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Nick Doyle is MD of security risk management services across EMEA for the consultancy Kroll; he spoke to Mark Rowe. What prompted the Zoom call; as the UK socially and at work emerges from the covid pandemic – despite the Omicron variant – it’s an ‘opportune time’ for businesses to look past the covid risks, at the pre-covid risks that are still around.
First, about Nick: “I lead all the projects we do delivering services including business continuity, crisis management; enterprise security risk management, executive protection, security design.” As for his background, he started in the armed forces; then the Metropolitan Police, uniformed and plain clothes; left to join Kroll; worked abroad; worked for others; returned to the UK and re-joined Kroll in 2008; and has risen to his present post covering Europe, Middle East and Africa.
He recalled the London Bridge-Fishmongers’ Hall terror attack of November 2019, that stress-tested crisis management procedures – including Kroll’s own in the UK; for Kroll’s London office is inside The Shard (picture by Mark Rowe; background) and thus came within the cordon thrown by the authorities, as routine after such an incident.
As Nick said, employees can get stranded in ‘containment areas, in unfamiliar buildings’, very quickly. People on the street can find themselves ushered into even neighbouring buildings, that were then locked down: “They couldn’t leave, they didn’t know the buildings they were in, they were quite unsure what was going on outside. There was a lot of nervousness and uncertainty.
“This was where our existing crisis management measures kicked in, where we sent out a ‘blast’ of information, on email and text for employees to respond to, to ensure they are ok.”
Like other sites around London Bridge, they had the summer 2017 terror incident around Borough Market to draw on for experience. But how to provide reassurance – first that the employer knows where an employee is, and safe; and then how to find details of such basics of where the toilets and water supplies are in that unfamiliar building the employee (who perhaps only popped out for lunch) is now in? Because as Nick added, such a ‘containment’ will keep people inside for perhaps six hours; until the authorities are satisfied that there are no further threats.
While Nick said that business resilience, business continuity and crisis management – that is, in the context of covid – are the service lines that clients are asking Kroll about most, Nick also suggested that it’s time not to forget about the existing risks, that are still there. One example is international corporate travel, if businesses are about to re-establish itineraries for doing business in emerging markets.
Nick said that many organisations whose staff (including senior) were involved in international travel were going to Kroll (and other such consultancies) before covid, having identified a need to manage risk of their employees’ international travel. That could mean using intelligence to say that it is safe to travel; and what to consider on arriving. That might mean making sure that a traveller was picked up by a hotel car at the airport. Or if a place is identified as with an enhanced risk, having resources on the ground to provide safe transport.
Travel management tools can link with other services; so that if an employee books tickets to a location with a defined enhanced threat, the employer is notified and requires the traveller to receive a risk briefing.
Nick said: “Everyone is so focused on covid it is important for organisations just to remember there are other risks out there and other risks they need to understand and manage as much as possible.” That is not to say that an organisation can manage every risk and scenario, on or outside their premises; but that ‘there is a level of duty of care’.
More in the January 2022 print edition of Professional Security magazine.
