In a company not only the assets must be taken care of. Nowadays human beings are the most valuable elements of an organization, for this reason a security plan must be created that protects them from threats.
A fraternal greeting from Puerto Rico to all colleagues and readers of this column! It is a pleasure to share again with you.
by Héctor R. Torres, PhD, MBA, CPP, CFE
In my last few columns I have written about how the managerial function of corporate security has changed due to the challenges, threats and risks presented by the business environment at the beginning of the twenty-first century. In this edition, we will talk about executive protection as part of the corporate security of an organization.
Many global or multinational corporations have some kind of protection program for their top executives, but this is not the case in the vast majority of organizations. The reasons for having or not having an executive protection program lie mainly in recognizing, through a thorough study, the threats and risks to which the executives of an organization are exposed and how vulnerable they are to them. If the threats and risks are weighty, then the organization through its Chief Security Officer establishes a program where executives are protected from three categories of dangers: physical threats, emotional threats, and threats to reputation and morality.
Physical threats can be any type of threat that causes bodily harm or death to the executive. Emotional threats are those that can cause mental anguish or fear to the executive. Finally, threats to reputation or morals can cause serious damage to the name or image of the executive and the organization. This type of threat sometimes has greater relevance because of how in some the news media strive to cover news about any situation of scandal about the image of an organization or a particular executive.
Methodology of executive protection in the twenty-first century
As we have already explained, the risks associated with business environments have increased in terms of their severity and complexity. This is also true when considering the protection of an organization's executives.
The threats are diverse, especially if executives travel to different locations in a country or the world. Before developing an executive protection program for an organization, a risk and vulnerability study is conducted to determine all the possible threats that an executive may face, and the impact that each threat would cause to the executive and the company is taken into consideration; then the probability that the identified threats will occur is determined. Although there can be multiple types of threats, companies often cannot protect their executives against all these threats because they have limited resources, therefore, the security of executives is designed to protect against threats in terms of their probability and how critical it would be for the employee and the organization if the threat occurred.
Avoid, evade, or confront threats
Although there are many models and schools of thought around executive protection, a simple model that can be used to establish the principles of an executive protection program for the twenty-first century dictates that threats are avoided, evaded, or confronted. This methodology contrasts with many traditional bodyguard methodologies and schools where the escort is avoided. it assumes that it imitates the bodyguards of the Us Secret Service, the Israeli security services or the bodyguards that appear in the feature films.
In the corporate world, this methodology is simply not acceptable for two reasons. The first is that the technique is used from a national security perspective, so laws on the use of force vary considerably from those that can be used by a private organization; second, the legal risks and potential lawsuits that may be incurred by the executive and the organization for the misbehavior of corporate bodyguards if they use this methodology.
In the next column we will talk a little more about how we avoid, evade and confront threats in an Executive Protection program.
A hug and see you next time!
I invite you to continue to share your ideas and concerns from the world and security management.
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