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Our executive protection services depend on up-to-date information to stay abreast of emerging risks to our principals wherever they might travel. So, it’s no wonder we rely on many sources – including our broad network of on the ground eyes, ears and minds – to predict, prevent and mitigate threats to our principals. Indeed, our most comprehensive EP programs have dedicated intelligence analysts as part of the team.
But intelligence analysis has a wide range of benefits that are applicable to other corporate objectives, too. Managers rely on intelligence reports to ensure the well-being of employees, business continuity, regulatory compliance, reputation and more. That is why intelligence analysis is a growing part of our business.
The challenge: Ramp up a corporate intelligence analysis program fast.
Our client is a Fortune 500 corporation with global reach and a complex, international supply chain. An internal review determined that intelligence regarding their far-flung net of factories across a wide swath of emerging markets left much to be desired.
In addition to duty of care toward their thousands of employees traveling around the world every day, they realized the need to better understand the dynamic and interdependent effects that myriad issues – political, economic, climate-related, etc. – could have on their businesses at local, national, regional and global levels. The one intelligence analyst currently trying to keep an eye on developments in the nearly 50 countries where the company had manufacturing could not keep up.
The company’s HR experts were not geared to this specialized niche, so they approached us with an ambitious brief and a tight deadline: Could Allied Universal® Executive Protection & Intelligence Services help the company set up a world-class corporate intelligence analysis program within three months?
The solution: Provide a top-notch talent pool and tailor-made training.
After consulting with the client on program objectives and operations, we quickly set about identifying relevant talent profiles in order to provide the client with a good selection of carefully vetted candidates. Drawing on our network and industry insight – and with our intel experts working closely with the client and our recruitment manager – we were able to present the client with shortlists for each position, enabling the company to fill ten new positions within three months.
In parallel with recruitment activities we developed operational standards and a dedicated training program so that the new recruits could quickly gel into a team that delivered results. Two guiding principles were especially important here:
- First, the program must live up to best practices within the intelligence analyst industry in order to deliver the highest standard of actionable intelligence in a consistently reliable way.
- Second, the program must be a true expression of the company’s unique culture and value set, for only in this way would it align with corporate practices and earn the influence which managers deemed so important for its success.
The result: A fully functioning program in months, not years.
Recruitment began as soon as the client approved our recommendations, and ran from mid-May into June. Within weeks, we were able to present the first group of approved, vetted candidates that lived up to the client’s and our demands. Onboarding was completed by August, when the first training sessions also took place.
The corporate intelligence analysis team now counts roughly a dozen analysts, and works as planned to provide departmental and divisional managers with timely reports that improve decision making across the company. We continue to provide training and consultancy as the program matures.
