A great deal of effort is expended looking into the past at unexpected events, under-performance, operational failures and so on. This is just our natural human instinct to seek understanding of what has happened, particularly if it was a damaging incident.
Many of you will recognise that you are stuck in a system focussed on explaining the past. There seems almost to be an acceptance of this as the reality of business and perhaps even the view that this is how it can only be. How often is your Board, for example, informed of events that have yet to happen?
Image courtesy of will ockenden
All too often, executives responsible for security, corporate affairs and external relations become too absorbed with the past. The past should be useful mostly to provide a context for the current situation and then in turn to foretell future possibilities.
The first step to making this leap in focus is the acceptance of responsibility that ‘we could have done better’ in our past performance. The government relations could have been handled differently, the security procedures more thorough or the contract written better. Now this is not making the case to have someone sacked every time an unforeseen incident occurs, but for lessons to be learnt so as to increase the chances of preventing failures in the future.
Now plenty has been written on ‘Black Swan’ occurrences (truly unforeseeable events) and there has been much discussion as to the validity of this concept. Were the 2008 financial crash and the 9/11 terrorist attacks Black Swans, for example? I take the view that, even if they exist, it is unhelpful to hide behind such events as unforeseeable or to conduct a witch-hunt to find someone to blame for an unforeseen happening, whereas it is incredibly helpful to learn from the mistakes, but it is important to recognise that such a strategy will require a high degree of disclosure and trust by the parties involved.
It was interesting that was the approach taken by StatOil in its investigation into the In Amenas terrorist attack in Algeria in January 2013 and that they made a number of remedial steps to the organisation of their security in light of the attack. Just as interesting was BP’s lack of an investigation, as it is still unclear if BP has indeed learnt from the experience now the gas facility has reopened.
We all hope it is an ‘if’ rather than a ‘when’ that In Amenas is attacked again or a similar event occurs. But to stand a chance of preventing such atrocities though presents some pretty significant attitudinal challenges to our thinking at executive level.
The second step for a business is to use accurate and timely intelligence as a forward-leaning strategy and decision-support mechanism. Intelligence is currently used to great effect by many commercial companies.
Moving forward from reactive to intelligence-led proactive operations provides exciting opportunities alongside associated risks; these need to be balanced, managed and mitigated to our advantage. This means dealing with degrees of uncertainty; there are few definitive black and white issues. Embracing shades of grey as a fact of life is central to swaying the probabilities in our favour.
Intelligence operations are dependent on the exchange of information. The focussed collection, collation and analysis of information should drive a culture of liaison and cooperation within our businesses and across the operating environment to include partners, competitors, regulators and neutral parties. Someone always knows what you need to find out; the trick is finding that person just at the right time.
The end game should be to measure success in terms of risks and opportunities that have been foreseen, managed and exploited for commercial advantage. This firmly places the focus on success and most importantly on future success.
Do you want to understand better the business dynamics in your sector? Are you looking for options to drive forward your business in a challenging environment? To find out more about what QRO Global could do to assist your business or to learn more about the types of projects that we have worked on in the past, see our Services Page or email us today – info@qro-global.co.uk
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