27 December 2015

Executive Security: Personal Protection Specialist...

Operational Risk Management (ORM) extends beyond the perimeter with some of your most valuable assets.  The Fortune 500 Chief Executive Officer and their staff team of subject matter experts are continually at risk.  Even if you are the co-founder of a new start-up with that new "Killer App" ready for testing with SOCOM, you may now require several full-time security risk professionals at your side.

In the corporate Protective Security environment, the "Advance Work" being executed by your ORM team will ensure your success or contribute to the embarrassment or injury of your client/principal. Professionals in Protective Security Detail's (PSD) realize that your site or lead advance agent can make or break the entire operational risk strategy, for your proactive and preventive security measures.

Thinking like the DEVGRU attacker and possessing a "Red Cell" mentality, is a valid approach for several aspects of the advance work necessary to ensure an effective "protective envelope". What ends up being the greatest threat to your operation, may be technology itself. Too much reliance on pervasive high tech tools such as "Google Maps" or even the standard-issue Garmin GPS, will create a vulnerability just at the point in time when your principal says, "Let's change the itinerary or the location of the next meeting".  A "15 Minute Map" comprised from a good old fashioned road atlas, can be the low tech tool that saves lives and potential chaos.

21st Century Executive Security and modern day Personal Protection Specialist's (PPS), who understand the value of the "Advance" and apply it effectively, will continue to keep their principal's safe and secure and with a high degree of professional client service. Corporations operating in countries where executives are required to visit critical infrastructure plants, manufacturing facilities or meet with government officials, have been incorporating more protective intelligence and advance work for good reason. The global business environment is increasingly more volatile and subject to rapidly changing political risks and subjective "Rule of Law" in many emerging democracies.

Whether it is weapons in close range or a distance, explosive IED's or kidnapping plots, today's global and mobile executive is ever more at risk.  Effective "Advance Work" is the most important and critical aspect of the security operation.  Site and route surveys, "eyes on" residences, airports and hotels, hospitals, police stations, restaurants and convention centers, are a mandatory component of the advance operations.

Surveillance Detection (SD) remains a vital facet of the advance work, including the ongoing SD as the Protective Security Detail agents run the operation. The Principal is potentially aware of such activity, yet is shielded from any lethal imminent threats as the days agenda unfolds.

What may be more obvious is the PSD's use of "Coopers Colors:":

"By using a well-practiced, concrete, formulaic train of thought, it prevents the hesitation normally experienced when one is under threat of attack or actual attack, and this is the purpose of the code, to prevent unnecessary hesitation, and to apply only that force which is necessary to defend yourself." "The way Jeff Cooper explains it is:"
  • White - relaxed and fairly oblivious of your surroundings, you should only be in this condition if you are at home or another secure setting behind locked doors.
  • Yellow - the state of not only constant awareness, but the constant recognition of possible threats. In this state, you are observant of your surroundings, allowing you to recognize threats if they present themselves.
  • Orange - in this state, you have recognized a potential threat, and are ready to defend yourself against this threat if necessary.
  • Red - you are actively defending yourself or others against a threat that has presented itself to you.
It's not just about general awareness, it's about positively identifying potential and actual threats, as you go about your daily life. It is this threat identification and acquisition process that is so valuable, that reduces your response time to those threats, if they present themselves.

Executive Security and the Personal Protection Specialist (PPS) becomes an even more vital asset in the OPS Risk portfolio, where the Board of Director's has authorized significant premiums for an executive's kidnap and ransom (K&R) insurance. Why?

Like many aspects of our society today regarding information privacy, one only wonders how information gets leaked from the confines of the corporate enterprise. Operational Risks involving people in your organization exist everyday.  Insuring against losses and protecting against personnel loss events is imperative. Utilizing the correct strategy, tools and professional human assets to comprise the entire security envelope including the effective use of Protective Security Details, can make all the difference in your organizations resilience factor.

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