40 under 40: Michael Zatulov, Elite Interactive Solutions

YARMOUTH, Maine—Michael Zatulov’s focus is on the customer, and as Chief Operating Officer of Elite Interactive Solutions, he ensures that his support teams meet both customer and company goals.

Zatulov has served as COO of the Los Angeles-based provider of fully integrated security solution services since April 2018. His day-to-day responsibilities focus on directly overseeing the company’s sales team, installations team, and service teams.

“My immediate goal is customer success, and my daily activities include supporting our internal leaders and communicating company objectives to all our team members,” he told Security Systems News.  “I am responsible for setting and meeting our KPI targets, as well as making sure that our strategic initiatives are met.”  

Zatulov noted that he was inspired to get into the security industry after growing up in Ukraine in the late 1980s and Los Angeles in the early ‘90s.

“It showed me how challenging security can be when faced with social and political pressures,” he said. “I was fortunate to have developed skills as an operator early on in my career, and when opportunity presented itself for me to join a company that supports communities and law enforcement, I chose to participate.”

Unprecedented Challenges

When asked about the top trends in security today, Zatulov pointed out that security today is facing “unprecedented challenges.”

“We are in the middle of an economic cycle that has generated enormous wealth for some, while leaving millions behind,” he explained. “This creates crime and puts substantial pressure on public and private sectors to address issues such as theft, vandalism, loitering and workplace violence that can disrupt business and cause harm.

“We have seen impacts of COVID-19, rioting and other civil unrest increase more in the last three years than in the last 20 years. As we look forward toward the future, I believe that the trends will continue, and we will see increases in crime and the cost to society as part of everyday life.”

Innovation and Video Technology

Zatulov noted that when it comes to new technology, the security industry has become “more open to innovation and using video technology, especially AI and machine learning, as we look to improve results and offset rising manned guarding cost. While technology to catch crime in progress has been advancing for some time, we have yet to come up with the right mix of hardware and software to make a significant impact.

“The most exciting security technology for me is related to command-and-control software that minimizes false alarms and the development of hardware to support the software solutions. At Elite we use proprietary methodology to eliminate false alarms, and I believe we are at the forefront of innovation in the industry.”  

Keys to Success

As the world continues to navigate through year three of the COVID-19 pandemic, Zatulov highlighted a few keys to success during these challenging times.

“The key to success for me as a business leader and individual has been to focus on solutions that are proven to help people,” he said. “COVID brought unique challenges that showed us that manned guarding cannot be effective to mitigate business loss especially during lockdowns. The pandemic drastically reduced the number of people in the workforce while technology was able to successfully and affordably guard billions of dollars’ worth of assets.

“Knowing that our organization has redundancies and able to stop crime in real time has always been a driving force for our professional success, but over the last few years we have really seen our success stem from innovation.”

Promising Future

Zatulov is optimistic that the security industry will continue to succeed as the need for effective security solutions will not go away anytime soon.  

“The industry has a lot to offer to customers and will continue to progress as the need for security and the challenges of effective solutions will provide excellent opportunities for many years to come,” he explained. “Accepting new ways to guard assets has as much to do with innovation as it does with customer acceptance of new technology, and I believe we are in for a promising future overall.”  

Looking ahead, the COO feels that more talented, diverse young people will be drawn into the security industry primarily due to companies being more innovative and goal oriented.

“The younger generation was blessed to grow up with the accessibility of SaaS products,” he noted. “I believe that many talented individuals today look to work for companies that provide them with personal and professional goals along with the ability to be a part of something special. I think that innovation and thinking outside of the box for the security industry Is the best way to appeal to the younger generation.”