ExecutiveBiz Interviews Tracy Graves-Stevens, President of MSM Security Services

ExecutiveBiz recently had the pleasure of speaking with Tracy Graves-Stevens, President of MSM Security Services.  We discussed the future of MSM, the impact of the economic downturn on MSM’s long-term planning, MSM’s growth targets, and her management style.

ExecutiveBiz:  How was MSM Security Services founded?

Tracy Graves-Stevens:  MSM Security Services is a company that has been in business for over thirty years.  It was founded as a company targeted towards helping the government meet their national security missions as it relates to background vetting for employment services.  Primarily, our customers have been in the Defense and Intelligence communities.

ExecutiveBiz:  What is your ratio of government to commercial clients?

Tracy Graves-Stevens:  We are pretty much 100% government services.

“I am passionate about people.  It’s the reason I am in the job that I have.  I love to nurture people.  I love to see people bring their best to the table, to test boundaries maybe they would have avoided before.” -Tracy Graves-Stevens

ExecutiveBiz:  Who are your biggest clients?

Tracy Graves-Stevens:  We are evenly split between the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security.  We actually have two contracts within DHS supporting customs and border protection as well as immigration and customs enforcement.

ExecutiveBiz:  What are your core competencies at MSM Security?

Tracy Graves-Stevens:  Even though we’ve been around for a long time interestingly, our primary focus has been supporting personnel security and background investigations the entire time.  Our saying here is “we find the bad guy before our customers do”.  The company was actually acquired by a larger contractor in 2003 and we were divested in 2007; so we’ve gone from small to big to small again.  Our strategy for the last three years has been re-forming the company to not only offer security services but also to offer security solutions.  We have a practice here that is primarily focused on doing the background investigations and the security vetting for applicants and  contractors but we also have a small Security Solutions practice that we are growing to analyze and address computer and network vulnerabilities.  I know that cyber security is the popular phrase that everybody is using now, but we have very real talent in-house and within our partner base to be able to go out and help our customers protect their missions.

ExecutiveBiz:  How does MSM Security Services keep growing in this difficult economic climate?

Tracy Graves-Stevens:  We have a very unique offering in background investigative services.  Because we’ve been in business so long, we have an advantage over newcomers as this industry has a tremendous barrier to entry in terms of the investment and infrastructure to be able to do what we do.  There are a handful of companies that do the kind of work that we do but one of the things that we have found is you have to continually provide your customers with a good product, timely service, and to be responsive to their needs as their requirements are changing.

ExecutiveBiz:  What will MSM Security Services look like three years from now?

Tracy Graves-Stevens:  Our primary mission is, and I know this sounds kind of corny, securing the homeland.  That is a personal passion that I share with all of the folks that work here and the entire management team. We’ve been a government contractor for a long time and we take our mission very seriously.  It’s not really sexy work but it’s a very important job that we do to make sure we assist in filtering out the folks that shouldn’t be in the security clearance pipeline.  In three years I’d like to this portion of the business to continue to flourish and grow, but I’d also like to see a complimentary practice where we take some of our risk mitigation and fraud investigations experience as well as IT security solutions into other areas like healthcare.  Healthcare IT is a target area that we are looking into because we think we bring some understanding to the larger reform issues of fraud management and compliance.

ExecutiveBiz:  How would you describe your management style?

Tracy Graves-Stevens:  The phrase I use here is “democratic feedback with dictatorial execution”.  We really try to empower the employees because we trust them.  We have very experienced professionals within the company and they utilize their experience when making decisions and responding to problems.  I like to provide opportunities for feedback because I and my Corporate VP, Eric Crowe, don’t believe we have all the answers.  Once we’ve made a decision then we pick up the ball and we start running down the field.  That’s when the democratic agreement turns into action.

ExecutiveBiz:  What are you most passionate about?

Tracy Graves-Stevens:  I am passionate about people.  It’s the reason I am in the job that I have.  I love to nurture people.  I love to see people bring their best to the table, to test boundaries maybe they would have avoided before.  I am also a Minister and these areas are very related areas for me; my professional life and my personal life in the sense that I love to see people grow and develop in general.

ExecutiveBiz:  What is something most people don’t know about you?

Tracy Graves-Stevens:  One thing that is sometimes a downfall in executive management is that people can’t always see the vulnerable side of you because of your leadership role.  I really do look at the role that I play as a servant leadership position as I feel I’m here to lift and guide the organization or the individual, much like my ministerial role –  I consider myself a steward of the areas under my care.  I really care tremendously for people and maintain a stewardship mentality for everything that I do in life.

Posted by Staff Writer on Monday, September 21st, 2009. Filed under Executive Spotlight. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry