In the October print issue of Professional Security, Una Riley meets Andrew White CB, the new Chief Executive of the NSI.
Andrew’s appointment was announced from August 1, following the departure of Tom Mullarkey MBE to RoSPA. Andrew had a distinguished career in the Royal Air Force, where he served for 32 years and attained the rank of Air Vice-Marshal. Although now in ‘Civvie Street’ I requested a photograph of him in uniform which he reluctantly agreed to. While in the RAF he was most recently Commander Number 3 Group with responsibility for 12,000 servicemen and women. He has an honours degree in engineering. I asked Andrew where he saw the NSI now, what he could contribute and where he saw the NSI in the future. "Blimey, it’s like a job interview" Andrew laughed. He went on: "It’s pretty straight forward, a career came to an end…which has been, if I can sum it up, a career in service to the public, effectively. In terms of an organisation the military has a certain ethos, a value. It is seen as a force for good, which is very much attuned with my own personal wishes, which is why I stayed with the RAF for a full career. I then faced probably the second biggest decision in my life, the first was to join the Royal Air Force in the first place and the second one is what do I do afterwards? Do I sit back and prune the roses or do I continue to contribute…so that didn’t take long to come to a decision! I had the choice of commercial organisations and in particular the conventional route for someone like me might have been a defence related industry, but that didn’t appeal to me so much. I worked out that actually what I really wanted to do was to continue in a public service type theme. Whether it was in government or out of government didn’t really matter too much to me. Then the opportunity of the NSI came along. In my recent past career I had responsibility for a number of security installations and organisations within the Ministry of Defence so I had some exposure to the private security industry. I have also had experience of contract security staff and was aware of the churn rate on the guarding sector and the difficulty in getting people who were reputable that you would wish to have employed within the guarding industry. On the other side of the coin I had been involved in CCTV on the technical side. So I had an inkling as to what was out there in the commercial world in terms of the security profession. In terms of ‘I want to change my career path, I want to work in something related to public service and security’. I had some background and credibility in that particular area…and it all came together. So I expressed an interest in joining NSI and that was the catalyst to then start getting into what was going on in the civilian side of security. I could see that this was a time of significant change – some was legislative change on the industry which might bring with it further legislation around the boundaries and the potential for legislation to increase. I also recognised the opportunity to try and influence the debate as to where we should have the boundaries set…all of which interested me. I could see that the NSI was an organisation that stood for high standards, was proud of what it had achieved but nonetheless it had to be adaptable to the environment it had to work in and I observed that there was change required within the accreditation side as well. That further interested me in that I had come from an organisation where we had spent the last four years or so going through significant change in the way that we were structured and organised in terms of focusing on what is important. Stripping out the bits of output that actually don’t contribute to what you’re trying to achieve. Doing things because you’ve always done them that way and because you haven’t had the time to sit back and think about it. So I’ve been through a little bit of change management with varying degrees of success in my last appointment and because I enjoyed doing that, I thought that would be a benefit to NSI. When I put the package together I realised I had something to offer here…after a few discussions the chairman [Sir Michael Bett] I am delighted to say offered me the appointment…and as they say the rest is history. So that is the chronological pattern that has led me to here.” It was impossible not to be impressed with Andrews’s background and skills so I asked how he envisaged managing change in his future work at NSI? "These are early days I have been in the post for four weeks effectively and I have used that period to improve my understanding of how NSI works and what are the challenges that face the industry as a whole and that is a process that will continue for some time. I have a mantra if I can use that phrase, which I firmly believe ‘No Change – No Chance’. Any organisation, be it in government or outside government that thinks that they can just sit back and enjoy a period of stability is just living in cloud cuckoo land. I would like to think that I can persuade people not just inside NSI but across the industry that we must think about the future, we must think about what we need to do and what we want to do. We need to ensure that the industry and the accreditation bodies are configured to be dynamic and responsive to that changing environment and we will go forward with that environment and we will continue to flourish and develop. That effectively is what I can see as a starting point and is a position where I will stand and say ‘I can see the case to be. So I hope that I will bring some skills in that area that will enable the NSI to challenge what we are doing and how we are going about our business to make sure that we are a customer facing organisation that is prepared to be responsive and adaptable. The trick of course is that we must maintain high standards because that is the hallmark of the organisation. But that doesn’t mean that we hide behind high standards, it means that we stand up for high standards but nonetheless, we are willing to be adaptable and reactive to circumstances. That for me will be a fair part of my challenge.” I asked, what particular road Andrew would be taking the NSI down? "NSI needs to continue to stand up as a Gold Standard in the accreditation world, it needs to make sure that everyone understands the brand value and if you have NSI Gold…you really shouldn’t need anything else. If I can build on that…it is a good starting point.” I asked Andrew if he felt his role as a public servant will help him negotiate on behalf of the industry. He replied: "I would hope so, if we talk about government in its entirety it is such an easy target. It’s big and if you throw a rock at it…you’re sure to hit something! Therefore, many people throw rocks at government bodies and sometimes its justified but equally it is often not justified. It’s just an easy target to sound off against. I do bring therefore, an understanding of what it’s like to be inside and have the rocks land on you when perhaps they are misdirected and un-justified. I think that understanding will help in terms of relationships with those who are working for the government, inside government or indeed government bodies, arms length bodies or whatever else they might be. I do have an appreciation that there are a lot of dedicated good people who work in those organisations that are not always rewarded, necessarily, with the greatest of salaries compared to industry. A lot of people are performing the public service that I espoused. I hope by taking that attitude and not one of immediate confrontation will enable me to show that dialogue, negotiation and discussion are far better than chucking stones at each other. I suspect my background will help me having dealt with government ministers and secretaries of state and putting forward arguments and debating with them. This has allowed me to understand the mind of the government minister and what he/she is actually there for…as an elected representative of the nation. Smaller bodies might feel that they have a very good story or a case to government but the bottom line is that the government has been elected by the people of the UK and therefore, they rightly have the final say in what goes on. Therefore, it is important that the right message is communicated about our industry. Communication is important to ensure that as many people are aware of the high standards and indeed the gold standards associated with accredited companies. In fact one of the things Tom [Mullarkey] left me was a significant increased media marketing plan that will start to roll out…so you will see the effect of that over the next few months". I asked what Andrew’s wish list was for the future in terms of NSI. "That we achieve together with the SIA, the industry, the accreditation bodies and the industry associations the right sensible balance of what should be legislated and what should be internally regulated.” I have no doubt that with an ‘Officer and a Gentleman’ like Andrew at the controls the NSI will be on course and flying high.
