Corporate Security

Corporate security is the management and implementation of various solutions with a view of reducing and/or mitigating risk in a corporate environment, including in the areas of safeguarding staff, protecting property and securing information systems.

Many corporate organisations will require security based solutions in order to protect their brand and also their assets, this requires professionalism and experience from the outset. Many organisations will have an internal corporate security officer (CSO) and relevant security team, although there may be areas whereby an external provider can bring expertise and benefit in certain fields of security. Those corporate organisations that outsource their security needs will require proven experience and also proven capability from said provider, as operating in a corporate environment requires an understanding and clarification of such a complicated environment. As stated earlier, a successful corporate security strategy must be designed, implemented and managed/executed correctly and with attention to detail. There needs to be a collected approach across all departments in order to execute such a strategy and with each risk being identified, this will then involve a large element of risk mangement in order to identify the internal and external risks using models including but not limited to PESTLE and SWOT analysis.

A corporate security strategy will also need to align with the business strategy of the organisation, to ensure that synergy is in place and that every aspect of the business needs have been identified and assessed, in terms of risk. The security strategy will be operational as well as being strategic, in that solutions will be put in place in accordance with the overall strategy trying to be achieved, physical and technical solutions will work side by side with processes and procedures. We also have to take into account the changes in the global landscape, especially in terms of a corporate environment and with an increase in ‘lone wolf’ or opportunist related attacks within prominent city centre locations.

These changes would in fact alter the way in which we deliver security solutions, with more attention given to areas such as understanding body language, identifying pre-cursors, interception techniques and much more. It is a time to enhance what can be done to increase the safety and security of the public and all other stakeholders, through being better prepared for evolving threats. So, we can see that corporate security is not as straightforward as it seems. Every action must be carefully thought through and with reasoning in place for possible solutions, not just a security officer in reception for the sake of it. If a security officer is placed in reception area, then they must integrate effectively with additional measures that may be installed and the security officer must understand their role and more importantly their actions in the event of an incident.