The NFL has seen successful coaching trees — assistant coaches who went on to become head coaches — across the organization. Does the same go for enterprise security?
Former NFL coach Bill Parcells’s coaching tree — consisting of assistant coaches who went on to become head coaches in their own right — is legendary. Parcells hired and trained Bill Belichick among 14 head coaches who have collectively won nine Super Bowls. One of today’s most powerful coaching tree branches out from Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, who himself sprouted from the legendary Bill Walsh tree.
Does the corporate security world have its own version of coaching trees — chief security officers (CSOs) whose deputies or other staff went on to become heads of security or executive leaders at the same organization or elsewhere? I revisited my 30 years of working with corporate security departments and consulted with experts with extensive knowledge of corporate security leadership to find out.