The world we find ourselves living in today is filled with turmoil, conflict, and disruption. Early indicators show that Y2022 is proving to be disruptive on many levels. Current global conditions have created geopolitical divisiveness coming from such countries as Russia, China, Iran, Syria, and Canada. Global security concerns present other countries facing immediate danger of civil war, protesting, civil unrest, food insecurity, critical infrastructure/energy, economic, pandemic/infectious disease outbreaks, cyber/IT, and terrorism-related challenges.
Furthermore, the current Russian-Ukraine crisis in Eastern Europe has created the possibility of economic stagflation, increased energy/oil prices, and supply chain management challenges. Russia’s waging war on Ukraine has created a humanitarian crisis not seen since World War 2. Russia’s full-court press for a land-grab situation to mine additional resources (fossil fuels and other minerals) is naturally a disaster to the Ukrainians who wish to remain an independent nation of peaceful people. Ukraine remains steadfast in its resolve to fight back against a much larger, more powerful nation-state in Russia, which is building parallels in their government and global actions reminiscent of the Soviet Union’s Cold War years of the past.
With the US mid-term elections approaching this November, there exists increased anxiety along with disruption to household incomes. Considering the global pandemic, organizations have been faced with the Great Resignation, with workers being highly selective on work-life balance while safeguarding their personal and mental health and managing their self-care. Recent events have further caused labor staffing challenges for most businesses, creating bottlenecks and supply chain interruptions with organizations and their products available to consumers as well increased wages and other associated costs. This has forced organizations to be ever mindful of their personnel and their impacts on the overall organization’s health, welfare, and vitality. This has caused disruption to the organization’s overall strategic mission, goals, and objectives. Managing risks in this situation includes organizational morale, employee empowerment, corporate budget impacts, and operational/financial risks involved in evacuating or displacing staff or employee family members.
Premier Risk Solutions has borne first-hand witness to the situation on the ground in Ukraine that is impacting locales as well as, by extension, family members who are living and working outside of the country but concerned for the well-being of their family. While the clients we have supported within Ukraine do not have full-time employees within the country, their employees have family members there, and/or the client has vendor partners in-country they work with. These situations have caused disruption to the business as the personnel are unable to focus on their work or in some cases do any work at all, further causing supply chain delays to the company. Companies are forced to decide on what level of support they can or are willing to provide to personnel who are not direct employees. Our clients who we’ve worked with directly on this issue to evacuate impacted personnel are treating them as one-off situations but have provided support for evacuation when and where appropriate based on a dynamic risk assessment of the situation. Premier Risk Solutions and our agents are also constantly evaluating opportunities through our own fluid risk assessment for avenues of egress for evacuation as it is evolving on a day-by-day basis.
The threat continuum is ever-evolving and is constantly changing based upon a multitude of security challenges. The need for organizations to create an enterprise risk security management, holistic approach to safeguarding their personnel, brand, assets, and vendor supply chain is paramount in meeting today’s challenges. Organizations are well served by conducting – at minimum – annual risk assessments while conducting normal business activities during this time of uncertainty. Should your organization require a consultation please reach out to Premier Risk Solutions for a free consultation.
As the world is evolving into more uncertain times in society, having a means of centered communications in a way a company can aid in proving a duty of care to their employees and contingent staff is of paramount importance. That is the reason for the existence of a GSOC. The integrated adoption of technologies with a combination of human capital to monitor and respond to alerts, developing intelligence, emergency phone calls, asset tracking, travel advisories, or other related systems notifications allow for quick response capabilities in triaging the situation. Being agile, consistent, reliable, and adopting new tasks are pivotal to support business operational needs.
In Premier Risk Solutions’ protective operations, we work with our partners at NSSG Global in Bucharest, Romania to provide remote support capabilities. With 24/7 dedicated GSOC operators, integrated network video, alarm & access control systems, telephonic response & escalation, along with protective intelligence analysts there is a holistic approach and execution to support field operations. As part of the service, we have rolled out an app that can be found in the Apple or Android stores that is called NSSG Support. We want to take an opportunity to showcase this further in this blog.
The purpose of the app is for personnel in the field – both business travelers/principals and our agents supporting them – to be able to not only provide safety check-ins but share pictures from your gallery and even snapshot one with your current location, chat with our GSOC operators with any questions or issues, as well as provide an urgent SOS signal to our GSOC operators to escalate imminently for garnering assistance to the individual.
Home Screen
The screenshot enclosed is directly pulled from the app, where “Send SOS” is located at the top. With “Tracking” turned on, we can get an accuracy of the individual’s location inside of 30ft and in some cases closer. You can also see in the enclosed screenshots where an individual can chat directly with the GSOC or an agent supporting the individual can also do the very same providing updates or requests for assistance. We do have our agent resources located on a map that is run in the GSOC to know who the closest assets are for deployment in an emergency. The “Send SOS” signal goes to one dedicated device with a phone number, with email notifications additionally permissible for redundant receipts.
Groupings can be set up for any number of individuals within an organization. There can be an unlimited number of groupings. Each grouping can have an email disseminated to the assigned representative from the company for any/all relevant activity desired. Should a company desire more regular reporting, the GSOC on the back end can administratively export chats, tracking info, etc collected data to share with our client.
Setting up a new user account typically takes approximately five (5) minutes time for our GSOC managers to get operational. Collaborating with your company representative, we can scale quickly to meet more volume needs as well. Knowing where your staff are and getting them expedient, qualified assistance is of the utmost importance. Should your company like a demo of the tool to learn more, we are happy to schedule a time to do so.
The main theme here is the attention to detail, quality assurance, and custom/tailored approach Premier Risk Solutions takes to ensure we reflect your brand reputation and integrity. Remaining agile to service your evolving needs, being responsive to your requests, and being consistent and reliable in our service delivery are hallmarks we strive for in each engagement. In all things we do, we provide comfort to your principals while balancing privacy and confidentiality with safety and security. We will be highly collaborative in our boutique offerings. Please contact us should you like to discuss your unique situation.
The Client: In this executive protection case study example, PRS assisted a Fortune 500 high tech company based in the USA during business travel to Lagos, Nigeria during the fuel crisis in Western Africa.
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The Situation: The client had 2 of their senior executives flying into Lagos, Nigeria in late May 2015 to attend several high-level business meetings around town in various locations and at various times throughout a 3-day period. The travelers were new to the region and unfamiliar with the surroundings and risks day-to-day in such logistics moving in & around the city.
The Solution: The local PRS private security services partner in Nigeria has vast resources and experience operating day-to-day in country. PRS deployed 1 security driver and 1 close protection officer (armed, concealed, plain-clothes) to escort the business travelers for the duration of their stay. The PRS EP team put together a travel management plan in advance of the travelers’ arrivals and shared the plan with them via email to best prepare & familiarize the travelers with the EP team as well as rough expectations. The EP team met the travelers outside baggage claim at the airport, greeting them with a hand-held sign that was somewhat innocuous in name (actual names of individuals nor the company name were not utilized), and escorted them to their hotel and other meetings around town for the duration of their stay. The PRS partner has their own fuel storage cells that are private so the fuel shortage that was occurring in Nigeria at the time of their travel did not impact the business travelers schedule or routine. The travelers were returned to the airport without incident.
The Result: The client executives had productive meetings while visiting for business that were uninterrupted, on-time, reliable and professional allowing for the maximum efficiency of the use of their time.
“Alex and team were timeous, and flexible as the itinerary changed a lot due to the fuel crisis in Nigeria last week. I was also impressed that they were able to keep their vehicles going as they apparently had private fuel reserves at their premises. Thanks again for organizing.”
Juniper Networks
“Everything went perfect thanks. Alex and his crew gave us great hospitality, and operated in a professional manner.”
Juniper Networks
Premier Risk Solutions provides the best in class global protective, consultative and investigative solutions for organizations to adapt to evolving business objectives and allow for scalability and agility. Through partnerships and strategic alliances, PRS offers support in 65 different countries. Our clients consistently tell us that our solutions are a cut above the competition. We foster a collaborative relationship with clients and vendors leading to the most successful service execution for all parties involved. We strive for each and every service no matter how small or large to have the best customer service experience possible. At PRS you will feel you are working with a partner who has your organizational brand and integrity in-mind.
We love our people at Premier Risk Solutions. Our entire philosophy of doing business is based around understanding people and then forming and building on relationships. That includes our clients and our employees….so…..we have spent the last couple of weeks introducing you to our people. This time, it’s Bill Cooper. Bill is one of our expert security consultants, who also has a rich history in law enforcement and corporate security.
Bill has decades of experience, as a former police chief and previously heading up security at T-Mobile. Now Bill shares his knowledge, teaching around the country as well as consulting. While Bill has too much experience to list here, we want to give you an insight into who he is on a personal level.
Bill hails from Chicago, where believe it or not, his family had ties to famous gangster Al Capone. Obviously, Bill chose to go on the other side of the law:) He has two daughters and a wife he adores and talks about constantly. The thing with Bill is, he may be a tough guy to some but to those of us who have the privilege of getting to know him, we get to see the nice guy who has “never had a bad day in his whole life”.
Click on the video to hear more about Bill and be sure to check back every week for more videos!
Natasha joined Premier Risk Solutions in January after a lengthy career as a news reporter/anchor at several stations across the country. Natasha’s last stop was the NBC affiliate in Seattle. Having the experience of watching the worst case scenario play out in daily newscasts, Natasha is elated to now be a part of a company that actively helps people avoid those situations.
One of her favorite life experiences was working at inside the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. She did the college program while attending Penn State. Natasha lived all over the world as a child (military brat) but is happy to finally be settled in Edmonds, Washington. While she takes her job here at PRS seriously, the most important part of her day is being with her daughters. Get to know Natasha in the video below, as her older daughter dishes out the questions:)
