Executive Insights: How tactical expertise shields global enterprises in an unstable world
Amidst the beauty and interconnectedness of the world, we are increasingly threatened by a complex array of dangers. Cyberattacks, workplace violence, political unrest, terrorism, and organized crime, along with natural disasters and climate change, create an unpredictable environment. In this landscape, physical and digital security are not just important, but paramount. As geopolitical tensions rise and criminal networks exploit technological vulnerabilities, the need for preparedness and resilience becomes more urgent than ever, demanding immediate action.
With a unique suite of solutions, Crisis24, a GardaWorld company, and its Crisis24 Private Strategic Group stand out among tactical-thinking organizations. Their mission is to create a safe working environment for companies globally. They achieve this by offering an AI-enhanced platform in travel risk management, mass communications, critical event management, crisis-security consulting, personal protection solutions, and a global medical concierge practice, setting them apart in the industry.
At the recent GSX security conference in Orlando, SecurityInfoWatch.com shared a compelling conversation with two prime figures at Crisis24 who are intimately involved with global clients seeking everything from executive protection and GSOC operations to corporate security consulting.
Under the leadership of Morgan Stevens, the senior vice president of global security operations and strategy, Crisis24's team of analysts, embedded in corporations in the U.S. and internationally, provides intelligence monitoring on real-time and evolving security and safety issues worldwide. Their expertise, honed through years of experience in high-profile technology companies and the British Army, ensures that Crisis24 is at the forefront of global security operations. This wealth of experience should make our clients feel secure and confident in our capabilities.
Dave Fox is the Americas regional director for Crisis24's Crisis Security Consulting Division. He joined Crisis24 in 2019 bringing 32 years of law enforcement and corporate experience. Dave leads Crisis24's global investigations practice and the Americas pre-incident crisis and security consulting team, responsible for delivering a range of security and travel risk management, crisis management capability development and travel. Before joining Crisis24, Dave was the CSO for an international privately-owned energy company. He was responsible for intelligence-led risk mitigation strategies and developing and implementing global security guidelines, procedures, and policies. This followed a 27-year career with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), where he led serious criminal, financial (money laundering, frauds, Ponzi schemes, breach of trust, corruption of foreign officials) and internet/cyber facilitated crimes.
SecurityInfoWatch.com (SIW): If I'm a CSO of an enterprise global company, what's keeping me up at night right now?
Morgan Stevens: That's a great question. Luckily, the things that keep you or our clients up at night are the problems we're trying to solve. Like you said, it's a tinderbox now, whether it be here domestically or internationally. I don't think we've, at least in our lifetime, operated in an environment that is so contentious. With that, though, unfortunately, we can showcase what we've built, at least here at Crisis24, in what we believe is the best personal protection and global medical concierge service out there. Unfortunately, it's been shaped by these past experiences and occurrences. That's why we've taken what we consider to be the best of what's out there, whether that be Dr. Bill Lang, a former White House medical director, or some of our strategic acquisitions in the Patriot Group and Gavin de Becker.
So yeah, we're busy trying to stay at the forefront of these challenges, continue looking at what's out there in the market, and bring what we believe are the best players to the table to support our clients in the best way. Our proactive approach ensures that we are always one step ahead, ready to tackle any security issue that may arise.
Dave Fox: As a former CSO for five years for a multinational corporation with an ultra-high net worth family office, as a CSO in those roles, my concerns are all about the gaps {in security}. I know what key components I need to have in place to anticipate, prepare, respond to, and recover from an event. Normally, I don't have a staff that will be able to augment that or the bandwidth to do it myself. But there are so many components of it.
We talk about organizational resilience, but do we also include the word readiness that is included within that? I think that's what we do well with our wider; we like to use the term one-stop shop, as we can fill if not all, those gaps, most of them some companies inevitably have.
SIW: What would you tell a CSO who feels their security is solid but is concerned about unknown risks?
Morgan Stevens: Without knowing what the risk is... I mean, this is why we have a partnership with our clients. We don't have a sales team for a reason. We're all practitioners in our space. It also builds that relationship with the client to understand their risk appetite. What is their threat picture? What's the culture of this company, that I might be looking at what's out there in this space and then saying to them, "Hey, have you considered, based on your position on this subject, that it may cause X, Y, or Z as a problem for you in the future?"
It's building that partnership and understanding our clients from the top down, whether at the CEO level or the product they're building. We support the world's most prominent individuals and disruptive brands. For that exact reason, it’s our ability to understand that we want them to disrupt, continue innovating, and do what they're doing in their spaces, but let us help them do it in a meaningful way and as safely and securely as possible.
Dave Fox: Another component of it, having sat in the chair, is that if you're always walking down the hall and talking to the C-suite's ownership. They get a little tone-deaf to the risks you keep bringing forward. Sometimes, bringing that outside perspective, that independent expert advice, practitioner advice is helpful. I can't tell you how often it's like, "We should do that because somebody else has told us to do that."
SIW: What did resilience mean to you as a CSO, and how has that changed when partnering with external providers?
Dave Fox: The four components are anticipate, prepare, respond and recover. Resilience is resiliency; we must always add that second word with readiness. So, if the first component is to be resilient, you need to anticipate what will impact you next. You need a forward-focusing intelligence program that says, "Okay, we're operating in these different environments. What are the potential risks we need to prepare for?" You can't prepare for everything because your risk mitigation measures only carry you so far. Still, the better prepared you are in the event of an incident, it will compress the time you're negatively impacting your organization, company, and shareholders. And then it's that whole recovery. You must learn from it to be better prepared the next time you're impacted because it's a dynamic world. There are risks with the different conflicts around the world and the things we're faced with at home; you have a lot of geopolitical stuff. I think that's a key consideration.
Morgan Stevens: When you speak to a CSO, resilience seems to be the keyword. However, having worked and lived professionally around CEOs for 15 years, I know they care about productivity.
SIW: What key points do you emphasize to help clients understand the importance of executive protection?
Morgan Stevens: It's not one-size-fits-all. We build bespoke programs, so they're not off the shelf. We spend a lot of time talking to the teams and individuals and understanding their lives. We must understand the threat picture. We might be approaching a client who's an unknown tech CEO, different from one of the Fortune 500 CEOs, a defense contractor or whatever. But it's understanding that we want to be able to build this program around them and their lives and not force it upon them. There's nothing worse than forcing something on a CEO, and you don't get buy-in.
SIW: Dave, what are some of the best practices you want to look for?
Dave Fox: Many people in security may sell the requirement for that out of fear, fear of safety for the individual, whereas I think we look at it differently. Morgan's earlier point about the three things somebody requires. In my experience, and where it pays dividends, if I can reduce the anxiety around anything going on in my life as a senior leader or an owner, I can concentrate on running the business and doing my job. It's about reducing their anxiety and just allowing them to function. In many boards, we're getting a lot more input from boards saying, you need to do these things because you're too important to the organization. You shouldn't be self-driving, and you shouldn't be self-driving because you should be concentrating on the work. You shouldn't be worried about missing your meeting when somebody else can drive you from point A to point B.
The other point is returning to the resilience and readiness component. We've worked with some clients and some big multinational ones, where we've done a lot of training in incident crisis management and have a very strong anticipatory component. And they've said that because of the amount of effort they've put into the program, they've seen a positive impact on the organization. Downtime for these big multinationals…has been reduced by two or more days.
Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
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