Last month I had the honor to speak at the Security 500 conference in front of a large room of senior security leaders. My own personal take-away from the event is that no matter how long you’ve been in this industry there is always something new to learn.
For two years after a gunman opened fire inside a Southern California Edison office, corporate security rebuilt and reframed their corporate culture toward active shooter policies.
"Acts of violence such as active shooters aren’t random,” says A. Benjamin Mannes. “From events such as Adam Lanza and Newtown, Nikolas Cruz and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Jin Yu Park at Virginia Tech, and even Jared Loughner, who shot Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, all were planned.”
In last month’s column I took you though the research process in preparing for the interviews of executives and other key functional leaders in the enterprise. Now that you are ready to start conducting interviews, it is important to have a core list of key questions that you will ask each interviewee, along with specific questions unique to their role or function.
If you and your program are not viewed as adding value and assisting the business in executing its strategy, then you are relegated to a draw on overhead or worse yet a necessary evil. If you are viewed as the latter, it might be time to brush up your resume, as your days may be numbered.
Security organizations both in the private and public sectors have made considerable progress in gaining stature. More and more senior security executives truly have a seat at the table today as a respected member of the C-suite. Many security executives regularly interface with the Board of Directors and maintain excellent relationships with board members. Security organizations still have a lot of room for improvement.