Adding Security to Medical Assistance? ‘Builder’ Beware..

I was invited to speak at the International Travel Insurance Conference in Budapest this past year.  During the conference I sat in a session regarding professional security.  I was surprised to see Tom Hudson, Chief Legal Officer for Medex Assistance as a panelist.  It wasn’t until then that I realized Medex was in the security business. 

Security is a very broad term and I believe it’s still being defined within the context of travel assistance.  As you may know, there have been a series of acquisitions and joint ventures between high profile security and medical assistance companies.  In 2000 MedAire was one of the first assistance companies to integrate security as part of their service offering.  The adoption was a significant challenge but I still believe there is a case for medical and security working together in travel assistance.  The rush of memories regarding the success and failure is still ever present.  There are a number of lessons learned on my part.  If you are buying security services from an assistance company or if you are an assistance company adopting security services, you may want to consider the following:

• Regulatory Issues:  If any of the markets you serve require security products/services, make sure you understand the regulatory body components that govern that requirement, i.e. the license/approval process, certifications, technical specifications etc.  This can be a great catalyst for jump-starting your market entry.  If it’s required, they have to buy it from someone.
• Outsourcing:  Remember, security is like medicine.  There are specialties and sub-specialties.  In the security world there is little regulatory oversight.  With the exception of ‘best practice’ standards set by organizations like ASIS your ability to be credentialed and set baseline standards is difficult.
• Understand that every dedicated security company has core competencies. There is not one company that can be everything to everybody and do it well.
• Provider Networks:  Security provider networks are typically an amalgamation of ‘known entities.’  A known entity can be companies or individuals.  In my experience, it’s best to judge a company’s provider network, not only by who’s in it, but also by how the company manages it, i.e. How they qualify, rate and monitor providers, how they assign cases, communicate with providers etc.
• Employing Security Management:  If you decide to bring the security management resources in-house, make sure communication lines/protocols are established beforehand.  It will be important to articulate your rationale for employing versus contracting.
• Battles for Control: You will naturally have friction between medical and security management.  If both are core offerings, you need to address the case and oversight management in advance.  Communication is a critical success factor both internally and externally.
• Sales:  Now I am clearly biased on this one.  Let salespeople be salespeople.  If you run a professional sales team, help them understand the features and benefits associated with the product/service.  Define what topics are to be discussed by salespeople and by security professionals.  Neither is likely qualified to do the other’s job. 
• Insurance:  Make sure you understand your liability.  Don’t be pulled into situations where you are sending employees, no matter how qualified, on assignments that involve weapons or operations in foreign countries without the appropriate insurance. 
• Information ‘Hostage’:  Re Security Providers:  Do not become hostage to your security director/advisor.  Some security professionals are naturally secretive and like to limit the amount of persons ‘in the know.’  In some cases that’s a great quality.  Network providers must be documented along with clear processes for management.  Don’t leverage your business on too few people who are ‘in the know.’
• Guns or No Guns:  They are two completely different approaches.  I’m certainly not qualified to say one’s better than the other.

 Some considerations may seem very straightforward but you would be surprised at the number of companies who do not consider the implications. 

A few comments about the general trend of combining health and security:

• ISOS had security for many years before they formed an alliance with Control Risk.  I’m not sure of the rationale for coming together, but it definitely represents a powerhouse based on both companies’ reputation prior to the alliance.
• Medex’s purchase of Air Security, in my opinion, was a brilliant move.  ‘Buy or Build?’  I’m not sure what the economics of the deal looked like, but they bought an established player who had a very robust network.
• There is something to be said for a company that knows what they do and do it well.  I know iJet has been tempted and explored multiple expansions of their business.  They have stuck with what they do best, online intelligence, and have not strayed too far from it. That says a lot about a specialist provider. 

Assistance companies who are considering security services should certainly consider acquisition before building.  It will be very difficult to quantify the economics associated with building your own.  There are just too many unknowns and plenty of small security companies that are still trying to figure it out themselves.  When you decide which security products or services to employ i’d suggest sticking to a few inter-related core competencies.  You can’t be everything to everybody.  Just do what you do BEST!