Making a career of catching crooks

Job prospects in enterprise risk protection and reputational management are on the rise. Peter French of specialist recruiter SSR looks at the drivers for this trend and gives advice on how to pursue a career in this emerging sector.

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In the last five years many organisations have morphed elements of enterprise risk protection into groups with a variety of headings including, brand or profit protection, reputational management, economic protection, enterprise ethics standards and sustainability delivery.

Where such groups sit in the organisation can be varied but the executive suite dashboard will generally have this as an indicator with groups reporting lines typically going directly to the COO, CEO or Legal Counsel. 

How do you get to a career start in such functions? The channels are so varied, it is an impossibility to clearly document a career plan, but there are some groupings that can be identified.

The insider: 45 per cent of hirings are through this route. Typically the candidate is an individual (usually a graduate) that has a number of years in the organisation, has moved between several business units, and are seen as a good senior management prospect. They bring to the role established organisational contacts, will have some exterior supply contacts, but weak judicial enforcement initially. They may be a graduate in business studies or perhaps have a law degree. Understanding how the business works is really important, as they have an ability to see what is out of place. 

The former professional: Police, customs, border enforcement, tri services, government intelligence and revenue collection should have exceptional contacts across countries and former colleague networks. Culturally sensitive, these candidates offer great value, with experience in counterfeit goods, tax evasion, drugs or human trafficking, as well as experience with surveillance and apprehension of those engaged in criminal activities either solely or as organised groups. 

The Lawyer: Candidates have generally migrated to commercial law but have experienced criminal proceedings. They have rarely trained as a barrister although there are examples of this within organisations. They bring excellent organisational skills, well-tested arguments, great values in refining facts and good presentation skills, especially if combined with an MBA or advanced business studies.  Those that have studied at a recognised business school in a non-home country capture greater cultural understanding and sometimes a second language.

Training options

Harvard, the London Business School and others deliver modules in reputational risk, and there are risk management degrees, although these are perhaps more operational than strategic. There is a growing understanding of the issues that are raised but we are not yet looking at fully demarcated functions and candidates may find greater value in pursuing positions within corporations recognised for good practice.

Corporations most likely to have reputational protection units will be those where there is an international exposure, who have a compliance regime and entrenched due diligence. The latter is important as that would usually demonstrate a developed intelligence capability which is an essential monitoring tool for risk.

Prospects

Brand protection is a huge and growing concern among manufacturers, and that means good opportunities for those interested in pursuing a career in this discipline.

We have the classic case of reputational damage with the Perrier poisoning incident in February 1990, when small traces of poisonous chemicals were found in bottles and the management team recalled one billion bottles of water. Perrier has never recovered its former brand position. Then there are the counterfeit pharma products that kill, premium vodka brands mixed with pipe cleaner and the infamous case of French wine growers using effluent to hasten wine fermentation.  For the global organisation contracting out their manufacturing capacity there are many risks, such as employing underage labour.

There cannot be any High Street retailer today who does not employ or contract inspectors to check the environment, community impact and quality of product from third party-suppliers.  This is part of any organisation's corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme, and in tune with the trend towards ethical retailing for a growing, knowledgeable public.

Inspectors can earn an average of  €90,000 per annum; add a second language and that is a €110,000 basic for a regional investigator (see tables below).





Another driver for employment prospects is corporate loss resulting from diversion or grey area sales.

Every corporation will have a margin policy when selling globally. This can be higher and lower dependant on import tax but in today's world - where you may be looking to sell into the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries and certainly trying to position future sales in the CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa)  a more globalized operating environment imparts a higher level of commercial risk.

In the current operating environment it's clearly no longer an option to ignore these markets. These economies offer 10 years of growth, and for companies operating in the consumer sectors (manufacturing, finance, insurance) the BRICS countries (South Africa being added 2011) will provide faster percentage of growth in profitability against the more mature Northern Hemisphere/Western economies, as will the fast growing ASEAN – China Free Trade area launched in 2010. 
 
One point usually forgotten is that whilst the average urban income in China 2010 was $2,500, according to an Asia Times report, whilst migrant workers income was $1,500, in Shanghai there are now more millionaires being created than any other region, so counterfeiters and diversion agents have plenty of scope for profits. For the corporation this means that you have lost control of your brand.  I know of one manufacturer that found they were the number one selling brand in central Asia, despite never having directly sold or licensed agents in the region!

Recent changes to the laws covering whistleblowing are also focusing the attention of corporations on enterprise risk protection in its broadest sense.

The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) allows individuals to potentially collect millions of dollars by reporting corruption in US companies or any company traded on US exchanges. The FCPA & UK Bribery Act cover improper payments to foreign officials broadly defined as any and all government employees, officials or agents, and any person who works for a state owned business. Both Acts under record keeping provisions also makes it illegal for companies to make payments of any kind not properly accounted for on the books. The FCPA can levy fines on companies of up to $2m for each violation of the law. The UK Bribery Act has unlimited fines and impose a jail sentence of up to 10 years. 

New changes in US laws now allow individuals reporting FCPA violations to receive full protection from retaliation and collect up to 30 per cent of the fines that the government collects. To put that in perspective, last year the US government collected over $1.5bn, and there are concerns this financial incentive could be leading to malicious reporting.

That can cost millions to investigate and has the potential damage your brand when reported in the mainstream news, and as a result companies are putting more manpower and resources into vigilance and compliance efforts.

In May 2011, the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) its report entitled China: Effects of Intellectual Property Infringement and Indigenous Innovation Policies on the U. Economy by Mark Elliot and Tamy Overby It is no secret that for years China has been the source of a tremendous amount of counterfeit and pirated goods, undercutting legitimate products in China, the USA, and around the world. But quantifying the extent of the harm has been notoriously difficult and elusive.

Perhaps the most striking finding of the report is that if the protection of intellectual property (IP) in China were improved to levels comparable to the current environment in the USA, up to 2.1 million jobs would be created in the US alone.
 
It is also recognised that the effective protection of intellectual property rights depends on a level playing field for legitimate companies to compete freely, to include refraining from adopting or maintaining measures that make the location of the development or ownership of IP a direct or indirect condition for eligibility for government procurement preferences for products and services.

The USITC report demonstrates why intellectual property protection in China must continue to be an area of sustained effort. This will require corporations to maintain a high degree of vigilance so that brand protection remains a dashboard indicator for most global CEOs.

Next steps in your career

You need to evaluate your strengths: how would they be an asset to the corporation?  Get a mentor and be active. Most business areas have established procedures and practices that are not included in any written policy or literature because they have evolved over time. A good mentor can assist you in navigating through these fields, providing key current business terms and language. A good mentor can put you in touch with the right people, organisations and opportunities. Once you have begun your career, you have to build on your profile. Use social media, forums, and associations to identify IP-specific groups. Speak publicly and publish.

You must have a programme of professional development. Look to see what academic qualifications could assist your development. In the UK, universities such as Bucks and Portsmouth have excellent post-graduate courses. Consider their business courses even if you have to self-fund, because ay minimum qualifications lead to an average enhanced remuneration* of a minimum £3,000 per year.

Mould your experiences and ensure that you have clear direction on your future career.

* ASIS International and SSR review

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Peter French MBE

Member of the British Empire Certified Security Professional and Fellow of The Security Institute:    Principal Founding Member, Trustee and Past Master of The Worshipful Company of Security Professionals;  the Volunteer Chair of the European Advisory Council for ASIS International in Europe since 2008;  Director of Skills for Security since 2006;  Trustee of The Security Benevolent Fund  since 2007;   Business - Managing Director of SSR® Personnel provider of security , health and safety staffing since 2000 with a number of related non-executive appointments.