Security Professionals Asking for a Seat at the Table

It is no secret that security leaders face the daunting challenge of securing their organizations against a myriad of risks while striving to gain strategic influence within their companies. Earlier this year, Liferaft, in association with ASIS International, produced a report on the current state of security risk management. It provides crucial insights into how security professionals can navigate these challenges and enhance their role in organizational decision-making. Below are some of the common themes heard from the over 1,000 security practitioners surveyed.

Strategic Influence and Organizational Stature

One of the key findings of the report is that security leaders often lack the organizational stature needed to drive strategic risk management decisions. Security is frequently perceived as more tactical than strategic, limiting its influence at senior decision-making levels. To overcome this, security leaders must build rapport with other business units and leverage their critical role during emergencies to gain executive support.

Building strategic partnerships across departments is crucial for security leaders aiming to secure a seat at the executive table. This involves understanding the business needs of different units and demonstrating how security can enable rather than obstruct business objectives. By aligning security initiatives with organizational goals, security leaders can transform their roles from tactical responders to strategic partners.

The Complex Threat Landscape

The research highlights that security professionals are dealing with an increasingly complex and overlapping threat environment. Organizations face a diverse array of threats, from workplace violence and cyberattacks to natural disasters and compliance failures. This complexity requires a multifaceted approach to threat identification and management, emphasizing the need for internal threat assessment teams and diverse inputs from various sources.

Effective Security Risk Management

Despite these challenges, the report indicates that well-implemented security risk management plans are highly effective. Most organizations report that their plans successfully identify threats and help mitigate negative consequences when incidents occur.

The research identifies four critical success factors for effective security risk management:

1. Regularly updating risk management plans,
2. Focusing on strategic issues,
3. Integrating security into overall risk management processes,
4. Implementing enterprise security risk management (ESRM).

Enterprise Security Risk Management (ESRM) has emerged as a key differentiator for organizations seeking to enhance their security structure and readiness. ESRM ties the security function into an organization's broader risk management strategy, involving asset owners in decision-making processes. Organizations that have fully embraced ESRM report better risk management outcomes than those where it is not a priority.

Summary

In conclusion, the Liferaft/ASIS report underscores the importance of proactive and strategic approaches to security risk management. By utilizing these insights, security professionals can strengthen their impact within their organizations and play a more significant role in overall risk management strategies. As threats evolve, the capacity of security leaders to adapt and become integral to organizational decision-making will be essential for maintaining resilience and achieving success in uncertain circumstances.

You can download the full report here.