The 3 Most Important Parts of Any Security Deliverable

Imagine presenting a meticulously prepared threat assessment, only to see it brushed aside. This is a common frustration for corporate security professionals who are under increasing pressure to demonstrate their impact. In many organizations, security teams are still fighting for a seat at the table. To make a real impact, your security deliverables—whether memos, slides, emails, or briefings—must include the following three key components.

1. Actionable Recommendations

It's the primary reason stakeholders seek your input—they want actionable takeaways. Whether it's recommending physical security measures for a new store, identifying safe hotels for an executive's stay, or assessing security risks for a potential investment property, your recommendations need to be clear and concise. Provide the TL;DR upfront to ensure your key points are understood immediately.

2. Data

Now it’s time to back up your recommendation with well-structured data. The era of regional experts’ intuition is over. It’s all about the data.

• Data visualizations: Charts, graphs, trend lines, projections, and forecasts lend credibility to your recommendations. While these visual tools are common in business, they are underutilized in security. Integrating them can bridge this gap.
• Maps: Maps pack a punch. We’ve seen executives who never read travel risk reports dramatically increase adoption because the report features a heat map on the cover page. Heat, incident, and neighborhood maps are a powerful, intuitive way to tell a compelling story with data..
• Natural language: While numbers are critical, translating data into understandable insights is equally important. The right AI, like that found in Base Operations, can assist in generating these natural language summaries, making your deliverables more accessible to all stakeholders.
  
  

3. Connection to Business Objectives

The success of corporate security lies in its alignment with business objectives. Often, the specifics of these goals might not be explicitly shared with the security team, but they can be inferred. For example, if your company is expanding its retail footprint, reducing shrinkage, securing the supply chain, or increasing revenue through more travel, your recommendations should reflect how they support these objectives. If the goal is to reduce costs, can you give the real estate team more power in lease negotiations or better allocate guardforce contracts? Can you tie outcomes to employee retention or satisfaction? 

If your recommendations facilitate business goals, that's a win. If it mitigates significant risks, even if it hinders some objectives, it is still crucial. To secure a seat at the executive table, security professionals must understand the broader business landscape and articulate how security contributes to achieving organizational goals.

Currently, for many security personnel the most time-consuming part of any deliverable is the second component: well-structured supporting data. When available, it's often messy, inconsistently reported, and difficult to interpret. While data is the common language of business, including it in security deliverables remains relatively new due to its scarcity and complexity. 

Base Operations simplifies the process of identifying, wrangling, and interpreting relevant data for key security decisions. By automating this part, Base Operations enables security professionals to achieve higher quality deliverables faster. We give security personnel the supporting data that allows them to focus on where they add the most value: making informed recommendations and providing crucial context.