At PPM, we provide those involved in investigation management, security, and risk with the best incident management software to enhance their business processes. Part of our ethos is also sharing knowledge relating to the business with those involved in it. With this ongoing commitment in mind, we have invited John Buckley to share his ideas on how professionals can effectively manage investigations, brand protection, and loss prevention. If you haven’t yet, read John’s first post Defining Incident Management and second post Protecting Your Brand by Knowing the Extent of the Problem in this series.
Intelligent Loss Prevention
“Without knowledge action is useless and knowledge without action is futile.” – Abu Bakr
We often fool ourselves into thinking that when it comes to managing a business in a computer age, there is little to be learned from the past. However, if we open our minds and re-examine the history of business management, we will find that little has really changed when it comes to how people respond to information overload.
In the age of “big data” and immediate access to information at the touch of a few buttons, today’s hard pressed security manager often finds themselves with so much data that they have no idea what to do with it. In the end, they may well end up investigating incidents that land on their desk in a crisis or those that promise a quick result.
For many companies, this is the way it has always been. However, there are better methods.
If we view loss prevention, in its broadest sense, to refer to any way that a business can suffer loss, then a better way of managing losses is to adopt the proven law enforcement “intelligence led” model, and apply the principles in it to loss prevention. Of course, this makes the assumption that anyone attempting to adopt this type of approach understands the intelligence led approach. Rather than delve into a prolonged debate about what is and what is not intelligence led policing, let us just say it is about collecting knowledge and deciding how to use that knowledge most effectively.
There are two key elements to the intelligence-led model. First, gather and analyse all of the relevant information in one centralised system. Second, use the intelligence gained from the analysed information to select the course of action that will have the greatest benefit.
Any security manager can identify and understand the merits of an intelligence-led approach to loss prevention, by following these points:
- There will always be more incidents and problems to investigate than there will be resources to investigate them.
- Incidents and issues come in many different types, and have different impacts.
- An intelligence-led approach is about having as much knowledge about each incident so that a manager can prioritise what to investigate and what to let go.
- All information about such issues must be collected, stored centrally, and analysed, so that the extent of the problem can be accurately identified.
- A knowledge based decision is then made as to what is to be investigated. This is done against agreed timescales and resource input.
- A comprehensive record is kept of the progress of the investigation with reviews at regular intervals.
- Investigation priorities are reviewed at identified times during the year, keeping them aligned with overall business strategy.
While such an approach will not negate the need for a security manager to respond to cases of urgency, the principles outlined here will help them focus on the top priorities of the organisation’s senior leadership. In short, an ‘intelligent loss prevention strategy’ is about using knowledge to prevent the maximum amount of harm, while accepting that it is impossible to prevent all harm.
To paraphrase the wisdom of Abu Bakr: “Gain the knowledge to act appropriately.”
About the author: John Buckley is an independent consultant, speaker, and author with many years of practical know-how in assisting organisations with forming their business priorities and investigation management. He specialises in investigation, intelligence, risk management, and counter terrorism protective security. He is the author of three books relating to intelligence and risk management, and provides training and consultancy on an international basis. John currently resides in the United Kingdom.
If you would like more information on how PPM’s investigation and security case management software can work for your organisation, send us an email. We’d love to hear from you.
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