Paradigm shift in industrial
security
Dr. Govind P. Thapa
Business security issues
No business is free from security risks—no organizations are
free from security risks be it
government or private. Security risk involves a known or foreseeable
threat to an organization’s assets: people, property, information, and reputation.
Security risk cannot be totally eliminated. However, effective loss prevention
programs can reduce security risk and its impact to the lowest level. In
general term, risk management “is a process to identify loss exposures faced by
an organization and to select the most appropriate techniques for treating such
exposures”. Business security management is the process of risk assessing,
developing, implementing, directing, and monitoring the organization's security
strategy and activities so that security goals can be achieved. It is a
systematic study at the component parts of job or process in order to identify
whether they could represent a hazard, individually or in combination with each
other. The aim of security is to secure a company's profitability and
competitiveness, the continuity of its operation and well-being of its
employees, clients, partners, and society at large.
With the political instability and growth of violent culture
in the country, security has become one of the most urgent issues for many
business organizations. Several criminal acts of murder, kidnapping,
blackmailing, treachery, and highly organized type of daylight robbery and incidents
of accidents and disasters (both, manmade and natural) apart from the trade union
tribulations are plaguing the business community. These are ensuing in the loss
of valuable life, property, and reputation. These organizations are threatened
to the extent of their survival. The Federation of Nepal Chamber of Commerce
and Industry (FNCCI) are recurrently demanding the government to provide
security to the industries. With the persisting pressure from the business
organizations, the Nepal government has reluctantly agreed to set up “industrial
security force” to provide security to the violence-stricken business
industries. However, the modality and terms of reference for the new force are
at far distance.
Cosmetic solutions
The FNCCI approach to industry security raises debates. The
security is no more a state business only; it is a private sector business
also. The business organizations
must do some soul-searching analysis on the approach. Because there are
numerous enterprises, the first question is which types of enterprises— small,
medium, or large — will be protected? The other is whether or not the new “force”
will absolutely eliminate all the problems of the business houses. Of course, there
will be several other security problems remaining (other than physical
protection) within the business activities. It will not be a surprise if
this much cherished and hyped “force” will only be able to replace the few
private security guards that the business houses have deployed at the outer
perimeter.
We will have to wait to witness that even after the
deployment of the force the core problems of security at the operational stage will
remain unchanged. On one hand, this “force” in no way is going to solve the
operation security challenges of the businesses: the threats to employee and
data piracy will remain as before and the corruption and sabotage on part of
the dishonest employees will always torment the organizations. The union
problems in these business houses will not evaporate. On the other hand, the
maintenance cost of such a force will be huge and counterproductive in the long
run. This will extort the limited resources of the stakeholders for seemingly
good reason but bad plan.
Generally, we have lack of understanding of business security
risk; most of us depend either on state machinery or “right” insurance. Many
businesses have failed to explicitly align security activities to strategic drivers—organization's
mission, goals, and objectives—by using them as an organization's critical
success factors. The senior management even fails to recognize the
organizational value of security, to sponsor security efforts, and to recognize
their role in security governance and prefer to continue focus on the ad hoc and intermittent type of
management. For durable solution, the private sector leaders will have to
opt to capitalize the capability and resources to use internal security governance
to uphold adequate security in a constantly changing business, customer, risk,
and technology environment.
Durable alternatives
Security is a business problem. The organizations must
activate, coordinate, deploy, and direct many of its existing core competencies
to work together to provide effective solutions. Security lives in an organizational
and operational context; it is woven into the system. It is not an isolated issue,
and thus cannot be managed effectively as a stand-alone affair. The management
of security is a challenge because the security strategy must be sufficiently
dynamic to keep pace with the velocity of organizational and technical change. The
law and policy, and enforcement machinery functions will have to be tuned to
cop new challenges.
Security is expensive; the absence of it may be more so. The
organizations that successfully approach security as an investment may increase
its overall value in the marketplace, and may even be able to capture this
value as “goodwill” on their balance sheet. To sustain success, security at an
enterprise level requires that the organizations move toward a security
management process that is strategic, systematic, and sustainable. It is high
time that organizations realize the mantra
that only qualified security managers (not guards) can take care of
security risks of their businesses. Therefore, make some rooms for them in your
management system!
(The writer is former additional IGP)
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