Researching the Corporate Counter Terrorism Market
Whilst
there is an increasing awareness in the corporate world of the need
to manage global risk and security, the fact that limited budgets are
allocated to security consultancy & advice means that interest in
counter terrorism is very much event driven.
Hazard
Management Solutions Ltd (HMS) is a specialist in advising commercial
and government clients about the threat of terrorism and the risk management
of that threat. The company's clients include UK and foreign governments
as well as corporate companies in the insurance, media, oil and pharmaceutical
sectors. With increasing threats from terrorism becoming more prevalent
in the last five years and in the foreseeable future, security has certainly
risen up the corporate agenda. HMS commissioned B2B International to
research the corporate market to find out what the opportunity was for
counter terrorism consultancy in the corporate market and how they should
enter the market.
Nick Hague, Director at B2B International and co-author of the report,
feels that companies are now very aware of the threat of risks of all
kinds. 'Business is taking risk management seriously and addressing
it with risk registers and risk management programmes. We certainly
found that the terrorist threat is moving up the list of risk threats
to join IT, fraud, and reputation. However, research shows that corporate
businesses are not, as yet, spending lots of money or allocating annual
budgets for security advice.'
The market research showed that corporate companies see risk as coming
from a wide and diverse range of groups or specific people ranging from
religious extremists, animal activists, Provisional IRA, Al Qaeda and
loners through to the disenfranchised in society i.e. the young, the
poor and the unemployed.
Risk
management in the corporate market appears to be very event-driven –
reactive rather than proactive. Risk does vary considerably over time,
from company to company and according to their geography and industry
sector. Corporate organisations face threats in a variety of scenarios
from threats to their sites (buildings, offices, factories), their people
(staff, customers, third parties), their IT infrastructure, goods and
people in transit/logistics, and suppliers in the supply chain.
The research showed that respondents felt there are more pressures than
ever before to mitigate risks; especially in high profile companies.
Security is becoming a priority now and even a Board issue. However,
whilst all companies interviewed believe that mitigating risk is vital
to the running of their business, they believe they have dealt with
the situation by taking on a security advisor.
Andy Cooper, business director at HMS, says they are a number of factors
contributing to companies requiring solutions to the problems of security
and risk. 'Saturation of traditional markets is taking markets to more
risky places, globalisation has changed the structure and pace of modern
life, there is more religious extremism and fanaticism than ever before.
Many of the threats such as terrorism, organised crime and information
security are asymmetric and networked, making them difficult to manage.
There is also greater appreciation of the interdependence between a
company’s risk portfolio and the way it does business as certain
types of behaviour can enhance or undermine an organisation’s license
to operate. New forms of accountability such as corporate governance
and corporate social responsibility put added pressure on companies.
Experienced and specialist firms such as HMS can manage and minimise
the risk.'
An obstacle to the burgeoning of corporate top-level security firms
may be the level of suspicion surrounding suppliers in the security
arena. Many respondents expressed little faith in the security knowledge
or expertise of security firms. The market appears to be very reputation-led
with a high proportion of respondents saying that personal recommendation
was the only way to choose and that trust was vital for a good working
relationship.
The market research report concludes that the corporate security market
must take its lead from business drivers rather than specific threats
and security departments must expand their work far beyond the traditional
security portfolio to include issues such as business continuity, reputation,
risk management and corporate responsibility. The research also reinforced
the fact that security firms who are delivering commercial security
have to major on business, management and communications experience
as much as actual security experience.
The market for anti-terrorist services amongst corporates at the moment
is small but growing. The majority of businesses seem interested in
ad hoc assignments costing a few thousand pounds, to advise them and
work out a strategy, yet they would pay much more if in the middle of
a crisis, hence being an event-driven market.
Web: http://www.hazmansol.com
Web: http://www.b2binternational.com