Successful_Security_Management_Is_a_Matter_of_Appropriate_Business_Skills_Applied_to_Security_Experience

Security experience and business skills can be categorised to be the development of knowledge. This is a spontaneous process of reasoning that involves mental functions (Piaget, 1964). Various types of business organisations require essential business skills that are related to its sector of business, these skills generally increase effectiveness of decision making, directly or indirectly to the organisation. On the other hand, business experience increases business skills and hence credibility of each individual involved, automatically this enhances the success of security management in an organisation. Brooks (2010) analysed security in thirteen different categories, one of the major categories listed, was security management. The definition of security management has been difficult to define, based on the fact that security management has a multidimensional nature. Due to the limitation of this topic, this essay will critically discuss on the definition of security management and how possible it is to have successful security management. This essay will argue that security experience and business skills have a strong relationship and work in tandem. Although a security manager can possess either security experience or business skills they are not effective without each other. Business skills focus on achieving the aims and objectives of a business (Fay, 2005), whilst security experience is gained in a real security setting. Security experience, on its own requires the individual to have encountered the situation before however, business skills can be learned and therefore applied to novel situations. Both are important and will increase efficiency if teamed together. In the history of development in security management, “successful security management ” is a term that all security industries would like to be associated with; simply because for a security organisation to be termed successful it means that there has been a low count of security failure. Button (2008) defines security failure as an act that violates the initial purpose of the security system; this automatically makes an organisation with security failure unsuccessful. In addition security failure occurs in various business organisations however, failure in security management is hard to estimate, it is dependant on the area, security is applied to. Business security management, being one of the most important concerns for organisations in recent study, has been very critical about the types of operations security management is compulsory for. Ranging from retail to higher-level business interactions that involve millions of dollars transaction. In this current climate of competitive business in security, where global trends are prevalent, organisations are now becoming more involved in growth across geographical boundaries. There has been a rising trend for many businesses organisations to operate in different locations, with the same brand name, same operations and also maintain the company security culture. A general consensus of high security must be present within the business regardless of location or operation. This whole scenario gives rise to many of the business security risk, issue and problems that can affect the growth of the business itself. As an organisation increases in size or operates in different geographic locations, security in operational and data management will be a major concern, which are basically business skills (Bernstein, Bhimani, Schultz and Siegel, 1996). A successful security management system is desirable to businesses, either by the private security sector or numerous security companies ranging from small budget to million pound budget plans (George and Button 2002). In order to achieve success, it is essential that organisations to hire a security agency or security manager that have good records on business security skills and security experience. Business skills can be referred to as knowledge gained by studying (Horn 2009). Business skills that a security manager should encompass, to ensure successful security management are: good planning skills, budget awareness and business strategy (Fay, 2005). Current published research focuses on how successful security management can be achieved with business skills, however is a void in sufficient research focusing on security managers themselves and their experiences (Button 2008). Nonetheless Gill’s (2006) research tackles this issue on security managers, demonstrating the manager profiles; this included personal characteristics and working backgrounds. Work background in this scenario indicated the business skills a security manager should have, which are already identified as security business skills and security experience. These two components are fundamental and the findings corroborates with the idea of Brooks (2010) that describes the process of acquiring business security skills. This may be provided in different categories such as undergoing training programmes and undergraduate programmes which can take up to 3 years of study. Proficiency facility or dexterity that can be developed through learning, they can be gained through training or experience. The relationship between business skills and security experience is a strong bond. Security managers, who are experienced and in addition also encompass business skills, will be in a best condition to identify the areas and operations, which are prone to threats. Hence, business skills and knowledge coupled with security experience can help managers to take certain steps in securing a company which will lead to successful security management (Rannenberg, 1994). Business experience cannot be replaced with any of the academic knowledge unless it is real work experience, which gives exposure to the security manager about the business operations and their relevance. Business skills can be seen to be irrelevant until it has been applied to the novel situation. Experience allows the individual to select relevant knowledge and provides context, which is key. The culture of an organisation also determines the kind of business skills and experience the security manager will possess for success to be achieved in its security management sector. However the main culture of a security manager after acquiring academic business skills and security experience is to increase change in solving security failures (Button, 2008). A good example of this is found within an IT firm that is engaged with computer involvement. All the data is connected with the internet, which is within the worldwide portal. The security management of intellectual assets can be challenging because it involves coding and development of software, the whole value lies in creative designing, new tools and techniques called innovations. Using the Internet, anyone without the business skills necessary for computing cannot operate with the Internet or function well with it. IT industries have been ranked as one of the top, in terms of security requirement and management due to risk involved in the whole security system. Most IT firm’s existence depends on the skills of the security manager as an IT professional, that is been able to secure business operations, assets and managing the metrics of the problem confronting the organisation (Yngstrom, 1995). The success of the security management system within this sector is based on the security managers’ understanding of the sector as an I.T professional coupled with experience. Experience and business skills both are key and work in unison. Judging from the previous paragraph there is an unambiguous relationship between security experience and business skills. In spite of this relationship Button (2008) puts forward a controversial view on this relationship. Highlighting that there are two models of security manager, which are the traditionalist and modern entrepreneurs. This study critically examined the traditionalists who are mostly ex-police personnel and ex- military officer involved in security management. Traditionalists have the experience in security management but due to the lack of business skills cannot keep records of basic policy. Traditionalist do not exercise change management conversely they order and direct. Most experienced security manager know what to do but cannot articulate a business case mainly because they have only been exposed to the experience acquired. However they are mostly running security management as service functions that involve giving directives and instructions, their focus is on security proficiency. Security management engaged in modern entrepreneurs are more conventional within the business sector. Modern entrepreneurs are more concerned with business skills rather than security experience. Business skills encourage strategic planning from the importance of its objective, measurement, return on investments, to the impact on the bottom line. The modern entrepreneur concentrates on change rather than maintaining pre-existing systems. However the traditionalist and the modern entrepreneur does not necessarily fit into the ex-government worker involved in security management, it also goes vice-versa as modern security manager can fall under any category of the two model Successful security management is surely a matter of appropriate business skills applied to security experience; this is based on the unambiguous relationship between business skills and security experience. Security experience means that the security manager has familiarity within the security setting and is not a novice. However the business skills indicate, that the security manager has the knowledge that can be applied to any situation. Successful security management would incorporate awareness of the business operations and the areas where risk could become evident, so that those areas would be protected in the best manner. Although there has been much research to date that focuses on the application of business skills within a security setting, there is limited amount of research that concentrates on experience within a security setting. There is no alternative for both security experience and business skills, to promote business activity and secure business operations. Business education provides a foundation for managers to build their market knowledge and obtain awareness of business operations. The whole system of security depends on the abilities of management to understand business risks and identify operations that are prone to security breaches. Business skills need to be applied to the novel situation since it is learnt, however experience allows the individual to select relevant knowledge and provides context, which is key. Security experience and business skills are desirable because most business organisations require business knowledge and expertise, in the form of business related experience. With these two attributes in security management will be able to devise reliable security plans for successful business sustenance and growth in future. Word Count: 1600 References Bernstein, T., Bhimani, A. B., Schultz, E. and Siegel, C. A. (1996), Internet Security for Business, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. USA Borodzicz, E., P. (2005) Risk Crisis and Security Management. Chichester: Wiley Brook, J.D. (2010) What is security: Definition through knowledge categorization Security Journal (2010) 23, 225–239. Button, M. (2008) ‘Doing Security; Critical Reflections and an Agenda for Change’. Basingstoke: Palgrave. CSI (Computer Security Institute) (2000) Issues and Trends: 2000 CSI/FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey, CSI, San Francisco, USA. Lichtenstein, S. (1997), Developing Internet security policy for organisations. USA. Fay, J,J., (2005) Contemporary Security Management. New York: Butterworth-Heinemann George, B. and Button, M. (2000). Private Security. Leicester: Perpetuity Press Gill, M. (2006). The Hand Book of Security. Basingstoke: Palgrove. Horn, R. (2009). The Business Skills Handbook. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development: London. Piaget, J. (1964) Development and Learning. Journal of Research in Science Teaching 2:176-186 Rannenberg, K. (1994) Recent development in information technology security evaluation - the need for evaluation criteria for multilateral security. Solms, H.S. (Eds.), Information Security - the Next Decade, IFIP/Sec '95, Proc. of the IFIP TC11 Eleventh International Conference on Information Security, Chapman & Hall. Yngstrom, L. (1995). A holistic approach to IT security. In Eloff, J.H.P. and Von