Invest KOREA

Securing the Premises

ADT Korea protects customers and their assets, the Korean way

The letters “ADT,” the blue octagon. We’ve seen this logo, we know this logo, we’ve come to think this has always been the logo. But it wasn’t - not until ADT Korea stepped in.

For decades, the global electronic security services company ADT had a square logo, the three letters in a blue square. ADT Korea introduced the octagon in the early 2000s because it was representative of its former company, the Korea Security Company, and the new logo went global.

Bradley Buckwalter, the president and regional general manager of ADT Korea, has noticed this is a source of pride here, as his staffers have been known even to arrange their desks in an octagon during meetings. But the logo is more than just a claim to fame. It’s a representation of how ADT Korea works.

“We do a lot of innovation in Korea,” said Buckwalter, who joined the company in 2010.

Comprising three businesses - ADT CAPS, CAPSTEC and ADT Security - ADT Korea has 8,000 employees and is headquartered in Seoul. Its core unit ADT CAPS is a security subscriber business, which means customers pay a monthly fee for security equipment and services. For a higher fee, ADT CAPS insures against all loss. The goal is crime prevention, not intervention.

With 430,000 accounts in Korea, ADT CAPS has experienced double digit growth for the last six years.

“[Security is] getting more and more important in Korea because Korea is becoming a very rich country,” Buckwalter said. “People want to protect their homes, their valuables, their children.”

ADT CAPS offers hundreds of products, including motion detectors, fire/smoke detectors, safety box detectors, fingerprint consoles, panic buttons, black boxes, emergency call services for public areas and video surveillance systems. Its customers run the gamut, from conglomerates to mom-and-pop coffee shops and individual homes.

“We’re everywhere, even I’m amazed,” said Buckwalter, who takes to quipping “small is beautiful” to describe his everyday customers.

ADT CAPS has 3,800 employees, 67 sales branches nationwide and 1,700 patrol guards. To respond quickly in traffic, it has about 400 motorcycles as well.

“In Korea, an hour is too slow. The customer needs you there in five minutes,” Buckwalter said.

With domestic roots dating back more than 40 years, to the Korea Security Company, ADT CAPS has come to know what the Korean consumer wants. The Korea Security Company changed its name in 1998 to CAPS, which was acquired by ADT’s American parent company Tyco International a year later. The company operated under the CAPS brand name until 2008, when the corporate name was changed to ADT CAPS.

The accessibility of high technologies in Korea has helped the company expand its reach. With the prevalence of Internet cameras and wireless technologies domestically, there’s a good chance people will be on camera wherever they go, Buckwalter said. “Because the technology is so advanced and affordable, it acts as a deterrent for the criminals,” he added. “We find from time to time they get very cunning, but we’re adapting our technology as well.”

ADT Pulse, a new product to be released this year, is a good example. The system will let users remotely control the temperature and lights at home, monitor their homes via smartphone and more.

Of course, when it comes to adapting, ADT Korea has succeeded more than just technologically. Buckwalter has found that most Koreans he talks to don’t consider his a foreign company.

“I’m very proud that Koreans consider us a Korean company,” he said.