Before I joined Stabilitas, I spent about 4 years in the Army as an Infantry Officer. My job meant juggling a lot of tasks in a lot of places, and since joining Stabilitas I’ve seen Security Managers dealing with the same problem.
During one particularly challenging exercise at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, CA, I needed to defend a three mile stretch of land against dozens of simulated enemy tanks with only 25 Soldiers and two missile launchers. If I couldn’t hold my position, nothing but open desert stood between enemy forces and critical logistics for the entire Brigade, a result that defined catastrophic failure.
I was faced with a serious problem: How could I protect my vital operations when the assets I had couldn’t be everywhere at once? Was there an opportunity to accomplish our objectives hidden in the risks I was facing?
It turns out an opportunity was there, I just had to find it. Modern military theory addresses this challenge with the concept of “surfaces” and “gaps,” and the need to identify them in both friendly and hostile formations in order to achieve success on the battlefield. That is to say, you have to know where your opponent is strong (surfaces) and where he is weak (gaps) in order to use those strengths and weaknesses to your advantage. In Risk Management the concept of surfaces and gaps applies to both a company’s internal operations and its operating environment.
Effective risk management in a globalized, mobile economy does more than simply ensure people and assets stay safe and accounted for during critical events — it also provides access to opportunities in markets that don’t have fully developed infrastructure or security.
One approach to security in high-risk markets is increased physical security for all critical assets. In essence, the goal of this approach is to make every asset a surface that is so well protected, none are subject to serious risk.
Unfortunately, this can get expensive quickly and can make the entire market dependent on a cumbersome network of security and protection. This is particularly true when market segments are closely linked to high-risk areas. Most importantly, there is simply no way to eliminate all the gaps in a security plan.
What if you could see the surfaces and gaps in your organization and your threat environment, in real time and in one glance?
With Stabilitas, you can. We believe that staying informed is the key to staying safe. As a veteran-founded and veteran-led company, we know the importance of surfaces and gaps, both in our own operations and in the operational environment. Our technology is inspired by the tools we used in the military, which allows users to see their own assets right alongside potential risk events. This gives security managers the ability to focus on opportunities — gaps in the local environment where residual risk is low — instead of waiting to react as a crisis unfolds.
For example, a Security Manager with Stabilitas can see that numerous employees regularly travel to a particular city with a reputation for being unsafe. The Security Manager also sees that the threat events reported in that city are much more common in several specific neighborhoods, but that a few parts of the city are quite safe. This insight empowers him to recommend that his business open a new office in one of those safe neighborhoods, increasing productivity and reducing travel expenses while simultaneously keeping company employees safe.
In an ideal world, security managers would know about critical events before they happen and be able to take preemptive action every time. While local sources may sometimes provide early warning, security managers and Global Security Operations Centers (GSOCs) simply understand that some threats may emerge without notice. In these situations, security professionals need to be able to assess the threat quickly and accurately, and respond rapidly in order to ensure business continuity.
Stabilitas combines all the tools security professionals need into a single intuitive platform accessible through a mobile app and a web dashboard. Built on real-world experience using military technology to inform operations and keep people safe in a combat environment, Stabilitas allows users to have a true shared common operating picture. Risk events, which are derived from a combination of sources that range from machine-learning algorithms to human analysts to user generated reports, are displayed alongside assets and personnel on a common map. Communication by data, email, SMS, and voice call is seamlessly integrated. Configurable alerts allow managers to specify who needs to be alerted for given types of events, and how those alerts will be sent if and when the specified conditions are met.
At NTC, I had access to tools that helped me find an opportunity for success despite overwhelming odds. I had to accept some risk by occupying an isolated position, but that gave us the ability to maximize our strengths in camouflage, range, and optics. My Soldiers destroyed 18 enemy vehicles and repulsed every attack thrown at us. Our victory meant that both the Company (one level up the chain of command) and Battalion (two levels up) achieved all their objectives that day.
We don’t expect you to take on tanks. But we know from experience just how valuable good intelligence tools can be. The enterprise risk management software built by Stabilitas allows organizations to make the most of every opportunity by keeping their people safe, assets protected, and operations uninterrupted during disruptive events and in markets with elevated baseline risk levels.
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by Brendan Dorsey, Stabliitas Marketing Associate