Selected Brief Case Studies

SPECIAL EVENT SECURITY

A Fortune 100 company had spent a considerable amount of money planning their annual sales award banquet for London. Over 2,000 corporate executives and sales associates were planning to attend this event when the plans were seriously disrupted by the July 7 terrorist bombings of the London Underground. IMG was dispatched one week before the scheduled start date of the event to conduct a risk assessment and develop a feasible security and contingency plan for the event. IMG conducted a security survey of the major venue sites, established liaison with high-level law enforcement and intelligence contacts in London, and implemented appropriate security measures to reduce the risk of danger to any attendee. As a result, the senior management of the company decided to proceed as planned and the event went off without incident.

EXECUTIVE PROTECTION

A major global ﬁnancial services ﬁrm turned to IMG to implement a world-wide executive protection program for their senior ofﬁcers. IMG identiﬁed and risk-rated the high risk countries to which the executives were traveling and identiﬁed and vetted local companies to provide armed protection details for the corporate executives. Relying on its global network of security professionals to provide planning, protection personnel and vehicles, IMG chose only those companies with a proven track record, a demonstrated record of excellence, and whose protection standards met or exceeded industry standards.

TRAVEL SAFETY PROGRAM

In response to a request from a global manufacturing client, IMG developed a Travel Safety Program to help the client, within budgetary constraints, to ensure the safety of their employees when on business travel outside the country or while working overseas. This program involved the development of a customized website accessible through the company’s intranet that provided guidance to the traveler on general travel safety topics, country and city intelligence reports on locations of interest to the company, daily intelligence updates, itinerary monitoring and implementation of a 24/7 call-in hotline for travelers in crisis. This company is now able to monitor all of their travelers around the world and know that their employees have been given appropriate risk-reduction tips prior to their travel as well being able to receive timely broadcast messaging.

GLOBAL MONITORING SERVICE

A major US consultancy asked IMG to develop a The Global Monitoring Service (GMS) based on an inter-active database that allows for the tracking of travelers and foreign-based employees around the world.

IMG developed a straightforward process in which users input travel itinerary and contact details. Based on IMG’s continuous monitoring of threat conditions, in appropriate cases the GMS is queried to determine the speciﬁc employees likely to be affected by a particular threat. Warnings are then sent to these individuals via audited SMS (text messaging), email, or telephone.

The client will also use the service in the aftermath of an incident, such as a bombing, airline crash or natural disaster, to identify those individuals who could be affected to establish contact with these individuals and to determine their status. Under these circumastances, the GMS notiﬁcation system runs continuously until all persons are contacted and have responded.

CRITICAL EVENT NOTIFICATION

An Australian-based company with worldwide interests in oil and gas, steelmaking and steel products with safety as one of its core values had invested heavily in training its personnel to deal with a wide variety of emergencies – from human disasters to the kidnapping of key personnel. The company asked IMG’s afﬁliate company to develop and implement an emergency call-out system that would enable emergency response in record time. The requested system had to effectively:

Mobilize incident response teams.
Warn and inform employees about local safety and health incidents, or crises.
Provide rapid communication to operational staff for business continuity or disaster recovery.
Send time-critical alerts from business process systems.

For this to happen, teams needed accurate information to be sent quickly. There were multiple reasons the company selected this system, one being that, "We can manage a response to any emergency perhaps involving very large groups of people wherever they are in the world, all from a single site. This has signiﬁcant operational beneﬁts and greatly reduces our company’s costs. This system was a winner for us because its user interface was friendlier than its rivals, and it is incredibly robust, which is essential when you're dealing with any emergency, no matter how small. We have long recognized the need to use state of the art technology and systems that enable us to gain swift and effective control of any potential situations that could disrupt the normal operation of the business. This system satisﬁed that need.”

Other reasons why the client rated the system highly was that it could be conﬁgured easily by end users and did not require specialist technicians and it could be set up to identify the most appropriate group for the given incident, inform group members of the issue and then gather relevant data in response, in real time.

“This ability to capture details such as readiness to respond to a crisis and estimated time of arrival on-site was a key differentiator in us selecting this product for our speciﬁc needs.”

CORPORATE INVESTIGATIONS

A leading manufacturer of car audio components contacted IMG and advised that they were missing several hundred thousand dollars in inventory. IMG tracked the missing products to a South American distributor and identiﬁed a former employee as the culprit. IMG further identiﬁed the method used to steal the inventory and prepared and in-depth report to the company recommending several cost-effective security recommendations to prevent a reoccurrence of this problem.

In another case, a leading manufacturer of health care supplies contacted IMG with information that one of their distributors was believed to be engaging in fraud against the company by claiming unearned rebates on merchandise allegedly sold to hospitals. IMG conducted a fraud investigation and obtained evidence that the company had illegally defrauded the client company out of nearly $10 million. The client is considering criminal and civil action against the distributor and has barred them from any further business.

DUE DILIGENCE

For a leading multinational bank, IMG developed a due diligence process that assisted the organization to “Know Its Clients” in compliance with several US legal requirements. To do this, IMG established a global network of researchers who provide accurate, timely and competitively priced information concerning new and existing customers for this and other ﬁnancial institutions.

CRISIS MANAGEMENT

A leading consulting ﬁrm contacted IMG regarding a bomb threat they had received. The client had organized a recruiting seminar at a prestigious overseas university, only to receive written and telephonic threats that the event would be bombed if they proceeded. IMG was able to work closely with the authorities and, using specialized protection personnel, was able to implement a security plan that allowed the event and others to continue as planned.

An automotive parts manufacturer sought IMG’s assistance to develop a proactive crisis management/business continuity strategy to avoid worldwide situations that could be damaging.

IMG developed an Organizational Readiness program designed to build in to the organization’s business operations and culture. The strength of this effort was in the planning that provided the company with the preparatory skills, training and in-house conﬁdence to effectively:

Plan for unexpected events such as natural or man-made disasters, terrorist attacks, hazardous material incidents, chemical and biological threats, internal and external threats, etc.
Correctly identify and respond to emerging crises: IMG brought to the table multidisciplinary skills that enable organizations to identify and strategically manage an emerging crisis by optimizing crisis decision making, identifying and ranking viable options, promoting appropriate, effective and meaningful communications, dealing with external authorities, mitigating internal issues to avoid the possibility of "a crisis within a crisis", and executing an agreed strategy.
Provide post incident analysis, intervention and response.

To hone proactive skills, IMG developed plans, seminars and training materials to help position the client to effectively respond to events that included: kidnapping, personal/corporate extortion, labor unrest, crime related disaster, product contamination, political unrest, industrial accidents, strategic downsizing and organizational change, violence or threats of violence, bomb threats, etc. To do this, IMG drew upon in-house personnel skilled in corporate security, forensic psychology, public affairs, human resource, and employment law disciplines.

EVACUATION PLAN DEVELOPMENT

Three years ago, IMG was approached by a Detroit-based automotive manufacturer and its subsidiaries to provide crisis management training and response services. IMG developed presentations to senior executives regarding the concept of crisis management and followed on by identifying a process to collect relevant data to assist with the preparation of a draft plan. Once prepared, IMG edited and ﬁnalized the plan, provided training for members of the crisis management teams that emphasized roles and responsibilities, and validated the plan using tabletop exercises. IMG’s role is now to ensure that the client’s worldwide operations has access to the plan, appreciates its relevance and correctly interpretes and executes its components.

MANAGING INTERNATIONAL RISK

A European multinational company asked IMG to develop a plan to manage the various potential crises they faced including man-made as well as natural events. IMG assisted the client in realistically identifying their worldwide key vulnerabilities and evaluated the impact that a speciﬁc crisis would have on their personnel and operations. Using a combination of inhouse expertise and strategically-placed partners, IMG helped create a crisis management organizational plan with speciﬁc roles and responsibilities for each team member. The planning process included deﬁnition of a crisis notiﬁcation system and training for all team members.

Our client was particularly concerned with emergency evacuation planning because of problems encountered during Operation Desert Storm in 1990-1991. IMG prepared an emergency evacuation plan and assisted the company’s subsidiaries to prepare country-speciﬁc evacuation blueprints. IMG coordinated the plans with various diplomatic and logistics organizations and provided specialized training for company personnel who would be charged with implementing the plan.

Political unrest in Asia gave our client the opportunity to execute their plan. A key element was early warning of an impending crisis. In this context, we helped our client evaluate an evolving risk and participated in a disciplined, phased withdrawal of their personnel from the troubled region. Our planning helped them to maintain an essential business presence in the country while limiting the number of personnel exposed to the risks of civil unrest and disorder.

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