Risk Management Resilience Risk Planning
Counter Terrorism
Manag - serious
oday’s risk management roles almost require the ability to see into the future, identify the unknown and be able to deal with the now all too common term “unprecedented” in response to major incidents. In light of this, reviewing previous incidents is vital for effective risk management.
T
Risk Management, resilience, business continuity and related areas are born of the need for insurance and protective measures. Essentially, if we look at their raw ingredients, we are protectors of people, finance, property, reputations and, as is so critical today, information.
It is important to consider the speed at which technology grows and develops: this rapidity impacts our risk management. Organisations need to embrace these rapid changes to endure and flourish. In the constant race for new tech, can physical security learn from these advances? What are the equivalent physical alternatives or processes in the real world? Along with the technical advances, new legislation also impacts on risk and keeping up to date with this must be part of risk management.
The wider impact of risk includes the reliance on others to do business and this is often evident when things go wrong. And, we must never forget the natural world. The last two years demonstrate this perfectly. Of course, the fact that so many businesses survived and adapted quickly proves that risk management and resilience works. It’s not easy, but it works.
4 © CITY SECURITY MAGAZINE – SPRING 2022
The saying “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link” is never more apparent than in the risk management environment.
Organisations do not work in silos; they are all in some way or other dependent on someone or something else to function. This interdependency and interoperability is fundamental to modern risk management. The recent Hi Vis days carried out by the City Security Council and the City of London Police demonstrate that this interdependency and partnership working is essential for the wider protective environment. Web-based platforms and the internet also demonstrate this interoperability perfectly.
Communication in risk management is critical, and usually the first point of failure when responding to any incident. Measures to minimise the margins of error must be in place when risks become incidents. Understanding the sender/receiver cycle will assist in reducing any communication blocks. As once famously stated: “no plan survives its first contact with the enemy.” This does not mean you cannot plan and test responses to your identified risks, quite the opposite in fact.
Key to any risk management is having the right person in the right place. This in turn means the right information in the right hands so that decisions, often made by the first responder, can be managed in principle as well as process and ensures the “why” aspect to any response can be in place.
Risk Planning: This has been born out of necessity. It is often defined as including organisational, physical, psychological, legal, economic and moral aspects. All of these add to the complexity of a problem and impact on the risks and the need to be more resilient.
www.citysecuritymagazine.com
An understanding of how you respond to High Impact, Low Probability and Low Impact, High Probability events needs to be in place. The most critical aspect of this needs to consider, “is the plan suitable for the most likely first responder?” Basically, the available plan needs to be a simple set of instructions that can be actioned under duress.
With any risk judgement, we must consider the person making the assessment, which will be subjective and based on that person’s experience, knowledge, abilities and, in some cases, qualifications. This assessment will ultimately lead to the efficacy of any plans when applied to live situations.
Ultimately, people will be dealing with any incident, so the right information, at the right level and with those that understand their roles in relation to these plans is vital. Competency is key. Whichever way or model is employed in planning (for example, the gold, silver, bronze structure), ensuring competency, through testing means that you may avoid outcomes as tragic as that at the Manchester Arena.
Resilience: As introduced earlier, risk and resilience go hand in hand and each organisation will have specificity built into its own risks and responses across various levels.
As situations arise, the impact of these threats may or may not become apparent. However, there must be plans to mitigate, respond, and run operationally under duress if these risks manifest. The current COVID situation is a great example. The planning involved in rapidly deploying resources and responses during COVID demonstrated that having the right information, with the right people and working with available partners was of paramount importance.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
