genuine and to act consistently with our values.  This impacts the ways we communicate internally and the ways we explain our products and services to the world.  What you can expect to get from Garrett is truth and transparency.  For example, we’re the ones who will help you understand the real tradeoffs that come from choosing one security technology over another.  We’re not the “smoke and mirror” guys.

The Second Pillar is Care.  Garrett is like ASPP in that we truly care about our customers and their success.  In our security business, this genuine level of care manifests itself in terms of our “Never Here” mission.  We truly believe we have solutions to the Active Shooter problem, and it brings deeper meaning to our work to implement those solutions for our customers.  Creating safe environments with our technology is more than just business to us.

Our Third Pillar is Flow.  This one is more abstract than the others.  The idea here is that our products and services and business processes should all be designed and refined in such a way as to reduce unnecessary friction.  Garrett’s checkpoint security solutions apply technology in ways that enable people to move unimpeded while simultaneously making the identification of potential threats possible.  We believe we have the answers to both problems – smooth operations and effective detection.  Most of our competitors will help you make your operations smooth at the expense of detection.  This point is critically important to us and to the ASPP team, as the Never Here mission cannot be achieved without effective security screening, even for blades and hard-to-detect and disassembled firearms.

The Fourth Pillar is invention.  One thing that is obvious and noteworthy about the ASPP “Wheel of Experts” is that each partner represented there has applied deep thinking and creative problem-solving to the prevention of active shooter tragedies.  Garrett is the same.  Our company was built on the careful development of new products and new technologies that help our customers find what they need to find – both treasures and threats – and our pipeline of ideas and projects has never been more full.  We’re committed to continuing to do the hard development work that makes new security solutions possible.

As we move forward together with ASPP, the Garrett team is “leaning in” and embracing the strong partnership and the strong affiliation that we feel from shared values and shared mission.  We too, are committed to the goal of #NeverHere

Written by:

Steve Novakovich

CEO, Garrett Electronics

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