Every organization is trying to balance the need for physical security and doing business effectively.
To that end, ASIS International has released its latest ANSI standard, Security Management Standard: Physical Asset Protection.
“All organizations face risk,” said Allison Wylde, co-chair of the Physical Asset Protection Technical Committee and course leader of MSc Project Management, London Business School, in a press release. “The challenge is to first determine how much risk is acceptable and second how to cost-effectively manage risk to meet strategic and operational objectives. This standard helps practitioners determine the appropriate balance between these competing demands.”
The standard, which was developed by a global, 80-member Technical Committee, aims to present a “provides a comprehensive management approach to identify, apply, and manage physical security measures in order to safeguard an organization’s assets — its people, property, and information,” according to ASIS. Further, it reaches beyond these tangible assets to also address the less-considered intangible assets, such as brand, and reputation.
The new standard creates a framework to establish, implement, operate, monitor, review, maintain, and improve physical protection systems. The standard, which has been in development for more than three years, started as members of ASIS UK drafted an asset protection standard based on the management system framework described in the ANSI/ASIS SPC.1-2009, standard title Organizational Resilience: Security, Preparedness, and Continuity Management Systems — Requirements with Guidance for Use, ASIS said.
Lack of resilience, or the ability to respond to unexpected events, is a critical aspect of success in today’s business climate. “Organizations need to manage the risks of undesirable and disruptive events,” said Dr. Marc Siegel, co-chair of the Physical Asset Protection Technical Committee and Commissioner of the ASIS Global Standards Initiative in the press release. “A comprehensive management systems approach gives practitioners a management tool to cost-effectively protect an organization’s assets in concert with the organization’s overall mission and business objectives.”
The standard, which can be downloaded through the ASIS website, has identified the hallmarks of an effective proactive management system to provide direction to security managers. To be affective, a variety of elements must be present:
- Top management must be committed and willing to lead in developing a Physical Assets Protection policy
- The program must establish a comprehensive program that identifies, analyzes, and evaluates risks to tangible and intangible assets
- People, procedures, technologies, and equipment must all be integrated to meet the objectives of the system.
- The performance of the system must be continuously monitored, measured, and reviewed.
These types of standard promises to allow organizations balance the soft information (such as experience and intuition) with factual data around the risk status of assets. Let us know in the comments section below how your organization handles physical asset protection. Will this type of standard help you move forward in new ways?
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