Speaker 1:
From the library of the New York Stock Exchange at the corner of Wall and Broad Streets in New York City, you're inside the ICE House. Our podcast from Intercontinental Exchange on markets, leadership and vision and global business, the dream drivers that have made the NYSE an indispensable institution of global growth for over 225 years. Each week we feature stories of those who hatch plans, create jobs, and harness the engine of capitalism. Right here, right now at the NYSE and at ICE's exchanges and clearinghouses around the world. And now welcome inside the ICE House, here's your host, Josh King of Intercontinental Exchange.
Josh King:
In the last episode, BlackBerry's CEO John Chen talked about the convergence. He coined the term to describe a future where his company's two buckets, cybersecurity and what he called the enterprise of things become one. As John explained, his job was to keep both segments of the company growing until the time came that the two would become one business.
Now, our topic today begins with a divergence of a business all the way back in the 1870s when Edward Calahan used a communication technology to invent devices that spawned different types of businesses. Our listeners should be familiar with the stock ticker, which he invented in 1867 for the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company. That device allowed one source to transmit the same information out to thousands of devices around the world to guarantee accurate dissemination of trading data.
Now, the technology revolutionized the markets and connected our trading floor to the globe. It led to the creation of the short acronyms still used today to identify what stock happens to be trading. Today, companies like Ice Intercontinental Exchange, that's ticker symbol I-C-E or ICE, continue to evolve how market data is captured, used and delivered.
Now, in the 1870s, Edward Calahan came up with what he named a call box. The idea came after hearing about the robbery of a friend while inside his own home. The device allowed subscribers to turn the technology around from how he had used it with the ticker. This meant that thousands of devices could send their own signal to the other boxes on the circuit. That would alert the neighborhood, first responders, and others that some danger existed. Our guest today, Jim DeVries, is the CEO of ADT, one of the earliest companies to leverage the technology to form a residential and commercial security alarm company.
ADT founded in 1874, as the American District Telegraph Company. Over its history, the company has listed on the NYSE on four separate occasions, the first in January of 1892, and the most recent in January of 2018. Throughout that time, ADT's continued to evolve to best fulfill its mission to, as it says, "Help our customers protect and connect to what matters most--their families, homes, and businesses."
Our conversation with ADT's CEO Jim DeVries on the longevity and future of that blue octagon, how ADT is combining technology with its infrastructure to meet customer needs, and why the company's future is sunny, robotic, and full of partnerships. That's all coming up right after this.
Speaker 3:
And now a word from Genpact, NYSE ticker G.
Speaker 4:
We are currently encountering delivery delays.
Speaker 5:
Genpact is transforming supply chains using real-time data to help manufacturers keep goods flowing from the warehouse, so cupboards are never bare at their house. We are in the relentless pursuit of a world that works better for people.
Josh King:
Our guest today, Jim DeVries is President and CEO of ADT. That's NYSE ticker symbol, ADT. You got it. He joined the company in 2016, and served as its CEO before being named CEO in 2018. He joined ADT from Allstate Insurance Company, that's our ticker symbol, ALL, and serves on the board of ABM, which you can probably guess trades under the ticker symbol ABM. Welcome Jim, inside the ICE House.
Jim DeVries:
Thank you very much. Glad to be here.
Josh King:
So, as two companies that can be traced back for centuries, the New York Stock Exchange and ADT, they both deal with this double-edged sword of being a trust stalwart in an industry that's been completely remade by technology. Before we get into how you are transforming the company, what does ADT's brand and lineage mean to customers and employees? There's still that immense value in that blue sign on the lawn or stuck to a window, right?
Jim DeVries:
It's incredible. It's iconic, isn't it? The blue octagon. We have 98% brand awareness. ADT is to security and smart home, I think, what Kleenex is to tissue, the best known brand. I think most customers would have a hard time even naming another brand in the space. Internal, the brand really stands for a promise to protect customers, a promise to help drive safety. I think it's representative of a feeling internal to ADT employees that's something akin to the way first responders feel, a mission of sorts to make the world a safer place.
Josh King:
What do you attribute that resonance to? I mean, you grab a can of Coca-Cola, bottle of Coca-Cola, you recognize that logo. I had a home in Hartford, Connecticut, beautiful green lawn, ADT octagon on the lawn, ADT sticker on the window. There's something about the act for any mom or dad or kid coming home, and the emotional feeling one has when you approach your door and is met as well by that blue octagon against the green lawn or on that pane of glass as you walk in. Have you tried to measure the psychology of what's going on?
Jim DeVries:
It's tough to measure. I will tell you anecdotally, every single day we have an opportunity to save somebody's life, save somebody's property. We do these events that are called LifeSaver events where our internal communications team and the person who interacted with the first responder, the ADT employee who responded to the alarm condition, meet the customer. They fly to whatever city it's in, the event took place and they have an opportunity to interact with the customer and the first responders. It's something special.
I said this just a moment ago. I think that so seldom in business is there a mission that is as true, as authentic as the ADT mission. We have an opportunity to grow a company and do well by doing good in the most sincere sort of legitimate sense. These LifeSaver events that we have in cities across the country every single week help to underscore and communicate in a very real way what that experience is like to help save somebody's life.
Josh King:
Is this your first trip back to the building since that 2018 IPO? You and I were talking a little bit before we started the recorders rolling about the decision that you faced coming out of private equity to come here, go someplace else. But there's nothing like this place.
Jim DeVries:
There's nothing like this place. It wasn't really a choice. New York Stock Exchange is so historic, Josh, I came in this morning, had an opportunity to go on the floor. Five years went fast. It was January of '18 when we IPO'd, but this is only my second time here. You know, goose pimples, the bell rings, it's an amazing, amazing experience. Amazing place, incredible history.
Josh King:
You mentioned 2018. Our memories of 2018 have to be clouded by the markets that we've experienced during COVID in 2020 and now as up and down as 2022 has been. But let's listen to a report live from the floor on that last day of trading of 2018.
Speaker 7:
Good morning, Pamela. That's right. This is going to be the worst December, we're on track for the worst December since 1931, Pamela. The market at this point would have to rally another 600 points to avoid that record low. But bigger picture here, there is optimism on the floor this morning because of a possible trade deal or the president talking up a possible trade deal between the US and China. But listen, for the year, the markets have just been abysmal. The S&P is down 7%. The DOW, 6.7%. And to a certain extent this was bound to happen-
Josh King:
So, sort of posttraumatic stress, I suppose. But I was talking to you earlier about how First Data, where I had worked, we went public in 2015, in another crummy market. But did that year that you and your team experienced in 2018 prepare you for what 2020 was going to be like?
Jim DeVries:
I think that any crisis, any tough period, a journey that involves challenges helps prepare you for the next journey of challenges. There weren't a great deal of parallels between the market conditions and 2020 and the pandemic, but I do think that working through tough times helps the character and helps build a resolve for the next tough time.
Josh King:
In happier memories from that year, 2018. Jim, I was looking back at the images from the IPO and you're standing on the bell podium right next to your predecessor, Tim Whall, cheering the market's opening. Did you feel ready to take on the CEO role at that point you're standing above the floor?
Jim DeVries:
So, when I was standing above the floor, I was the COO. It was about 11 months later that I took on the CEO role. The CEO position... I've reported to CEOs for the last 20 years of my career and becoming a CEO, if you don't come in with a little trepidation, if you don't come into this job with a little bit of fear, a little bit of respect for the role, you're not paying attention. I think that entering my fifth year here soon, it's a far different CEO experience than year one. But year one, I do, I think you have to enter the position with a deference to the power of the role with a respect for what the corner office can do positively and negatively.
Josh King:
I mean, you mentioned having worked as a COO to CEOs and we're going to get a little more into the career in a minute. But even growing up, were there leadership role models and experiences that you had that sort of thought about eventually when you had the corner office how you would perform? I mean, whether it was your siblings or your parents or friends, wherever you were?
Jim DeVries:
Yeah, Josh, I think that in many respects, leadership starts very young. There's a side of me that believes that my parents were preparing me for the role when I was in kindergarten.
Josh King:
What were they doing?
Jim DeVries:
Instilling confidence, encouragement. I thought as a young kid that if I chose to go play for the Chicago Bulls, I could. If I chose to go to law school and be the best lawyer, I could. If I opted to get into politics, the sky's the limit. If I chose business, that would be fantastic. I didn't know upper limits. I think that the confidence that was instilled early serves one well. I'd also say I'm a maniacal sports fan, played team sports my entire life. I think there's something about sport and competition and leadership that coalesces to help form and develop business leaders.
Josh King:
Talking about business leaders. Jim, you joined ADT after it had been taken private by Apollo Global Management in 2016, following this really tumultuous half decade where ADT's parent company acquired Broadview Security, merged the two and then sort of spun it out as the world's largest security company. On paper, if you looked at it back then, ADT was this large public company with 80% of recurring revenue, but what was happening beneath the surface?
Jim DeVries:
The organization in the early days, so May of '16 is when I joined, and right prior to that the company had been taken private by Apollo. In the early days, Josh, it was all about shoring up the operation. The business was growing, but customer attrition was higher than ideal. The customers were coming in the front door and leaving out the back door. So those first couple of years were all about driving improvement to the customer experience, really shoring up our operations, full hands on deck.
In many respects, it was about going slow so we could eventually go fast. Before we pivoted toward more of a growth mode, the imperative before us was to improve operations. 18 months or so, two years in, we were able to do that. Fantastic team effort from a lot of very smart, very talented people. And after those operating challenges were corrected, it allowed us to focus more on discipline and growth.
Josh King:
I mean, talking about the customer experience, Jim. If you're like me, you listen to a lot of podcasts, inevitably you hear a live read for this company called SimpliSafe. But in recent years a number of startups like SimpliSafe, to large communications companies like Comcast, have been pushing into your yard, so to speak, from opposite sides of the yard. How does Google's partnership and investment in the company help you compete with both of those challenges?
Jim DeVries:
There are broadly two segments in this space. One is, do it for me, professional installation, which tends to be our bread and butter and DIY, which is the focus of a company like SimpliSafe. If you did a Venn diagram, there's some overlap between the two, but generally speaking, the customers for DIFM are different than the customers for DIY. So that's where our focus has been, professional install. Again, we're in the DIY business, but the overriding majority of our customers are do it for me customers. These are customers with a little more sophisticated needs. They're very often homeowners versus renters. They're very often a little older, sometimes less tech savvy than a DIY customer. And that has been the area of our focus.
The Google relationship, what a great partner. A couple of years ago we secured an equity investment. Google owned 6, 6.1% of our company. We signed a nine year commercial deal and it's a deep partnership, Josh. Our engineers are working with their engineers every day. Our marketing folks and their marketing folks are working together. We're partnered at the executive level. We're going to market as ADT+ Google. We'll be going to market in a co-branded way beginning in 2023.
Josh King:
I mean, to give you a sense, Jim, of the kind of tech nerd that I am. I'm an owner and purchaser of still working Dropcam devices and Nest devices before they were acquired by Google. So I understand how your home gets connected to the IoT. I've got my phone and I can start to scan my upstate property and the way my dog is spending the day using the Nest cam. I can put on the heat in the morning upstate because it's going to be frosty up there tonight and I want it to be nice and toasty. But how does security sort of finish that job?
Jim DeVries:
More and more, ADT is evolving to become a smart home company. On average, we're installing more and more devices. So the historical roots are in intrusion, burglars, preventing theft, and increasingly we're shifting from not just protection, but to connection. So now, more and more we install lights and locks and door controls and video doorbells and cameras. There's been a renaissance in video and camera technology. A little north of 50% of our customers at the time that we install a new smart home system, get a video doorbell.
The average number of cameras in a home today is now 1.5. There's been a proliferation of outdoor cameras. Just here recently, we've started selling the Google indoor and outdoor cameras. The Google video doorbell, it's just serving us really, really well. Customer experience is fantastic. That larger smart home system is where the company is headed.
Josh King:
Despite the Google partnership and your leadership after decades of leading its own innovation and design for hardware, I wanted you to talk a little bit about your vision for ADT+ and the progress that you've made with what you're calling SpeedRacer.
Jim DeVries:
Not unimportantly, I contributed to the vision, but there are a couple of folks on our team, our COO, Don Young, our Chief Technology Officer, Raya Sevilla. They are really the architects behind ADT+. We had outsourced the software platform that controls the hardware in the home.
You were talking about using your phone to control your temperature. That software on your phone we had outsourced. We, a couple of years ago, made the decision to insource it. We are working closely with Google, so that we have deep integration with Google products. So you could do everything for your Nest thermostat on ADT+ that you could do via Google Home. Same thing when it comes to cameras, indoor and outdoor cameras.
So, ADT+ really allows for a completely integrated experience. You can control temperature, you can arm and disarm your security system, you can look at your cameras, you can turn off your lights, put your garage door down. Everything is embedded in a single control system that really makes for a more convenient experience for the customer.
Josh King:
So despite the lure that all of us have, Jim, of going on our computers and our phones and surfing new products to buy wherever we're going to be buying things online. There's that lure to the tactile experience, to actually see the packaging, or see the display. And in that way, I can't beat a visit to Best Buy to just see the way things actually look and feel. If I were to visit ADT's Innovation home in Boca Raton, what would I see and how would that inspire me for my next purchase?
Jim DeVries:
Oh, it's so much fun. I've been to our innovation labs. We're testing the next generation of security, the next generation of connected home every single day. Google's a critical partner for us. They have their own highly competent research, obviously, and development. But the products that we use span a number of partners. Everything from next generation smoke and carbon detection to more effective water detection, shutoff valve leak detection. It's a testing lab focused on what comes next.
Josh King:
All these detections, and I'm sure this is not unique to ADT. But in the various security systems that I've had, one of those most nerve-wracking moments, especially when you're away and you can't see what's happening perhaps with more antiquated systems, is your phone starts going off. Your text starts going off. You get the local police department calling and they're dispatching a cruiser to your house and you don't exactly know what's going on. It's some sort of an alarm and 20 minutes later the officer that has had to spend their time going to your place calls you and says, "Eh, it's a false alarm. Nothing there." What's the future of false alarms in this business?
Jim DeVries:
There's a lot of work that we're doing to improve the fidelity of the alarm. False alarms are a problem in the industry. Think about it this way, at the convergence of data and video technology and all of the traditional hardware that's installed to help protect the customer's home. Using all of those levers to create a higher fidelity alarm, an alarm that can be prioritized for the first responder, for the police officer, is where we're headed.
I'll give you an example. Today, if you arm your system and the door is ajar, there's an alarm condition. We call you, you don't answer. We call the people on your call list, they don't answer. We dispatch the police.
In the future, you could envision a world where the alarm is armed, the door is ajar. That's alarm condition number one. Then we have the motion detector in the hallway. That's alarm condition number two. Perhaps the intruder walks into the kitchen, the camera recognizes that this is somebody who is not a familiar face. This is somebody who has not been in this home before. That's alarm condition number three.
Then we use those conditions, we use that information and intersect it with the data. What time of day is it? When was the system last armed? Perhaps, what's the weather in the area? And take all of that information, build it into an algorithm, and then score that alarm condition so that we have a prioritization of the fidelity of the alarm and send that to the police so that they can respond with higher urgency to a higher fidelity condition.
Josh King:
So Jim, you are a customer obviously, as well as the CEO. How do you use your own experience and concerns about having AI and cameras in your house to make informed decisions on how technology should be deployed and marketed? I mean, I'm going there full speed. I've had Nest cams, Dropcams, in the house for a long time. My wife, not a big fan.
Jim DeVries:
My North Star when it comes to privacy is that it is about customer choice. Customer opt-in. If a customer is uneasy about video technology, and that tends to be the area where folks are most concerned about privacy. It's not the door and window contacts, it's not the motion detector. Generally, not the video doorbell because that's external facing.
The video technology, if that information is to be used and how that information is to be used, I think, it's imperative on the company, on any company, and will be imperative at ADT that it's explicit customer opt-in.
If a customer chooses to have different privacy standards, then we honor that. If a customer chooses to use their video technology in a different way, our perspective is, it's the customer's data. We need to be very clear on privacy standards, but the North Star for us is customer choice.
Josh King:
Customer choice. After the break, Jim DeVries, CEO of ADT and I are going to discuss how the company's reaching into new segments and how a big investment from a good neighbor can help transform the company. That's all coming up right after this.
Speaker 8:
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Josh King:
Welcome back. Before the break, I was talking to Jim DeVries, CEO of ADT, about bringing ADT back to the public market and his ongoing transformation of this 150-year-old business. Now we're going to hone in on some of the leadership aspects of the role applicable, really, to CEOs everywhere.
I read that you don't just know your company's offering and direct your thousands of technicians in the field. You're known to throw on the uniform and answer an installation call once in a while. What do those Undercover Boss inspired days teach you about your customers and your employees?
Jim DeVries:
I couldn't be prouder to lead the 22,000 employees at ADT. I had shared with you earlier, Josh, this common mission that I think many of our employees feel around protecting their fellow citizens. When you're out in the field interacting with our field technicians, our service techs, our installation techs, our call centers, that frontline experience makes it all real for you. Just how important it is what we do every day.
I haven't had on the uniform, so it's not been quite as undercover as that. One of the most enjoyable experiences, one of the most enjoyable opportunities in this job is to get out in the field and talk to our first line and get a measure for how they're doing.
Josh King:
So we covered a lot of the things for which you are so widely recognized and brand is so much a part of people's lives. The octagon on the lawn and the window, and increasingly the work that gets you more into home innovation and Internet of things. The partnership with Google and stuff that we were talking about in the first half of the program, but I was not aware of ADT Solar. What is the current solar offering and how does it fit with the vision for the company?
Jim DeVries:
About a year ago, we acquired a company called Sunpro. The company is in the residential rooftop solar space. We're excited about that space. There is incredible growth in solar. The investment thesis was, if customers trust ADT for smart home, will they trust us for smart energy? We did a bunch of research, talked to thousands of people, both customers and non-customers, and concluded that we would be able to leverage our brand. That ADT Solar would do well in the marketplace. That we had brand permission to play in solar.
Josh King:
Mm-hmm. Definitely.
Jim DeVries:
A second thesis was, will we be able to cross-sell solar to our smart home customers? The existing five, five and a half million customers, and the give or take, one million new subscribers that we'll add over the next 12 months. Our conclusion early on is that we'll be able to do so.
So there's a lot to be excited about in the marketplace. An additional tailwind is the Inflation Reduction Act that has some incredible incentives for customers to adopt solar. We think that it's going to be a big growth opportunity for us.
Josh King:
So whether it's the equipment that goes into the panel that's being installed in the roof or the microchip in any of the devices that are professionally installed or do it yourself, you are heavily dependent, I imagine, Jim, on the supply chain. How have you been managing through the last 12 to 18 months and the real critical supply chain constraints that we've been facing?
Jim DeVries:
It's hand-to-hand combat in supply chain every single day. It's been a challenge for us. We have a couple of fantastic partners in our core residential smart home business. Google's been terrific. There's a company named Resideo where we buy a lot of equipment from. They have been stalwart. We have a great internal supply chain organization and so generally speaking, we've been able to manage through it, both in solar and in residential.
Josh, we have a commercial business as well. Fire systems, sprinklers, card access, video, and big integrated systems. It's about a billion dollar business. Growing well, best leadership team on the planet. That business has been challenged from a parts perspective, from a supply chain perspective. We're at a record backlog, not because we want to be, but because of parts availability.
So it's a slog. Slowly but surely we're working our way through it. As I said, on the residential side of the business, it's gone just fine. On commercial, we've got some challenges.
Josh King:
It's a slog, Jim, but even that isn't the number one issue that may be on the minds of Wall Street analysts. At your last earnings call, the question they asked you about, you mentioned the number of employees under you was about labor. Back in 2008, your work with Principal Financial Group was highlighted for its impact on the company's ability to attract and retain employees, particularly women. How have you been able to lean on your early career experience in human resources to manage this tight labor market?
Jim DeVries:
I grew up in human resources. I'm an HR guy, and in many respects, always will be. I am continually amazed how seldom HR is the avenue to a CEO role, despite the fact that the CEO role is about people leadership. No better function to learn about people leadership and development and attraction and retention and motivation and org dynamics, or development and training, than the HR function. I grew up in HR some number of years ago, started to expand outside of HR in other functions, in the operating functions at Allstate, eventually the COO role at ADT and the last four years in this role.
We've done a pretty good job as a team around attraction and retention. Our average tenure for our service technicians is about 10 years. Installation, installers is a little north of six years. We've weathered the storm well. I think we have a great employee value proposition, good compensation, good leadership, a good benefits package. So far, so good on the employee front.
Josh King:
You mentioned your commercial business, I want to hone in on that a little bit. It's working on a way to help your commercial customers with their labor shortage. I want to hear, Mike Lavway, who runs your innovation lab in Irvine, California?
Mike Lavway:
So the robot is, today the prototype is about six feet tall, 180 pounds. It can wheel around. When it's in avatar mode, it has fully articulating arms. It can bend down, crouch down, pick things up, drive around in VR mode and actually engage with its environment. So it's not only... It can hear its environment, it can see its environment, but it actually gets to interact with its environment in real time.
Josh King:
Mike says it's a prototype. But has ADT deployed a robot workforce anywhere and what would you call ADT's intelligent autonomous guarding solutions? What's it going to be able to do?
Jim DeVries:
So it's early in the game. We're doing a lot of work in innovation in our commercial business. Robots, humanoid robots is probably on the top of the list. We're out there in the wild. We're in-market in a handful of test locations and so far so good.
It's a significant disruptor, the robot to the man guard business. Historically, I don't think the technology was quite ready, but increasingly it is. You heard the comments about the effectiveness and controls and technology that is available today in robots. So we'll see. We're watching it closely and as I said, I think we're in about 10 customer locations. It's a test and learn environment. We'll see how it goes and stay tuned. Another area is indoor and outdoor drones and the use of drones to help surveillance and protect customers in a cost-effective way.
There're some parallels to robot usage. Those two areas, drones, indoor outdoor and humanoid robots are two areas that the commercial team is focused on from a disruption and innovation perspective.
Josh King:
Another big area for drones, of course, is what they're doing with the insurance industry, the ability to adjust after disasters. To fly them over disaster sites in a way that you couldn't get a human adjuster in nearly as quickly or as efficiently as you can a visual from above.
I mentioned my first ADT system in the home that I was living in Hartford, Connecticut, obviously the home of insurance. I started at that point at The Hartford Financial Services Group, a competitor of where you were working at one point in terms of Allstate. In September, State Farm has made a significant investment in ADT. Has your background in insurance helped you to work with the State Farm team and how did that first board meeting go with the State Farm COO Paul Smith in the seat.
Jim DeVries:
State Farm is a fantastic partner. We started talking to State Farm about 10 months ago, or so. The vision of combining our assets is around really transforming home insurance. Home insurance historically has been reactive. When there's a loss, when there's a peril, the company is there, in State Farm's case, to help restore your life, to help put things back together.
What we envision now is more of a circle of protection where ADT products and services are there proactively to prevent loss, water mitigation, leak detection, smoke and carbon intrusion. In the event that a peril still occurs, in the event that there's still a claim, then State Farm is there to help put your life back together.
So we're excited about the partnership. State Farm now owns 15% of our company. Our first board meeting with Paul Smith present was yesterday. It was fantastic. It's going to be great to have him in the boardroom, not just as the designee from State Farm, but as a just incredibly accomplished executive to have on our board and help make ADT better.
Josh King:
As we wrap up, Jim, we've been talking mostly about ADT's home offerings, some of the commercial offerings, but how are you taking the company really outside the home with partnerships with companies like Ford and Uber?
Jim DeVries:
I'm excited about mobile safety. So this is using the phone, using the GPS on the phone, precision GPS, to provide for safety on the go. So we can protect you wherever you are.
In some ways, Josh, it's sort of a three-legged stool because we provide smart home, protect and connect in the home through our relationship and partnership with Ford, the JV called Canopy. We're going to be able to provide safety while in the vehicle and for the vehicle. Then we have our mobile safety products with partners like Lyft and Uber and Instacart and invisaWear where we protect somebody on the go. So, all three of those can be combined.
We were talking a little bit earlier about ADT+. I see a future, and it's not tomorrow if it's going to take more than a minute to develop, but I see a future where ADT+ provides the software platform for all of the devices in the home and in the car and for mobile safety, integrated into one helpful, easy to use platform for the customer.
Josh King:
That's your vision for the future, Jim. As you look to the very near future, you said a few months ago, I'm going to quote you, "To the extent that a recession comes with crime or the perception that crime's increasing, that's terrible for society. For our business, it's also a catalyst for demand." Are you seeing any changes? And are you concerned that maybe with a recession or rising interest rates slowing home purchases will offset that uptick in demand that you're seeing?
Jim DeVries:
There are a few significant macro tailwinds for the business, demand catalysts. Smart home adoption's on the top of the list. Deurbanization is a factor that's helping. Another for sure, is the extent that crime is on everybody's mind. That too serves as a catalyst for us.
In terms of the offset, Josh, when you net the opportunities available for us in a recessionary environment, fewer relocations means lower customer attrition. The fact that not a great deal of our new ads are via home builds, the net of it is positive for ADT and positive in a pretty significant way.
Josh King:
So Jim, next year, 2023 marks the fifth anniversary of that IPO. Can we get you and your team and some of your customers to come back and ring that opening bell?
Jim DeVries:
Count us in. Count us in. I'd mentioned this when you and I first started chatting this morning, Josh, what an experience here. Goosebumps, love to get the team here. Such a special place.
Josh King:
Well, let's plan on it. Next year.
Jim DeVries:
It's a deal. Thank you.
Josh King:
Thanks very much for joining us inside the ICE House.
Jim DeVries:
Thank you.
Josh King:
That's our conversation for this week. Our guest was Jim DeVries, President and CEO of ADT. That is NYSE ticker symbol, ADT.
If you like what you heard, please rate us on iTunes so other folks know where to find us. If you've got a comment or a question you'd like one of our experts to tackle on a future show, or there's a CEO of an NYSE listed company that you want to learn more about from, like Jim DeVries of ADT, email us at [email protected] or tweet us at ICE House podcast. Our show is produced by Pete Ash with production assistance from Ian Wolf. I'm Josh King, your host, signing off from the library of the New York Stock Exchange. Thanks for listening. Talk to you next week.
Speaker 1:
Information contained in this podcast was obtained in part from publicly available sources and not independently verified. Neither ICE nor its affiliates make any representations or warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the information and do not sponsor, approve or endorse any of the content herein.
All of which is presented solely for informational and educational purposes. Nothing herein constitutes an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy any security or a recommendation of any security or trading practice. Some portions of the preceding conversation may have been edited for the purpose of length or clarity.
