Feeling upstaged at corporate level?

Nov 1, 2002 12:00 PM, Larry Anderson

You would think that security awareness would be growing in every quarter, but a survey from accounting firm KPMG suggests that there is still educational work to be done.

How prepared is your company for a crisis? That's the question KPMG asked 21 senior level executives at real estate firms with $500 million or more in revenues. The sobering answer: More than half of respondents — 53 percent — have no preparedness plan in place.

Ray Milnes, industry sector leader for KPMG's real estate practice, comments: “The risk after Sept. 11, 2001, is out there. It's surprising how few of these firms are prepared for a crisis of any magnitude.”

Some other results of the survey:

• one-third of respondents did not rate crisis preparedness as a priority;

• 83 percent of firms were confident they would rebound swiftly from any crisis;

• a quarter of the survey's respondents reported they do not have any way to analyze crisis preparedness.

Could it be that attention to security and crisis preparedness are decreasing daily as the crescendo of concern after Sept. 11 fades? Clearly there are plenty of other business challenges demanding the attention of the Captains of Industry these days — ranging from how to keep their companies afloat to how to stay out of jail.

It's a tough, bottom-line-obsessed business climate out there — temptation abounds to push aside seemingly less-urgent concerns, such as those that center on the probability that an event might happen, or on alternatives if it were to happen. Our business world as we approach 2003 is facing issues that — while certainly not more important than security — can seem more pressing.

All of which begs the question: Has anything really changed since Sept. 11? Did we learn anything from the tragedy about the need to be prepared for a worst-case scenario? More important: Did our bosses?

With traumatic memories fading, security professionals find themselves once again evangelizing on the importance of security preparedness, and again feeling like a lone voice in the desert.

Homeland security may be in the news, but a hectic business climate, downsized work forces and attention-demanding diversions are beginning to upstage it in the corporate consciousness.

Therefore it bears asking: Are we returning to business as usual? Can we afford to?

www.securitysolutions.com

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