An international question – how to make consistency and standardisation in global security operations – had a suitably international trio to discuss it in the latest OSPAs thought leadership webinar yesterday afternoon.
They were: in Delhi, the geopolitical and security risk consultant Pallavi Ade; the American business continuity and crisis management consultant Melissa Mack; and from the UK, former Foreign Office (FO) and Facebook security man Mike Croall. They set out an essential tension from the start. As Pallavi said, physical time-zones are different; and regulations and cultures; as are the operating risks. In India, you might be more accepting of the risk of say, pick-pocketing, than in Scandinavia.
A Big Mac
Set against all the things against a standard world, consistency builds trust, as Mike Croall said; and increasingly, organisations have a global presence. If you buy a Big Mac in Beijing, you expect it to taste the same as in Boston. Likewise, you want your security to ‘taste’ the same, in Sydney or San Diego. Similarly, if travelling staff are using the same security services, they are more comfortable, and respond more instinctively, if the access control looks the same across cities. If in London the door alarm is a bell, and in New Delhi the alarm is a buzzer, ‘that immediately creates confusion’.
Bell or buzzer
As Mike put it, there’s something fundamental about having the same bell (or buzzer); the same as, we can say, there’s a (literal) comfort from the same decor and pillow in a hotel chain’s rooms, whatever the place. To return to Mike; he spoke of wanting the same badging processes and visitor protocols for multiple sites, not only for efficiency, but for career paths for those in global organisations. And customers besides staff can have confidence. Except that the world is not consistent; for one thing, it’s made up of individuals – Mike Croall, for example, was speaking from a barge on the Thames. Mike did address that point; in terms of a local duty of care; increasingly a global organisation will base its ‘duty of care’ to staff on head office – if a corporate in New York is deploying anyone to Chile, the standards set are New York’s; if not, and something goes wrong, the corporate could face litigation.
On tour
The difference between the equally valid standard – for each region? head office’s for all? – and local was addressed by Melissa Mack. She recommended that the global security head make a ‘listening tour’, to learn the local and regional leaders’ concerns.
While you can hardly expect eureka answers to come out of an hour’s webinar, that is not what Martin Gill ever seeks; as he says at the start of each, they are to ‘critique’. This hour had shown a place for standards – as something to apply when security resources aren’t all you might want. Yet leaders also matter for security, whether with Security in their title or other chiefs that ‘buy in’. And with those leaders, Security is not all; they have to understand what Pallavi called ‘organisational context’; that is, the realities on the ground.
Mike ended the webinar still believing that consistency – such as for business travellers, especially during covid-19 – was really important. Melissa said that covid-19 has shown that people are critical to business continuity, ‘not just technical controls’. They have to be available to work, and not sick or caring for family. In the end a webinar is about what you take away from it, even a phrase; and Mike Croall said that he would use Melissa’s one, of a ‘listening tour’. Mike ended with wise words of the retired US general Stan McChrystal; that if you are running a global organisation from headquarters, the three key things are listen, learn and lead.
You can catch up with past webinars, dating back to March 31, at the OSPAs website.
The next webinar on the relationship between crisis management and security runs tomorrow from 3.30pm; the invited speakers are Paul Bean, Head of Investigations, Intelligence and Economic Crime at Royal Mail; Alan Cain, Manchester Chapter Chair, The Institute of Strategic Risk Management; Dr David Rubens D.SyRM, CSyP, F.ISRM, Executive Director at The Institute of Strategic Risk Management; and Bruno Sechet, founder of Integralim. Register for the session free at https://theospas.com/thought-leadership-webinars/.
More in the December 2020 print edition of Professional Security magazine.
