![]() What Does the Board and Senior Management Need to Know About Corporate Security?The Evolution Has StartedBy Kathleen Kotwica, EVP and Chief Knowledge Strategist, Security Executive CouncilThe Security Executive Council's subject matter experts, most former CSOs, have hundreds of collective years of experience in corporate security. They both brought value to their businesses through corporate security and raised corporate security to a level of high value in their organizations. Some presented to the Board of Directors; others influenced senior management, who then brought some issues to the Board. But many CSOs don't gain the traction they need to rise to that level of attention. Why does corporate security frequently garner less attention from Boards and senior management than cyber security? A lot of it comes down to money – a severe information breach can cost a company much more than a single physical security event. But many small losses do add up. In its 2020 Report to the Nations, the ACFE estimates that organizations lose 5% of revenue to internal fraud each year, and fraud prevention and detection represents only one aspect of what corporate security is involved in. Corporate security is about much more than protecting an organization from unauthorized physical access, and this may not be clear to some Boards and senior managers. We'd like to let senior management and the Board know a little more about the advantages of a high-functioning security organization and what it can bring to a company. We asked our subject matter experts to share some lesser-known benefits of corporate security and some examples of ways in which corporate security can evolve (and has evolved, in many instances) beyond the typical expectations for the function. This list may be helpful to senior management who want to engage the Board's attention for the corporate security group, especially if they can also show how loss avoidance due to risk controls equals savings. It may also be helpful to CSOs who want to evolve their functions to an attention-getting level.
Many thanks to the contributors to this article: George Campbell, SEC Emeritus Faculty; Francis D'Addario, SEC Emeritus Faculty; Bob Hayes, SEC Managing Director; and Dan Sauvageau, SEC Emeritus Faculty. Next StepsGetting the positive attention of executive management can be difficult. The SEC can call on its vast network of successful security leaders to assist you with presenting your security program in a manner to gain traction with your Board. Click here for more information on how we can help with your evolution.For more resources on this topic see Security Leadership : Security as a Business Watch our 3-minute video to learn about how the SEC works with security leaders. Contact us at: contact @secleader.com. Copyright Security Executive Council. Last Updated: October 27, 2021 You can download a PDF of this page below: What_Does_Executive_Management_Need_to_Know_About_Corporate_Security.pdf |