Why corporate security can’t afford to go to sleep
In late 2019 the first outbreak of Covid-19 occurred, and our lives changed. The pandemic has disrupted economies, political dynamics, communities, and at a very tangible level, our daily lives. The catastrophic impact on the supply chain, and the multitudes of security implications raised by workforces moving from offices into homes are just two of the complex challenges security professionals have been facing. The changes have been massive, and let’s not kid ourselves, exhausting.
As vaccination efforts ramp up in traditional business hubs like the US, UK and the EU, there is a tendency to feel like we’ve been through the worst and now we’re getting back to normal. However, we cannot afford to forget the lessons we’ve only just learned, and at great cost. While Europe prepares to loosen restrictions for the summer, the virus is brutally raging in India. The inequalities of vaccine production and distribution across nations highlights our current geopolitical state and foreshadows its future. Exclusionary nationalism is on the rise as nations struggle to protect their populations and many resort to the uncomfortably human reaction of blaming outsiders for their woes.
This potent environment has fed the social inequalities that already existed – Women, particularly women from minority groups, have been disproportionately impacted by lockdown measures. In areas where people are returning to work, they are returning more slowly than their colleagues. Local frustrations have been quick to boil over, evidenced in, for example, the Dutch curfew riots of March 2021 and in Prague, Czech Republic, October of 2020.
Responding to the challenges of Covid-19 has broadened the scope of corporate security. Many organizations have had no choice but to initiate meaningful collaboration between often disparate groups including security, financial risk, human resources, business continuity and of course, crisis management. Covid-19 has cut across traditional risk categories and must therefore be managed with a holistic view or risk missing the big picture.
Whether at an international or local level, corporate security is more important than ever as organizations try to navigate this modern inter-connected pandemic world. In short, now is not the time to relax. We must put aside the understandable fatigue that comes with such a profound upheaval of daily life. We must take the lessons of the last 18 months and use this time to learn and invest in ways to strengthen security within the organization and the collaboration it requires.
At TeamMacro we are firmly focused on the future, while building on the lessons we’ve learned from the past. To request a demo of TeamMacro TERSM, our security and risk incident management system, built on the principles of accountability and communication by security experts, please contact us at info@teammacro.com
By Louisa Schneller