Workplace MVP: Andy Davis, Trident Manor Limited
Andy Davis, Founder of Trident Manor Limited, brings extensive global experience to his work in risk management and security consulting for organizations. He joined host Jamie Gassmann to offer perspective on the scope of cyber threats, share tips for mitigating workplace violence, address the particular personal safety concerns for women traveling, and much more. Workplace MVP” is underwritten and presented by R3 Continuum and produced by the Minneapolis-St.Paul Studio of Business RadioX®.
Andy Davis, CEO, Managing Director, Trident Manor Limited
Andy Davis is an international security, risk, and crisis management expert based in the United Kingdom. Following time spent undertaking investigative and intelligence activities within British security organizations. Andy joined the UK foreign service as a security risk management specialist responsible for the protection of embassies, personnel, families, and information. This took him around the world and in charge of all security activities in countries such as Uganda, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan.
Following a commercial job offer he joined the corporate world as the Head of Security (Safety & Insurance) for a Middle Eastern organization with assets of over $40 billion. This involved strategic oversight of all security and safety activities, designing and implementation of protective policies and the development of collaborative emergency and crisis management plans requiring engagement with emergency services, the intelligence community, and government officials.
In 2013 Andy left the corporate world and established Trident Manor Limited as a specialist security, risk, and crisis management consultancy dedicated to supporting others from individuals through to global organizations in the protection of their assets. He has operated in over 30 countries delivering advice and guidance and has responded to crisis situations where deployments into crisis situations have taken place to protect client’s operations and assets.
In 2020 during the COVID crisis, he devoted time, effort, and energy to create Trident Manor Training Academy which provides specialist training programs that concentrate on the protection of individuals, the protection of staff, and the protection of organizational assets, including their reputation.
He holds a Master of Science degree in security and risk management, is board certified by ASIS International and CPP (Certified Protection Professional), he is a Chartered security professional, a Fellow of the Security institute and chairs a number of professional safety and security organizations.
Andy is passionate about supporting cultural and heritage organizations as well as those humanitarian organizations that operate in difficult or hostile environments. He lectures around the world and has written numerous articles for professional or trade magazines.
Trident Manor Limited
Trident Manor Limited was established in 2013 to offer clients, irrespective of their size, professional security, risk, and crisis management services anywhere in the world.
As with the trident the company offers three distinctive service strands, the consultancy, the education and training, and protective services.
Consultancy
The consultancy services offered have included undertaking strategic and operational reviews for organizations to assess the threats, risks, and vulnerabilities they may be exposed to. Once identified solutions are provided to manage and mitigate the threats and the risks that exist. Where vulnerabilities are identified ways of mitigating them are introduced. These assessments have involved evaluations from a wide range of threat sources such as terrorism, organized crime, espionage, riots and open conflict, and the often-forgotten threat ‘the insider’.
Once threats have been identified Trident Manor has supported organizations in creating robust and resilient policies, practices and procedures that provide organizational direction, reduce risks and address duty of care responsibilities.
Within the consultancy services is a specialist team responsible for ‘Corporate Research’ activities. This is a term used to describe our business investigative and intelligence services that have been used by global clients to assess threats to staff in Venezuela, operational issues in Mexico, threats from organized crime in Hungary, and in January 2020 the threat from a pandemic that was spreading from Wuhan.
The consultancy services are bespoke for a client’s needs and driven by what is most beneficial for the client, not profit margins. The sensible and pragmatic approach, alongside their discretion is respected by many individuals and organizations alike.
Training
Trident Manor has provided training to organizations around the world. It has been responsible for the creation of many bespoke programs that are sector or organization specific. The primary focus has been on the protection of individuals through the creation of personal safety and security programs, workplace violence, travel risk management, and operating in difficult environment programs.
In addition, the professionalization of individuals engaged in the cultural, hospitality, and retail sectors has been delivered through the implementation of programs such as proactive risk reduction, conflict avoidance, situational awareness and surveillance detection. Specialist driving, first aid, surveillance/counter-surveillance, and intelligence have also been developed to support the individual and the organizations they work for.
Finally, training programs aimed at the senior management and organizational level have been created and include emergency response scenario-based exercise, tabletop crisis management activities, through to full-scale collaborative exercises designed to test integrated response.
Protective Services
The protective services offered by Trident Manor include concierge staff, executive protection officers, security drivers, embedded security managers, and high-value escort services. One of the more recent protective services offered by Trident Manor is the e=protection services. This is where analysts collect and collate data from electronic sources that relate to clients or client activities before it is processed into actionable intelligence that can proactively prevent threats from impacting a client. This service is ideal for C-Suite members, those in sensitive positions, or the organization itself.
Whatever services a client requires Trident Manor has the global resources to help with “Enabling the Protection of Assets” – their motto since 2013.
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About “Workplace MVP”
Every day, around the world, organizations of all sizes face disruptive events and situations. Within those workplaces are everyday heroes in human resources, risk management, security, business continuity, and the C-suite. They don’t call themselves heroes though. On the contrary, they simply show up every day, laboring for the well-being of employees in their care, readying the workplace for and planning responses to disruption. This show, “Workplace MVP,” confers on these heroes the designation they deserve, Workplace MVP (Most Valuable Professionals), and gives them the forum to tell their story. As you hear their experiences, you will learn first-hand, real life approaches to readying the workplace, responses to crisis situations, and overcoming challenges of disruption. Visit our show archive here.
“Workplace MVP” Host Jamie Gassmann
In addition to serving as the host to the Workplace MVP podcast, Jamie Gassmann is the Director of Marketing at R3 Continuum (R3c). Collectively, she has more than fourteen years of marketing experience. Across her tenure, she has experience working in and with various industries including banking, real estate, retail, crisis management, insurance, business continuity, and more. She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mass Communications with special interest in Advertising and Public Relations and a Master of Business Administration from Paseka School of Business, Minnesota State University.
TRANSCRIPT
Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting from the Business RadioX Studios, it’s time for Workplace MVP. Workplace MVP is brought to you by R3 Continuum, a global leader in workplace behavioral health and security solutions. Now, here’s your host, Jamie Gassmann.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:00:26] Hi, everyone. Your host, Jamie Gassmann here. And welcome to this edition of Workplace MVP. The Workplace MVP we will be celebrating today brings expertise in an area that can be helpful, both personally and professionally. With us today to share his wisdom and knowledge regarding safety and security and crisis management is Owner and Managing Director at Trident Manor Limited, Andy Davis. Welcome to the show, Andy. And thank you for joining us today.
Andy Davis: [00:00:54] Thanks very much, Jamie. It’s a great pleasure.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:00:58] So, before we dive into today’s topic, can you tell me a little bit about yourself and your career journey?
Andy Davis: [00:01:05] Well, I suppose, as your listeners will identify, I’m from the UK. And I’ve been involved in security and risk management most of my adult career. That include the time in the British Military, where I was involved in intelligence activities and security management. In the police service in the UK, where I was a detective and led a team of investigators and, finally, undertaken intelligence activities. And then, ultimately, I joined the Foreign Service and I did roles equivalent to your RS or Regional Security officers, and that took me to Uganda, Colombia, working in Venezuela, Guyana, Panama, Saudi Arabia, throughout the Middle East and Pakistan.
Andy Davis: [00:02:01] Eventually, I entered the corporate world in the UAE, the United Arab Emirates, where I took a position as the corporate head of security. And then, in 2013, I established Trident Manor, which is my own security risk management consultancy.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:02:19] Great. Wow, what a journey you’ve had with your career. So, you recently held a free virtual event that was focused on personal safety and security for women. Can you tell us about that event and why it was important to you?
Andy Davis: [00:02:34] Well, throughout my career, personal safety and security has always been important, whether it’s my own personal safety and security or that’s looking after and caring for other third parties, whether it was diplomats, diplomatic wives, et cetera. And sometimes that was in difficult and hostile environments. This event that I held followed the kidnap and murder of a young female in London by a police officer who has been charged. And there was a lot of outcry, a lot of concern on social media, on mainstream media about the safety of women.
Andy Davis: [00:03:17] And so, what I volunteered to do as an individual, as opposed to Trident Manor, was to hold this event where some of the realities could be shared about, certainly in the UK, the levels of crime, but also victimization shown in identifying that lots of attacks on female was carried out by partners or people who they knew. And, actually, percentage wise, there was a small amount that was by strangers. But it’s primarily the strangers that caused the fear because they are the unknown.
Andy Davis: [00:03:54] Then, it went through a whole series of trying to give advice and guidance that would help everybody. And in this case, it was particularly aimed at females going about their daily lives, whether they’d be socializing, in the workplace, or actually travelling overseas. So, we give that presentation. It was well received. There was over 250, I think, on the call from around the world. And we’ve since actually uploaded that again, free of charge, so that anybody can see and share them.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:04:27] Great. That sounds like it was a well-attended event or a well-received event because I’m sure the information you shared was very helpful for that audience.
Andy Davis: [00:04:37] Yeah. I mean, it is important from the sense of the reality versus perception. But, also, the vulnerability of females. And the idea was, hopefully, to give them some confidence in actually ways of avoiding some of the dangers themselves. So, proactive prevention rather than reacting to an incident. Because then, if you can avoid an incident, there’s a great likelihood that you’re not going to be hurt.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:05:07] Right. So, now, looking at organizations, what are you seeing as main concerns for them and their security in this current work environment? You know, what are some of the things that you’re noticing in the work that you do?
Andy Davis: [00:05:24] Well, I think around the world, globally, cyber is the biggest threat. It’s impacting all organizations. I mean, there’s just been the attack on the pipeline that’s happened on the East Coast of the USA. Look at hundreds of millions of dollars worth of impact that must have had. But that happens to individuals. It happens to organizations. And it happens on a daily basis.
Andy Davis: [00:05:58] There were some statistics that came out and actually showed that, on average in the UK, every individual is attacked once every seven minutes. Which if you think about, that’s statistically looking at people. So, cyber is a constant and it’s there because it’s information that the companies need to operate and to function correctly. There are other threats. There has been an increase in protests, the protests of directly impacted retail, hospitality, museums, public services. But the primary threat that I see at the moment globally is from cyber.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:06:49] So, you shared with me in a previous conversation that protection is primarily about common sense. Can you elaborate on this and what that means to a workplace leader?
Andy Davis: [00:07:01] Well, I mean, you said to workplace leader, and really it’s to everybody. And one of the things that we really talk about as being a cornerstone of personal safety is situational awareness. And part of situational awareness is actually engaging with your brain, engaging with your senses. The common sense, when we look at security protection, if people just actually stopped and thought about what they’re doing, stopped and thought about what risks there are, and stopped and thought, “Why am I putting myself in danger? Why don’t I avoid it?”
Andy Davis: [00:07:41] It’s common sense from a security practitioner’s point of view. We look at things exactly the same. We look at things from a common sense approach. Good security, when we talk about good security, it’s not good cheap where you have the most expensive technical systems and the biggest barrier and the concrete walls. It’s where those of us need to continue with our lives, our business need to operate, and it’s adopting a common sense approach. Common sense approach is understand what risks exist for you and your business. And taking proportionate steps to actually manage those risks so you can continue to operate, to function, and create money or to make money. But at the same time, avoid unnecessary risks that exist.
Andy Davis: [00:08:29] Somebody asked me years ago, “Well, okay. What skillsets do you need for security?” And I said, “Ninety to 95 percent of it is common sense. Seven percent, you know, is that special skills.” And then, there’s always that element that’s still needed to avoid security situations. We can’t dictate what happens out there. But when you look at a new introduced security plans and measures, I still think that sounds and remain true to this day.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:09:14] Great. And I know you mentioned cyber attacks as being kind of a main concern right now and brought up some of the protests, which kind of lead a little bit more into this next question that I have for you. When looking at leaders, you know, when they’re asked about workplace violence, they often refer to, like, active shooter scenarios. Which, I know recently here in the States, we’ve had kind of a stream of them that have been occurring. But you indicated that there is a softer side of protection that workplace leaders need to be considering as well. So, in your opinion, what does that look like and why is it so important for business leaders to also stay aware and prepare for that softer side of violence in their organization?
Andy Davis: [00:10:06] Yeah. I mean, obviously, in the United States, the active shooter is a real concern and should always be a part of any active shooter program that the organization implements. But, equally, that’s the same wherever there is a prevalence of firearms or, as I said right at the start or what I said in your previous question, understanding the risks.
Andy Davis: [00:10:29] So, in your workplace, it’s important to understand the risks that exist. And this is part of the softer side. The softer side isn’t, don’t use a sledgehammer to smash a nut when you can have a nice delicate pair of nutcrackers there. Think about the cost as well, the nutcracker is far cheaper than the sledgehammer.
Andy Davis: [00:10:50] But when you look at a workplace, there are so many different parameters and so many different factors that can impact your work colleagues. Lots of violence occurs, violence, intimidation, harassment, whether it be sexual, whether it be through race. There are a lot of violence that many people don’t automatically identify as being workplace violence. But by fact, they are. Because violence is something that causes harm. Harm doesn’t have to be physical harm. It can also be that mental harm that somebody suffers. So, somebody being abusive, the constant name calling, these are softer sides, much softer than somebody pointing a gun.
Andy Davis: [00:11:37] But the impact of them could actually be equal. Because somebody through being bullied, somebody through intimidation, could suffer mental harm and anguish. Which, obviously, from a workplace perspective, could impact their effectiveness, their morale, the whole team’s morale. But, ultimately, it could cause somebody to commit suicide.
Andy Davis: [00:12:01] So, when we talk about softer skills, it’s things like what governors do you have in place to minimize harassment, to minimize bullying? What procedures do you have in place to have everybody take part in security? And by that, I mean, is everybody aware of how to open and close and make sure barriers exist if there’s a public/private interface? Softer sides include making sure that you have the necessary skills, training, and organizational resilience to deal with acts of violence that may come.
Andy Davis: [00:12:46] But we talk about workplace violence, here in the UK, lots of the drive that we do is towards that proactive prevention, that I mentioned earlier. So, it’s understandable situational awareness. Remember, your workplace isn’t necessarily a fixed location. Nowadays, with the smaller corporate world, your workplace could be here one day, in the U.S. one day, in the UK another day, across in Australia the next day. Technically, each of them becomes a workplace.
Andy Davis: [00:13:22] As an organization, what thoughts are being put in place to protect your staff while they’re travelling from location to location? Is the organization aware of what risks exist? Is there a terrorist threat? Is there a threat from protesters? What about environmental threats? Are you going into hurricane season, monsoon season, or is the risk of a tsunami? So, all of these sort of things, the naturally occurring incident threats don’t actually impact workplace violence because violence is arbitrarily enacted.
Andy Davis: [00:13:58] But if you think about it, it all revolves around the organization taking the time to assess and understand the risks. Making sure that they’ve got the good governance in place to manage the risk that they have. Provide training and resources that’s needed wherever their staff are working. I hope that answers.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:14:19] It does. And it kind of leads into my next question. So, in looking at protection, whether it’s for kind of that harder side of violence or softer side of violence, you indicated that one of the best weapons that an organization might have in helping to protect that in their workplace is communication. Can you talk a little bit around how communication can play a huge factor in being a protective agent within a workplace?
Andy Davis: [00:14:48] Yes. So, there’s a number of strands to this. So, if we take organizationally, communication, senior management really need to communicate. They need the organization to understand their approach to protection, to workplace violence, to threat, and risk management. That has to be communicated somehow. If it’s a 50 page document, nobody’s going to read it. If it’s either brief in a team talk in a town hall, that involves communicating. That might involve verbal communication or it might be through audio-visual communication, so creating of presentations. That’s important because it provides the direction and the parameters of acceptable behavior within an organization.
Andy Davis: [00:15:41] When we look at personal safety and security, communication is vital. And communication, again, isn’t just the spoken word, it’s the listening. And this doesn’t necessarily just apply in the workplace. This can apply in the streets, when you’re on holiday, when you’re socializing, or in the cinema. So, when we look at communication skills and the importance of them, our hearing, the vast majority of our communication should be through listening. I think my wife says I never listen – but I do lots of things and say lots of things.
Andy Davis: [00:16:17] But the listening aspect is important because it’s only through listening that you can either hear some complaints, you can hear if any problems occurred. You can hear from a personal point of view if somebody’s voice is increasing. Because if it’s increasing all of a sudden, you realize that isn’t normal. But you can only do that if you listen. And with listening, it’s also paying attention. So, listening is a vital communication skill because it helps you process the situation and it’s directly linked to situational awareness because you’re using your senses to assess and evaluate what the situation is presenting itself. So, the listening skill is important.
Andy Davis: [00:17:05] The verbal communication is important to an organization. You want that free flow of information. You want people to be able to share their concerns either in the direct workplace or if they’re traveling. Because it’s only through sharing that information that you’re going to increase the levels of knowledge and understanding by the organization. When you increase the levels of knowledge and understanding, you’re able to take steps to actually manage and mitigate those risks that exist.
Andy Davis: [00:17:37] But as an individual, verbal communication is really important because it’s a double edged sword. “How I see things” has a totally different meaning to “I’m ever so sorry. I didn’t understand what was being said there.” How you communicate can actually be a violence accelerator or it can be a calming, soothing activity.
Andy Davis: [00:18:09] The only new element of communication that I would like to say is nonverbal communications. They really, really are important because nonverbal communications help you read and interpret. It lets your brain function and identify potential triggers. So, if somebody is angry – and I always show a slide of the amazing Hulk turning green – wouldn’t it be wonderful if we knew somebody was going to be violent they turned green? We really could avoid them.
Andy Davis: [00:18:40] Life isn’t that simple, but there are still certain violence indicators that people can be aware of that they can see. So, the clenching of fists, the pinpointing of pupils, the stare, the heavy breathing, the stance. All of these things, little nonverbal communication skills. But if you can understand them, you can interpret that and say there is potential for harm. If you can identify a potential for harm, you can actually extract yourself and avoid the situation.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:19:12] Great. So, for business leaders and people in general, what are some things that maybe they’re not thinking about that, in your opinion, they should be, and should be thinking about probably even more so now, when it comes to personal security and safety that you would like to share?
Andy Davis: [00:19:34] Yeah. Well, I said it earlier, the cornerstone for me of personal safety and security is situational awareness. You know, if you can read and identify what’s happening around you. Is there an argument taking place? Can I smell burning? If you smell burning, what does that imply? Are you in a forest fire or is it a case of somebody has burned some food? But using your senses and actually being situationally aware is really, really a paramount importance in personal safety and security.
Andy Davis: [00:20:14] I mean, there are many other things where we talk about business leaders. The communication aspect, keeping that flowing and keeping it fluid, understanding, listening, making sure that their policies are such that people can reach out. Because what you want is, you want people to help support the protection of the business. The more they can protect the business, the greater the business is going to be.
Andy Davis: [00:20:39] So, why wouldn’t you go that extra mile to actually give the tools and help support them to help you protect your business? So, making sure that you have policies for – I don’t know what the term is in American – whistleblowing. You know, is there a whistleblowing policy? Is there a health and safety policy? Are there grievance procedures?
Andy Davis: [00:21:04] And these might seem, “Hold on. These are H.R. issues. What do they have to do with security?” Well, security is all about protecting assets. It’s about protecting people from loss, harm, or damage. It’s about protecting assets. And it’s also about protecting reputations. A business needs to protect its people, its assets, and its reputation to flourish. And so, therefore, everybody has a part to play in security. And, really, the organization got a great way to help.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:21:37] And I think your employees will thank you for it, too, in preparing them. Because I’m sure some of what you may teach in a corporate setting for protection of the organization and their employees can be things that are universal in helping them to protect themselves personally when they’re not maybe at work. So, there could be some underlying benefits for both professionally and personally for them.
Andy Davis: [00:22:00] Yeah. So, when it comes to personal safety and security, everything is transferable. All you’re doing is changing the setting that you’re in and the environment that you’re in. If, as an organization, you want to make sure that your staff were traveling to, let’s just say, East Africa, that they have the necessary skills and training. If they’re going to be driving in Saudi Arabia, where road traffic incidents and deaths, mortality rates are sky high, that you provide them with additional skills to drive safely and defensively.
Andy Davis: [00:22:38] So, there’s things that the organization can do that help them. But the transferable benefits pass on to their staff, who in turn pass it on to their children, their families. And I’ve seen it work. And it is a wonderful feeling when a young kid comes up to you and says, “You can’t do that because I’ve seen the little booklet that you wrote for my mommy and she says it’s marvelous.” Because what an organization should try to do is to build a security culture. It can’t be done overnight. It can’t be enforced. But it has to be driven by the actions of the top and the actions of the bottom and meeting together.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:23:25] Great. Great advice. I love that, security culture. So, with that, we’re just going to take a quick break and hear a word from our sponsors. So, Workplace MVP is sponsored by R3 Continuum. Ensuring the psychological and physical safety of your organization and your people is not only normal, but a necessity in today’s ever changing and often unpredictable world. R3 Continuum can help you do that and more with their continuum of behavioral health, crisis, and security solutions that are tailored to meet the unique challenges of your organization. Learn more at www.r3c.com.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:24:06] So, diving into some questions that kind of go in the direction of where you were, you’ve touched on it a little bit, but the domestic versus international security and crisis management. So, is there a difference between what organizations should be doing when looking at their domestic versus international crisis management or security plans?
Andy Davis: [00:24:29] Yes. I’m sure there’s going to be many people from organizations who say, “No. No. They’re all the same.” Unfortunately, they’re not the same. And the reason that they’re not the same, you can actually take it a step further. If you look at it domestically, if you have a single site, then it’s appropriate. Your corporation is based on a single site and you’re operating from there. Brilliant. Your crisis emergency response plans are built around that. And that’s because the scenarios that you can face, the social impacts that can happen, the environmental impacts. Are you in an earthquake zone? Are you in a tornado alley? You know, all of these things can impact your crisis management approach in that location.
Andy Davis: [00:25:17] If you have multiple sites across the USA, then there’s nothing to stop having an overarching corporate that provides the direction and strategy that the organization expects all of its different offices to take. But each office should actually have their own crisis management plan, because they will need to deal with the crisis. Unfortunately, I’ve seen it where people have thought, “Oh, let me telephone the USA and I’ll get advice about this crisis that’s happening.” By the time somebody is woken up because of the time difference, people have managed to break through the walls, have come into the building, they’ve started ransacking. You know, they have to be localized. They have to be specific to what the organization is going to face.
Andy Davis: [00:26:09] I’ve worked with organizations where they might have had ten offices around the world, two or three individual countries. And we then build the crisis management plan specific for that location. There might be an overarching country one. Ultimately, the threats and risks and vulnerabilities that you face, in many cases, it will be the trigger for the crisis.
Andy Davis: [00:26:35] So, one example was, there was a crisis in Armenia a few years ago where the government was overthrown by the people. Clients and American businesses would have operations there and they wanted to make sure that things were safe. Well, what might be okay in the USA isn’t okay in them sort of scenarios, because the social dynamics are different, the violence indicators might be different. So, you’ve got to take it from that particular perspective. So, it’s a lot more work for organizations. But when you get it right, the benefit is financial for the organization.
Andy Davis: [00:27:25] Because, again, I talk about proactive prevention. You’re trying to prevent an incident in the first place, but then you want an effective response and a timely recovery. Planning and having that individual locations is far more easy to achieve than having it from London or New York or wherever, and trying to dictate direct from that location.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:27:56] So, what should be considered when you have employees who are traveling? So, when you have those permanent locations, maybe you’ve got employees that are traveling from the U.S. to maybe another country or maybe even just traveling within the United States as well. But, you know, if they’re traveling internationally or maybe they’re relocating, what are some of the things that often get missed that employers should make themselves aware of when they’re considering those relocation or traveling scenarios?
Andy Davis: [00:28:30] Yeah. Well, one of the first things that I always ask clients or businesses, “Can I have a look at your travel risk management policy?” And, normally, I get a blank face, or a pause, or, “We have this document which has nothing to do with travel risk management,” or it might be a travel authorization that you go through a travel agent and they’ll do things for you. But, really, an organization should have a travel risk management policy.
Andy Davis: [00:29:05] If they have wide and diverse locations around the world, some of which might be in Africa, Central Asia, or wherever, what I always advice is, “Look. It’s quite simple.” The U.S. State Department, British Foreign Office, and many of the governments actually categorize each country. It’s quite simple to have a spreadsheet and you have a country category down the side of each. If it’s green, then that might be Category 1 to 3, then it’s standard procedure. Here’s the procedures. If it’s a difficult environment, then these are the actions. If it’s a dangerous, hostile environment, then these are the actions.
Andy Davis: [00:29:48] So, having that governance, it prevents subjectivity. And what happens is, those who are frequent travelers – and I apologize if any of your listeners fall on this category – who’ve been there, seen it, done it. There are no risks. I know it all. And, unfortunately, they’re the sort of people who me and my team get called in to rescue, recover, or to help identify what’s gone wrong post-incident. If you’ve got that governance, the parameters are clearly defined and the organization has an expectation.
Andy Davis: [00:30:26] The flip side of that is that, the individual understands that the organization is meeting its duty of care. It’s taking care of me. If, for example, you go into an orange country, an amber country, and there are significant road traffic incidents, then you provide training or you provide a trained driver in that country, you’re managing that risk. Which means that you’re minimizing disruption, you’re maximizing operational effectiveness, and you’re keeping your staff safe and secure. And you do that through all aspects of travel and risk. And, actually, it’s very, very beneficial.
Andy Davis: [00:31:07] So, when people are looking overseas, look at the individuals, look at your operations. Individuals have a responsibility as well. You know, it’s no good going to a country where there’s malaria or yellow fever, and say, “It’s not my fault. Nobody injected me.” Well, sorry. There’s the travel advice. And, again, as part of the travel advice, it might be that you give a package. It might be that the risks are so great that you provide them with hostile environment training or difficult environment training so that they know and understand the sort of threats and risk vulnerabilities that happen, carjackings that may occur.
Andy Davis: [00:31:45] But, also, the softer side, which is food poisoning, which are malarial diseases and how they can impact you, which are a lack of medical facilities. And by the way, we’re now going to give you first aid training. So, that sort of thing, it’s really, really beneficial for organizations to consider when they take things forward.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:32:13] Great. So, you shared the comparison of proactively preventing versus reactively responding. Can you elaborate a little bit more on the difference and what our listeners should be considering when they’re looking at that crisis management or business continuity programs and plans? And what should they be keeping in mind, you know, from your perspective so that they’re more on the proactive end of it versus the reactive?
Andy Davis: [00:32:42] Yeah. So, proactive preventing, what you’re trying to do is identify – again, the words that you’re going to hear me continually use are threats, risk, et cetera, because security is there to manage and minimize the impact from the threats, risks, and vulnerabilities that exist. Proactive prevention is either individuals or organizations identifying the potential for harm, or the potential for loss, or potential for any other adverse aspect. If you can proactively identify it, then you can take steps to manage and mitigate it before you have to then deal with it.
Andy Davis: [00:33:32] Reactive response or responding means that the incident has happened. You haven’t seen it. You weren’t aware of it. You didn’t identify it. And, now, you’re having to respond to it. But, actually, your response might be survival. Because you might be in a hospital bed in a third world country, whether poor medical facilities, and you’ve got to wait ten days for an emergency flight to come in and get you because there isn’t another way, there isn’t the transport, for whatever reason.
Andy Davis: [00:34:05] But, actually, from the organizational point of view, if you have to react to an incident, one, there’s massive disruption. Two, its resource intensive. And, three, there is a massive cost implication. So, the more you can prevent to minimize and mitigate the risks before they actually happen, the greater it is for an organization. But, equally, the greater it is for me as an individual, because I can go about my life and I can enjoy the safaris or I can enjoy ancient temples because I’m proactively helping myself and the organization stay safe.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:34:48] And looking at all of the advice you shared over the show so far, does it matter by the size of the organization when they’re considering to implement a crisis management program or plan or how much of it that they implement? I know sometimes I hear – you kind of mentioned it – like, “We have this sheet of paper. This is what we go off of.” Does it matter the size of the organization or should all organizations, if they’ve got employees, be looking at that?
Andy Davis: [00:35:16] It should be risk-based. So, I always say to every organization, the primary documentation you have before you look at crisis management and everything like that, is risk management strategy and your risk assessment. Everything should be risk-based. Because if you, by default, implement and design a certain process, so if it’s an organization, you said, every single sub-office will create an emergency crisis management response plan. Somebody has to write that. Time is money. It impacts operations. And the effectiveness of what’s been written may not be relevant because it could be sheets of paper that gathered dust. And when it happens, nobody knows where them sheets of paper are.
Andy Davis: [00:36:06] So, it has to be pragmatic. It has to be based on the pragmatic risks or looking at the realistic risks that can impact an organization. There’s two aspects, the risk and the size of the organization. Because the size can impact the severity of a crisis and the disruption that it’s caused.
Andy Davis: [00:36:33] For example, in our office at the moment, there’s five people. Is there a need for us to have a crisis management plan or do we go by our risk management strategy? Actually, we got our risk management strategy and we’ve got emergency response plans. But the response plans are if there’s fire, it it’s this or this.
Andy Davis: [00:36:56] However, our staff travel overseas. And when they travel overseas, sometimes it’s in difficult or hostile environments. So, therefore, we almost write a separate plan and strategy for that activity while they’re in that location. When they come back, that’s great. We can forget about that and return back to normal. But what it is, it’s that continued preparedness that’s relevant, proportionate, cost effective. But then, ultimately, if it was needed, it can be implemented.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:37:32] So, one last question for you that’s a little bit personal in terms of your career, but is there something across your career journey that you are most proud of that you want to share with our listeners?
Andy Davis: [00:37:47] There’s actually many things and, obviously, I’ll keep it from the professional side. I think the most rewarding thing that I’ve ever done was during 2010 or 2011, the monsoon floods in Pakistan devastated, I think, at one point over a third of the land was underwater. Some of the regions whole towns have been swept away and were left with rubble. And some of these regions were in the border areas of Pakistan with Afghanistan. So, there was lots of difficulties in getting support and aid to them.
Andy Davis: [00:38:34] And, you know, one of the proudest moments of my career was being able to manage the operations that got the team and got the UK government’s aid into these areas. And we were able to distribute tents, water, people actually had somewhere to sleep. And, actually, a year later, was still living in the same tents. But given something that actually meant something to humanity, that was really important. And I’ve still got photos of little kids just with glee swimming in a puddle because they just received the first drink of fresh water or they just received a sweet candy bar that, “What’s that? I’ve never seen it before.”
Andy Davis: [00:39:27] So, by being able to do that very close to the border where there was the threat from the Taliban, where it was real operational security management, looking at dynamic risk management because it was still raining. We had to divert on some roads, and then getting to a point where we could stop the cars on the motorway. I always remember the head of the mission and I, we pulled over. We would wave goodbye to our police escort. We looked at each other and we just hugged each other. And that was just so rewarding because we knew that at that time we’ve done something that made a difference to hundreds of people.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:40:09] So powerful. I’m sure that’ll be a memory you’ll carry with you forever, just that reward of being able to help those people. Amazing. So, if somebody listening wanted to connect with you, Andy, how would they go about doing that?
Andy Davis: [00:40:22] So, I’ve been told that I’m a social media dinosaur. That’s why the members of my team actually do all my social media. Apart from, apart from, I’m very big on LinkedIn. I think when it first started, I went, “Oh, I love to go on this.” And I’ve stayed with LinkedIn. And I like it because, you know, you can communicate with some great discussions on there. My email address, I think, has been provided, as my work address, and telephone number. If ever anybody has any questions, any concerns, if ever anybody is worried about staff safety, what people around the world have found out, just give me a call.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:41:09] Wonderful. Well, it’s been so great to listen to your advice and your knowledge. And thank you so much for letting us celebrate you and have you on the show to share all that great information with our listeners. We appreciate you. And I’m sure that your organization and your employees do as well.
Andy Davis: [00:41:30] We also want to thank our show sponsor, R3 Continuum, for supporting the Workplace MVP podcast. And to our listeners, thank you for tuning in. If you’ve not already done so, make sure to subscribe so that you get our most recent episodes and other resources. You can also follow our show on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter at Workplace MVP. If you are a Workplace MVP or know someone who is, we want to know. Email us at info@workplace-mvp.com. Thank you all for joining us and have a great rest of your day.
