In Ida's Own Words: Q & A
- Tip of Spear Team
- 6 days ago
- 6 min read
Ida Agronin is a co-founder and currently president of Tip of Spear Inc., which has been operating in Edmonton since 2011.
Her business experience began long before Tip of Spear. Raised in an entrepreneurial family in Edmonton, she grew up around a range of family businesses, including an art gallery, a restaurant, and an Army surplus store on Jasper Avenue. At 17, she began managing her family's West Edmonton Mall retail location while later completing her Bachelor of Commerce degree at Grant MacEwan and University of Alberta. In that environment, she learned the realities of running a business from the ground up, and her retail experience also gave her an early understanding of how quickly industries can change.
This hands-on background continues to shape her leadership at Tip of Spear. Ida believes meaningful growth requires the ability to continually evolve, adapt, and remain open to new ideas, perspectives, and collaborations. Her leadership style emphasizes collaboration over hierarchy, innovation over stagnation, and long-term impact over ego. She is passionate about creating an organization that thrives through humility, modern thinking, and the collective strength of exceptional people working together.
Ida is particularly enthusiastic about initiatives that expand access to training and personal safety education for underserved communities, helping create safe and welcoming environments where individuals can grow, heal, and discover their own strength without judgment. She believes strongly in building bridges between sectors, encouraging collaboration and mutual understanding between security professionals, peace officers, enforcement personnel, and the broader public safety community.
In this Q&A, Ida shares more about the experiences that shaped her, what motivates her work, and how she sees Tip of Spear continuing to grow as an organization.
Can you share your professional background?
My family has been involved in business since I was a child. My parents had an art gallery, a restaurant, and army surplus store on Jasper Ave, so I have grown up around an entrepreneurial and customer service environment my whole life. When I was 17, my parents opened their first retail location in West Edmonton Mall, which I ran for a year before I attended Grant MacEwan to start my Bachelor of Commerce degree. I continued working there while I was in school.
Once I completed my degree and University of Alberta, I started focusing on learning all aspects of the business: from accounting, ordering, importing, merchandising, HR, managing staff, logistics, balancing revenue/expenses, future planning, to negotiating leases. I attended tradeshows, collaborated to design and have items manufactured, developed relationships with manufacturers/suppliers; learning how that end of their businesses worked, as well as building strong relationships/friendships was all part of my business education.
With a small business such as Supply Sergeant, you sometimes had to pivot quickly, as the market was everchanging with government regulation, new technology, military deployments, trends, and so on. I introduced our first laptop computer to the WEM store, to better track and order stock, as well to work on building our web presence. We eventually moved to a point of sale/server system, which greatly increased our growth potential, and inventory control.
How has your background and experience shaped the business?
The diversity of running a small business in an environment such as WEM allowed me to get my hands into a wide variety of aspects involved in running and building a small retail brick and mortar business as well as an online selling website, in the world’s biggest mall and a massive tourist attraction. We moved so much product, many of our suppliers asked us how many locations we had – we had one.
While a training company is a bit different than a retail store, the basics stay the same, and in our case, the clientele overlaps. Having the background I do allows me to relate to and serve this industry from a place of familiarity and understanding.
What lessons have you learned as a business owner?
Expect the unexpected, and be flexible, because as the winds of change blow through, you must be able to recognize and pivot quickly, to be able to carry forward despite the challenges, otherwise, looking at what once was, and focusing on what happened, can stop you or blow you over.
Try not to focus too much on what your competition is doing, stay in your lane, and follow your passions and values, they will always carry you. People are intuitive and discerning, and if they trust it, in the end they will recognize what is genuine and honest.
What impact do you hope to have on your customers and the industry?
I hope that by being at the forefront of what we do, and setting higher standards, it pushes other companies to also be better, which overall improves the industry.
I hope that the training we do helps people build a strong tool box/skill set, to allow them to find jobs that allows them to grow within this industry, and also opens doors to them to move into a career for Peace Officers or Law enforcement, or whichever way/industry their experience is pulled.
What motivates you every day?
Knowing that what we do changes people’s lives and keeps them safer. Our training can help people not only find employment but help them grow in their careers and confidence. With the right support and guidance, we see people flourish. It is a beautiful thing that drives my passion to continue serving and innovating this industry.
Why do you believe in the services you provide?
There is a need for Security guards, now more than ever, as the challenges of society are fluid and changing quickly. This industry needs the support of companies like TOS that are focused on best practices and keeping with the changes, to make sure the guards are set up for success to a high standard, in the most efficient way possible.
Early on, this industry did not have much in the way of regulation and standards. The basis of founding this company was recognizing this, wanting to set a standard and level of excellence that would produce a higher-level product and set us apart from any other training company that was out there.
Now that TOS has been growing and providing this type of training for 15+ years, we can definitely look back and see the results. Many students come back to visit and thank us, and many have continued to pursue their career in other areas of the security and enforcement industry. I have seen some go into security management, training, corrections, sheriffs, law enforcement, and even the military.
Our partnerships, outstanding instructional team, and dedicated administrative team all work together so well to create a very special organization that you would be pressed to find elsewhere in this industry. We all take immense pride in our work and what we do here, and our ultimate goal is to see our students' success and growth.
How do you stay ahead of trends and innovations in your industry?
Listening to people in all levels of the industry. From the trenches to the boardroom. This is part of why building strong and honest relationships is so important. In one meeting, you can glean enough knowledge to fill in gaps and carry you for months.
What accomplishments are you most proud of?
Feedback from local security companies that they hire TOS-trained students with confidence, knowing that they are properly educated and trained.
We understand that not every student learns the same way. Tip of Spear has helped students who previously struggled with the Government exam through other training providers gain the support, clarity, and confidence needed to successfully pass.
The feedback we receive from the students and other companies, that we have an excellent reputation for our quality of product as well as the service we provide.
Partnering with Control Concepts Canada, CCEMS, and Kathie Brooks of Marston House, elevating our training and offerings to a standard that even surprised me.
What new initiatives/projects are you most excited about?
The Peace Officer Hybrid training, as well as the self-defence programs for marginalized communities (Stay-Away and Empowered), who would not have otherwise felt they could participate in or learn self-defence. Seeing someone’s eyes get big, when they realize that they can actually defend themselves, with simple easy tools, excites me.
What are your goals for the future of TOS? How do you see the company evolving?
I want to see how far we can lead the collaborative and innovative bridge building training model – all levels of security and enforcement training, often side by side, setting examples and allowing for experiences to encourage career growth through the whole enforcement industry, without having to spend thousands of dollars. We have had security guards training alongside recertifying Peace officers.
In regard to self-defence: what we offer and teach can be for everyone, regardless of age, size, religious beliefs, physical challenges, etc. I want everyone to feel like they are safe and welcome, without judgment. Sometimes what we teach can trigger people and finding the bravery it takes to face those triggers by attending a self-defence seminar, has the ability to heal. I would like TOS to be a part of people’s growth and healing.
I see the company evolving in a similar way to how it started, recognizing opportunities, untapped markets, and existing gaps. Innovating what we offer, how we build and offer programs, courses and seminars that address these opportunities.
