Security Magazine logo
search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
Security Magazine logo
  • NEWS
    • Security Newswire
    • Technologies & Solutions
  • MANAGEMENT
    • Leadership Management
    • Enterprise Services
    • Security Education & Training
    • Logical Security
    • Security & Business Resilience
    • Profiles in Excellence
  • PHYSICAL
    • Access Management
    • Fire & Life Safety
    • Identity Management
    • Physical Security
    • Video Surveillance
    • Case Studies (Physical)
  • CYBER
    • Cybersecurity News
    • More
  • BLOG
  • COLUMNS
    • Cyber Tactics
    • Leadership & Management
    • Security Talk
    • Career Intelligence
    • Leader to Leader
    • Cybersecurity Education & Training
  • EXCLUSIVES
    • Annual Guarding Report
    • Most Influential People in Security
    • The Security Benchmark Report
    • The Security Leadership Issue
    • Top Guard and Security Officer Companies
    • Top Cybersecurity Leaders
    • Women in Security
  • SECTORS
    • Arenas / Stadiums / Leagues / Entertainment
    • Banking/Finance/Insurance
    • Construction, Real Estate, Property Management
    • Education: K-12
    • Education: University
    • Government: Federal, State and Local
    • Hospitality & Casinos
    • Hospitals & Medical Centers
    • Infrastructure:Electric,Gas & Water
    • Ports: Sea, Land, & Air
    • Retail/Restaurants/Convenience
    • Transportation/Logistics/Supply Chain/Distribution/ Warehousing
  • EVENTS
    • Industry Events
    • Webinars
    • Solutions by Sector
    • Security 500 Conference
  • MEDIA
    • Videos
      • Cybersecurity & Geopolitical Discussion
      • Ask Me Anything (AMA) Series
    • Podcasts
    • Polls
    • Photo Galleries
  • MORE
    • Call for Entries
    • Classifieds & Job Listings
    • Continuing Education
    • Newsletter
    • Sponsor Insights
    • Store
    • White Papers
  • EMAG
    • eMagazine
    • This Month's Content
    • Advertise
  • SIGN UP!
Security Leadership and ManagementSecurity Education & Training

Skills for a Successful Executive in the Business of Security

By Natalie Runyon
Natalie Runyon
August 1, 2011

The biggest skill set gaps in the security industry are business acumen, strategic capabilities and an entrepreneurial mindset, according to Kathy Lavinder, owner of Security & Investigative Placement Consultants and a well-known recruiter in the security industry. By business acumen, we are talking about demonstrating security’s value in key financial terms. When we say strategic capabilities, we are referring to the ability to communicate clearly how security contributes to the business mission and serves the company’s clients. Finally, the entrepreneurial mindset means driving creativity, innovation and accountability. 

Improve Business Acumen

Rodnie Williams, president of the security consulting business Northarrow Group based in Minneapolis, recently told me he seeks to be a business leader with a security expertise rather than being a security expert with a business mindset, a small but important differentiation. If you seek to be a business executive first, then you are in a great position to understand any business. I first heard Rodnie speak at an industry event in January 2011, and during his keynote speech, he recommended reading What the CEO Wants You to Know by Ram Charan.

In this book, Charan explains a company’s financials from the perspective of a Fortune 500 company and a street vendor. He reviews the key financial metrics – cash generation, return on assets (ROA), velocity, margin and growth (market share) – that apply to any company and directs the reader to understand these financial metrics in order learn how the company makes money, which is the first requirement for enhancing business capabilities. Security executives have the greatest opportunity to influence ROA and velocity, if you are in supply chain security.

Another skill that you can develop to increase your business acumen is learning to read a balance sheet. Kathy Lavinder underscored the importance of this point recently. Security is about protecting assets, and a balance sheet summarizes the value of a company’s assets, liability and shareholder equity. The basic balance sheet equation is:

Assets = Liabilities + Shareholder Equity

If security is in the business of protecting assets, then our efforts to do so increase the value of the assets on the left-hand side of the equation. Indeed, this can be a differentiating factor in the company’s treatment of its assets compared to that of its competitors. I acknowledge the challenge of security still being viewed as a cost center among corporate executives, but with enough time and focus, we can begin to reframe it as an opportunity to increase value. With that said, successful change can happen only with an enhanced ability to frame security in business terms.

Once you have developed your business acumen, how do you pass it on to your team? Well, your first action is to set up quarterly meetings to discuss the company’s financial performance, and using the financial metrics in Charan’s book, discuss the financials for the quarter and the trends for the year.

Some questions to get the dialogue going are:

  • Are the company’s revenues increasing or decreasing?
  • What is the return on assets?
  • How efficiently are these assets being used (velocity)?
  • Is the market share increasing or decreasing?
  • How has the profit margin shifted from one quarter to the next?

 

Invite the team to offer opportunities for the security team to enhance the company’s performance. Doing so, you will be building their strategic and entrepreneurial capabilities, too. Indeed, you may not get any viable suggestions, but you have engaged your team to think about their day-to-day roles in a new frame with a business mindset. They are also learning through experience, which is the best kind to have for long-term retention.

Use case studies to hone your team’s business acumen. In Security and the CFO: Show Me the Money, published in the February 2011 issue of Security, CSOs share how they discuss the business of security, and their experience can be used to challenge your team:

  • How much does fraud cost your company each year? What is the cost of the security programs designed to reduce losses resulting from fraud?
  • How much does theft cost the company? What is the cost of the security programs that prevent and detect theft?
  • What are the company’s liability exposure and the loss of assets as the result of a disaster? How much do the safety and business resiliency programs cost the company each year?
  • What is the potential impact on the stock price in a crisis based on the public perception of its preparedness and resiliency?

 

Another way you can teach business skills to your team is to put in place a boot camp of learning opportunities to educate your team about the business for which the security is being provided. If it is not explicitly part of the team’s performance requirements, opportunities and the creativity necessary to demonstrate value will be limited. What distinguishes boot camp from other training programs is that it teaches employees about the business, from revenue generation to expenses to accounts receivable.

The ASIS Women in Security group holds regular Ask-a-Mentor sessions for small groups of security professionals; during these forums, the attendees are invited to ask any question that is on their mind. Make these sessions part of your boot camp. You can use this same model for your security staff with invitations to revenue generators to be “mentors.” Invite the mentors to discuss his/her line of business, its drivers and its financial performance.

By working on your business acumen, you are investing time and effort that will have a significant compounding impact on the ROI of your time. Knowing the value of the assets you protect and understanding how your security services can affect the efficiency of how the assets are being used positions you to intelligently discuss with upper management and your team the ROI of your security programs. At the same time, deepening your comprehension of the company’s financials and their drivers enables you to enhance your strategic capabilities by identifying how security contributes to the business mission and serves the company’s clients.

 

Hone Strategic Capabilities

Another way to develop your strategic outlook is to attune your mission to that of the company’s. According to Seven Ways to Maximize Value to the Corporation in the July 2010 issue of Securitymagazine, one of the first activities the Security Executive Council advises is to analyze each security program under a strategic lens to ensure:

  • The benefits outweigh the cost.
  • Expenses are managed and measured by program.
  • The case for relevancy is clear.
  • Programs are reviewed for enhancements regularly.
  • Partnerships with other risk management are outlined.

 

After completing these points on your own, pose them to your team and foster a discussion. Then, challenge all team member to draft their own mission statement explaining how their day-to-day roles contribute to the company’s clients. Going through this detailed exercise will enable your security team to communicate concisely their contribution to the business goals.

 

Develop “Securpreneurial” Mindsets

A 2010 IBM study of 1,500 CEOs indicated that the most important contributor in succeeding in the marketplace today is creativity, which can mean different things in many contexts. For our purposes, we are talking about creativity as a securpreneurial mindset. Intellectual curiosity is the first step. Be curious about understanding how senior executives think about the team’s contribution to the business, how each member of your team approaches solving challenges, and what motivates each individual. Ask a lot of questions. If you are parent, do you recall when your child at the age of 3 or 4 would ask, “Why?” about everything? Take that same approach to understanding your team, the perspectives of senior executives and the company’s clients. This will enable you to at a minimum build better relationships with key stakeholders and identify commercial opportunities.

The next challenge is to pass it on to your team, and this is where my services as part of CSO Leadership Training can help. Build an army of securpreneurs. With innovation and creativity driving our new “knowledge-based” economy, human capital and retention of staff are critical. With that said, old management models don’t truly encourage the kind of securpreneurial thinking needed for success. Here are some steps to take:

  1. Create an incentive that rewards the employee and helps align his or her personal and professional goals with the company’s.
  2. Manage performance by quarterly outlining business objectives.
  3. Support the development of staff by encouraging stretch projects that help individuals on your team to build their capabilities and that help you demonstrate value to senior management.

 

An easy way to record progress to the quarterly goals is to have each team member outline:

  • What action was taken?
  • What was the result of the action? How did it save money, increase efficiency and/or enhance effectiveness?
  • What was the impact of the action? How does the action and result mitigate risk, increase protection or enhance value to the company?

 

Honing business acumen skills, strategic capabilities and securpreneurial abilities for you and your team require time spent away from day-to-day activities. Investing the time on each area mutually reinforces the others, compounding the benefits. Expending effort on the long-term view in these three areas also fosters team building, knowledge sharing and relationship building, all of which enhance professional development, staff retention and team engagement. Who would not want to work for a security leader invested in producing results and building capabilities in their staff they can use anywhere?  

KEYWORDS: entrepreneurial mindset strategy

Share This Story

Looking for a reprint of this article?
From high-res PDFs to custom plaques, order your copy today!

Sec0811 edu inbody 150px

Natalie Runyon, through CSO Leadership Training, specializes in leadership development, communication skills, and career advancement for women leaders in security. Her background in corporate security working in a variety of different capacities, such as security operations, people development, and management and administration, have given her an intimate understanding of the unique leadership challenges women face. Natalie utilizes her leadership and communications expertise as an adjunct instructor at the New York University School of Continued & Professional Studies and as a trainer to ASIS Women in Security and Women in International Security. She earned her M.B.A from The George Washington University and her B.S. in International Trade and Finance from Louisiana State University. Before her security career, she spent five years in US Intelligence as an illicit transactions analyst. She is a Certified Professional Coach from the Institute of Professional Excellence in Coaching

Recommended Content

JOIN TODAY
To unlock your recommendations.

Already have an account? Sign In

  • Security's Top Cybersecurity Leaders 2024

    Security's Top Cybersecurity Leaders 2024

    Security magazine's Top Cybersecurity Leaders 2024 award...
    Security Enterprise Services
    By: Security Staff
  • cyber brain

    The intersection of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence

    Artificial intelligence (AI) is a valuable cybersecurity...
    Logical Security
    By: Pam Nigro
  • artificial intelligence AI graphic

    Assessing the pros and cons of AI for cybersecurity

    Artificial intelligence (AI) has significant implications...
    Cybersecurity Education & Training
    By: Charles Denyer
Subscribe For Free!
  • Security eNewsletter & Other eNews Alerts
  • eMagazine Subscriptions
  • Manage My Preferences
  • Online Registration
  • Mobile App
  • Subscription Customer Service

More Videos

Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content is a special paid section where industry companies provide high quality, objective, non-commercial content around topics of interest to the Security audience. All Sponsored Content is supplied by the advertising company and any opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily reflect the views of Security or its parent company, BNP Media. Interested in participating in our Sponsored Content section? Contact your local rep!

close
  • Crisis Response Team
    Sponsored byEverbridge

    Automate or Fall Behind – Crisis Response at the Speed of Risk

  • Perimeter security
    Sponsored byAMAROK

    Why Property Security is the New Competitive Advantage

  • Duty of Care
    Sponsored byAMAROK

    Integrating Technology and Physical Security to Advance Duty of Care

Popular Stories

Pills spilled

More than 20,000 sensitive medical records exposed

Laptop in darkness

Verizon 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report shows rise in cyberattacks

Coding on screen

Research reveals mass scanning and exploitation campaigns

White post office truck

Department of Labor Sues USPS Over Texas Whistleblower Termination

Computer with binary code hovering nearby

Cyberattacks Targeting US Increased by 136%

2025 Security Benchmark banner

Events

May 22, 2025

Proactive Crisis Communication

Crisis doesn't wait for the right time - it strikes when least expected. Is your team prepared to communicate clearly and effectively when it matters most?

September 29, 2025

Global Security Exchange (GSX)

 

View All Submit An Event

Products

Security Culture: A How-to Guide for Improving Security Culture and Dealing with People Risk in Your Organisation

Security Culture: A How-to Guide for Improving Security Culture and Dealing with People Risk in Your Organisation

See More Products

Related Articles

  • Natalie Runyon

    Leadership Behaviors to Drive Innovation in Security Organizations

    See More
  • The Uncharted Path for New Security Leaders

    Hiring a CISO: The evolving role of your security executive

    See More
  • cyber network

    The three main ingredients for the successful implementation of Zero Trust in the time of COVID-19: Machine learning, carta and software defined perimeter

    See More

Related Products

See More Products
  • security culture.webp

    Security Culture: A How-to Guide for Improving Security Culture and Dealing with People Risk in Your Organisation

  • Physical-Security-and-Safet.gif

    Physical Security and Safety: A Field Guide for the Practitioner

  • physical security.webp

    Physical Security Assessment Handbook An Insider’s Guide to Securing a Business

See More Products
×

Sign-up to receive top management & result-driven techniques in the industry.

Join over 20,000+ industry leaders who receive our premium content.

SIGN UP TODAY!
  • RESOURCES
    • Advertise
    • Contact Us
    • Store
    • Want More
  • SIGN UP TODAY
    • Create Account
    • eMagazine
    • eNewsletter
    • Customer Service
    • Manage Preferences
  • SERVICES
    • Marketing Services
    • Reprints
    • Market Research
    • List Rental
    • Survey/Respondent Access
  • STAY CONNECTED
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
    • X (Twitter)
  • PRIVACY
    • PRIVACY POLICY
    • TERMS & CONDITIONS
    • DO NOT SELL MY PERSONAL INFORMATION
    • PRIVACY REQUEST
    • ACCESSIBILITY

Copyright ©2025. All Rights Reserved BNP Media.

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing