The most important step is to understand the level and type of kidnap risk in countries or regions where your organization operates or where employees are expected to travel for business reasons.
You are the Head of Security for an international oil services company with thousands of employees located across Latin America, a position you have now held for three weeks. Your predecessor focused on security measures and loss prevention, but failed to prepare fully for the possibility of a kidnapping. Your security manager in Venezuela has informed you that four geologists have been missing for 24 hours. He reports that the geologists were travelling to a drilling site without a security escort, and all attempts to locate them have been unsuccessful.
Is there a simple explanation for the disappearance? Were they involved in a road traffic accident? Were they kidnapped? Were they killed? However, they disappeared in Venezuela, a country with one of the highest homicide and kidnap rates globally. What do you do next?