In the March 2023 EP Wired article, “Saving Principals from Themselves,” I included how some principals conveniently made careless decisions on altering their executive protection detail to fit their personal agendas and comfort. Even though there is truth to the adage, “don’t bite the hand that feeds you,” meaning that the executive protection detail must acknowledge that they walk a tightrope between protecting and pleasing their principal, it does not excuse ignorance for increasing the probability of harm toward the individual and brand he/she/they represent.
However, what if the principal is fully compliant with the executive protection detail? Would this not be something of a positive? Just as risk cannot be 100% mitigated, the aforementioned is also an impossibility, especially when the executive protection team breaks down the objectives of the principal.
Continuing current and obtaining new business are fuel for corporate engines.
Organizations do not become successful through unfriendly and trustless relationships. A principal, regardless of what side or rung of the C-Suite table and company ladder respectively, sits, people do business with people. There are indeed certain things, (i.e. – trade/company secrets), that must remain confidential; however, a company’s image and reputation are just as important as the ones who run it.
For example, if a company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Operating Officer (COO) or Customer Care Executive (CCE), act as the face of the organization, that face cannot have a cold or impassive emotion, but one of warmth and welcome. Furthermore, as executive protection teams are skilled in blending in as to not get in the way of substantiating the welcoming disposition of the principal, this is where too much or unnecessary information can be inadvertently shared, thus increasing a level of risk; this is often not done behind closed doors or safe areas but out in public.
Airports, hotel lobbies, and train stations, to name a few, are audible hunting grounds for corporate/industrial espionage. The amount of sensitive information inadvertently shared in such places are staggering. In his article, “How Indiscrete Employee Conversations Damage Businesses,” (2019), Ian Murphy, a Cyber Security and Infrastructure Practice Leader out of the United Kingdom, shares:
At airport lounges, the conversations are often about deals the enterprises are involved in. The level of detail is truly scary. On a flight a few years ago, four journalists sitting behind senior salespeople for a technology company were treated to several hours of detailed confidential information. The look of fear on their faces, as when everyone deplaned, the journalists handed over their business cards was surprising.
Human beings, for the most part, are verbose by nature, especially in social settings. Corporate leadership often love to announce their accolades not only to boost ego but also to substantiate how the organization they represent is superior to the competition, which is why briefing the principal or their representative prior to the assignment is very important.
Leaving personal information such as business cards in baggage identification windows, with name, title, and contact information of the principal are bad enough, even though it takes some effort on the aggressors’ part to discreetly take notice of this information without being noticed; moreover, once alcohol and a social setting is introduced into the mix, it increases the probability of risk not only on the principal and the organization represented, but also the executive protection team.
This is not meant to say that principals are to be treated like mobile prisons with fencing, barbed wires, and spotlights. Many organizations want to be secure; ironically, the countermeasures both physical, (i.e. fences, access control), are often frowned upon because it makes the asset look too institutionalized.
The objective is not for the principal to feel smothered by the executive protection team but to remember another adage, “You never know who might be listening.”