| Security is becoming increasingly business-like, with corporate security |
Persistent crime — both physical and logical — and the rise of terrorism around the world have led more and more corporations to expand their focus on security.
In that effort, C-suite executives have added significantly to the responsibilities of corporate security departments. Security functions have grown far beyond patrolling guards, a few cameras and a monitoring guard. Today’s security departments employ comprehensive physical and IT security technology systems monitored and managed 24/7 by highly trained security officers.
Security department expenses
In recent years, many C-suites have begun to chaff under the enormous expense of such huge security installations. In response, corporate executives have begun to demand that security departments find ways to support themselves financially and perhaps even contribute to business profits.
That’s what senior executives expect of other departments. A Human Resources department finds talented people who can lead the corporation to higher revenues and profits. IT provides the tools that make the various corporate departments — especially operations — more productive. Sales, manufacturing, distribution and other departments must also contribute to the bottom line.
Now security is being asked to contribute to the corporate effort. As a result, executives have become more cost-conscious, says Mario Moussa, Learning Director of the ASIS International programme with The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Moussa is also President of Philadelphia-based Moussa Consulting, a security consultancy.
| Corporate security departments ensure “business continuity” for organisations by preventing costly IT & physical breaches that disrupt or damage business |
Maintaining business continuity
“These days, all functional specialists have to justify their budgets in terms of business benefits,” Moussa says. “Very few executives will sign off on an initiative or activity that cannot be cost-justified. In this respect, security professionals are feeling the same pressures as specialists in HR, IT, and other departments.”
While security today is becoming more and more business-like, the function has always provided certain business benefits, observes Moussa. “One of the most important traditional benefits is business continuity,” he says. “In any competitive industry, disruptions to a company’s services and operations can have catastrophic effects on a brand — from customer retention to profitability.”
“The importance of business continuity grew much greater after 9/11, as executives realised that the world had become so interconnected that companies were now frighteningly vulnerable to physical as well as IT security breaches.”
“Today, it is essential that security professionals extend security’s business benefits to the entirety of an organisation.”
| The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania & ASIS International offer an educational course to help security professionals work more effectively with other corporate leaders to create beneficial financial results |
Building a larger security strategy
The entirety of a commercial corporation encompasses IT, HR, sales, purchasing, manufacturing and other functions.
According to Moussa, a joint venture educational course between Wharton Executive Education and ASIS can help security professionals work more effectively with other corporate leaders to create beneficial financial results.
Called the “Program for Security Executives: Making the Business Case for Security,” the weeklong course covers basic business concepts designed to improve managerial and strategic capabilities.
In addition, the course aims to communicate the business case for investments in organisational security policy — and how to present a strategy to the C-suite in a way that could earn an approval of part or all of an expanded security programme.
Justifying budgets with the language of business
“Security professionals must use the language of business to describe their operations and to make the case for the budgets needed to support them,” says Moussa.
A security director can use such training to expand a corporate security department to meet today’s new challenges. Moussa says the transformation begins with training for officers as well as.
Once everyone has been trained, the conversion can get under way. “It is always a step by step process,” Moussa says. “You have to sell ideas one at a time to decision makers.”