Una Riley’s interview in our August print issue.
David Burrill OBE has been in security and intelligence for most of his working life. Retiring from the military in 1992, he was head of security at British American Tobacco (BAT). Retired again, David started his own company, Burrill Green. He talks to Una Riley about corporate security and how to get the message across where it counts – at board level.
As you can imagine with so much behind him I was eager to ask him more about his past. “I think the primary thing about the past is that it brought me to the present! Everything I am doing now is built upon the successes in a particular area that I had with BAT in genuinely proving to an audience which in some cases were open minded and in one or more cases was not … The importance of turning security into a core business function. Functions that enabled business enhanced governance and enhanced reputation. The fact is that as ‘Security’ we set out to achieve it … and we did. One of my CEOs (Paul Adams) at BAT is on record as saying: ‘When David first joined BAT, he and I did not see the role of security management in the same way. I saw it more as high-tech corporate cop protecting people and assets. He saw it more as intelligence officer adding value to the company’s business, reputation and overall governance. Of course, there’s a need for both but I came to appreciate over a number of years that not only was David right but that the value added was far more extensive than I first thought possible.’ Although not everyone was opposed to it some didn’t think that it was workable. They thought that security really was an ‘add-on’ serving a very useful protective function, but should be kept isolated to do a range of narrow activities with no sense what so ever as being perceived as a truly integrated part of the business.”
Approach
David Burrill’s approach to security is that value-added business security should be a welcome integration and accepted as a core vehicle and become a critical part of a corporate operation. He feels that it is essential to work closely with different and diverse groups to ensure the appropriate fit and health of security practices and behaviour in their own variations of operation, within the dominant operating culture of the overall enterprise. I asked David to expand upon his philosophy. He said: "This means finding the correct approach and language to enable widespread specialist functional groups and services to fully understand, feel comfortable with and practice the integrated security elements on behalf of all stakeholders.” I asked, how are you going to change a culturally stagnant organisation? He said: "Things are changing. For instance it is quite interesting if you look at the terminology that is being used in articles these days such as ‘corporate security resilience – business integration’ et cetera. If you went back ten or 14 years ago you would never, ever have read this type of jargon associated with the world of security. Now these types of buzz-words are common. These sound bites float around regularly, the difference now is of course that in some cases they are being used as a reality and in some cases aspirationally. I would say that they remain aspirations for the majority of the profession within the corporate security environment.” On the PR side of these words, David has assistance of business partner Kevin Green. A Trinity College, Cambridge graduate, he has worked in the public and private sector for 30 years, has specialised in the development of strategies to achieve new levels of growth, efficiency, and organisation within companies. Kevin has also worked as a third party advisor, and acquired a rounded perspective on organisational needs and behaviour. In the first part of his career Kevin worked in communications, including spells with specialist agencies including FCB (Foote, Cone and Belding) and JWT (J Walter Thompson). His experience drew him to working internationally from city bases like London, Amsterdam, New York, Paris, and Madrid, serving global blue-chip companies, from service providers to local government to gas and oil corporations to telecoms and technology plus manufacturers from food and personal products to motors. Kevin’s marketing skills and his ability to work frequently with teams to develop new products and services has been coupled with a career long interest in training, coaching, and development to enable organisations to realise additional value from their core assets. With Kevin’s marketing expertise plus David’s security professionalism it is easy to see that Burrill Green’s security philosophy is deliverable.
Change
I asked David what his target was concerning the cultural change that he would have to overcome with any new organisation. He said: “My primary target is board level and at the lower level CSOs (Chief Security Officers) and maybe CSOs designate. That’s where I see my market. One of the principal challenges is to create this added value corporate security function, not only converting and enabling the people within security management, but I think almost more importantly actually getting the massage over to the boards. This has to be achieved in a manner they understand; for instance if they do not pursue the prospect of added value of business integrated security, then they are taking a negative action in a broader sense on behalf of their share holders and stakeholders. Most of my comments reflect global organisations, although I think there is relevance below that. Most folk in corporate security have been at best left with this inspirational hope and not knowing how to truly engage with the board. Let me explain further; engaging with the board does not mean for example as some of my American colleagues would say, merely liaising very closely with the CEO in the context of executive protection. This type of role although important, is not a significant business influencer; it is more akin to what I would call the ‘chauffeur syndrome’. Chauffeurs all know the directors very well. However, the CEO’s view is that while the chauffeur provides a valid support role he is not a business man! In the States executive protection predominates rather than broad security skills both in a single and multi-functional sense in terms of business development. Do you see the difference?” David asked.
Business equal
A good analogy as far as relationship dynamic is concerned. I think the chauffeur scenario is good; from a business perspective you shift the chauffeur profile from a position where he is seen and not heard to one where he is a business equal. David went on: “The key is first of all nothing is going to occur unless the CSO has a clear vision and a clear strategy to go with that vision. They have to be able to articulate … you can’t do it just off the cuff. It is a disciplined process, it is a structured process, and it is a structured format of how to get from here to there. Security should be at the top of most organisations … not by saying it should be … but by proving it should be. Culture change is essential and culture is the hardest thing to change. Take mergers and acquisitions for instance, more often than not I believe the cultural differences are substantial factors which prevent the gains which had originally been considered as feasible by bringing those two entities together. So culture is the hardest thing to change and once again you have to demonstrate it and then you have to prove it.”
Vision
With David’s help I believe CSOs can aim to make their vision tangible and bring about the necessary changes to enable security to be integrated into the mainstream business, and work towards the recognition that investment in security provides better foundations to produce and deliver better products and services – profitably!
See also the Association of Security Consultants’ recent award to David Burrill; turn to page 36 of the August print issue.
