Feral Jundi

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Company Spotlight: Paramount Group Talks About Security In Africa

Below I have posted a couple of interesting stories about Paramount Group and it’s background. As you can see from it’s Wikipedia page, it is heavily involved with a lot of areas of defense in Africa and they are the largest PMSC in Africa. So when Ivor Ichikowitz (the founder and executive chairperson of the company) talks about private security in Africa, I tend to listen.

I also posted a side deal about an aircraft they donated to help in the war against Rhino poachers. This is a great move by the company because poachers are destroying one of Africa’s top treasures–it’s animals. They also had a vehicle showcased in the popular TV show called Top Gear.

The last article I posted below was not about Paramount Group specifically, but about private security in Africa in general. It talked about the focus of other large companies like G4S in Africa, and it is a great compare and contrast article after reading what Paramount mentioned. If companies want to know what to focus on when delving into this market, it pays to study the market leaders of this continent. Check it out. –Matt

 

 

From the website

Paramount Group is the largest privately owned defence and aerospace business in Africa, providing fully integrated turnkey solutions to global defence, peacekeeping and internal security forces.
Since its inception in 1994, Paramount has built strong relationships with governments and government agencies in over 30 countries around the world, earning an enviable reputation as a trusted advisor in the industry.
The Group is a leading innovator in the design and development of state-of-the-art products that it manufactures in locations throughout the world.  It is partnered with some of the world’s largest and most reputable organisations in the global defence community. The Paramount Group has the ability to understand its client requirements and to use its unique knowledge and experience to design cost-effective, future-proof solutions. As a result, Paramount has enjoyed strong growth and achieved an excellent track record of delivering successful projects.

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From Wikipedia
Paramount Group is a group of companies operating in the global defence, internal security and peacekeeping industries. It was founded in South Africa in 1994 and offers a range of armoured vehicles, military aircraft, equipment and training to governments.
The company was founded by South African entrepreneur and industrialist Ivor Ichikowitz. The Group is based in South Africa, with its headquarters near Johannesburg.
Paramount Group manufactures a range of armoured vehicles – the Maverick, Mbombe, Matador and Marauder – and in 2011 unveiled AHRLAC, a long-range reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft. AHRLAC is the first aircraft to be designed and built from scratch in Africa.
The business has government clients in 28 countries and partnerships with leading international defence and aerospace players, including Aerosud Holdings Ltd, its partner in the development of AHRLAC (Advanced High-Performance Reconnaissance Light Aircraft).
In February 2011, Paramount Group announced a joint venture with Abu Dhabi – based defence business International Golden Group to market and distribute Paramount Group’s products and services in the United Arab Emirates.
Paramount Group’s Marauder featured in an episode of the BBC’s Top Gear programme. Television show presenter Richard Hammond took the vehicle on a test drive in South Africa to put the vehicle through its paces in comparison to a Humvee in a bid to find ‘the world’s toughest car.’ The programme was broadcast in July 2011.
AHRLAC was launched in September 2011 and described by commentators, including the Wall Street Journal, as filling a niche for a versatile, low-cost aircraft.

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Security Is Key To Africa’s Economic Rise
By Ivor Ichikowitz, chairman of Paramount Group, Africa’s biggest private defence company.
Ivor Ichikowitz reports
22 November 2012
The most important single factor in boosting an emerging economy is a stable state. I believe that all things flow from this.
Capitalism is the most powerful driving force behind Africa’s economic development but businesses must be able to be run without the fear of suddenly losing all their assets in unexpected or undemocratic changes in government.
Criminals, terrorists and rebel groups further undermine economic activity across the continent and need to be effectively countered. It has been estimated, for example, that over 10% of Nigeria’s oil production is stolen between source and sale by criminal gangs, including groups who tap directly into long pipelines that are extremely vulnerable to theft in isolated areas.

(more…)

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Somalia: Sterling Corporate Services Replaces Saracen International For Training Puntland’s PMPF

With the news of contractor Lodewyk Pietersen being killed by his PMPF force that he was mentoring, I wanted to bring some attention to the company he was working for. Apparently Sterling Corporate Services replaced Saracen International as the prime vendor for training and mentoring Puntland’s anti-piracy force.

Of course this came out last February and I missed this news somehow. Either way, better late than never as they say, and thanks to a reader for pointing out this information.

So who is Sterling Corporate Services?  From the sounds of it, it looks like most of the guys that were with Saracen Int. just changed t-shirts and jumped into a new company. The UAE is still paying for the whole thing as well.

Also, the PMPF has a website which has several links to what is going on with the contract and their anti-piracy efforts on land.They even have a wikipedia entry, just so you can see the overall history of this force and what they are up to.

But as far as a website for SCS, that is a no go. Which is too bad because I could have done more to promote what these guys are doing in Puntland as opposed to finding out what they are doing after one of their guys gets killed while on an operation. With that said, if anyone from the company would like to correct the record as to what happened to your contractor, the industry and public would like to know.

The other reason why SCS should come up and speak about what happened, is because their competitors are taking advantage of this vacuum or ‘lack’ of information and spreading all sorts of negative information to discredit them. Pretty soon, rumor becomes fact, and then you get the main stream media reporting off of these rumors. So keeping quiet can sometimes do more harm than good, and especially in today’s fast paced social networked environment. At the least you should be contacting new media folks like myself, just because my readership are industry folks and the public. –Matt

 

 

Puntland counter-piracy force poised for launch
23 February 2012
by Richard Meade
An armed counter-piracy police force, funded by the UAE government and trained by private security, is poised to begin operations inside the Somali state of Puntland after previous attempts to launch such a force floundered.
Speaking exclusively to Lloyd’s List ahead of the UK-sponsored Somalia conference being held in London today, Puntland’s interior minister Abdullahi Ahmed Jama confirmed that the Puntland Maritime Police Force would be resuming operations imminently and directly targeting pirate gangs on land.
The Puntland counter-piracy force was established back in 2010, before being suspended in February last year under pressure from several UN agencies who criticised the force’s lack of transparency, the issue of arms sanctions and the lack of a legal framework to support operations.
According to Mr Jama those issues have now been resolved and the police force is now expected to resume training and recruiting with the backing of international governments.
The Puntland police force will operate with the co-operation of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia which is understood to be pursuing similar plans involving private security trained forces.
According to Mr Jama, the Puntland force is a locally recruited, armed coastal police force established to fight piracy on land and protect Somali marine resources. It has been formed, he argued, in direct response to multiple UN Security Council Resolutions and demands from the international community for the Somali authorities to build security and law enforcement institutions to address piracy.

(more…)

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Company Spotlight: CEO Stephan Crétier Talks About Garda And Role In Middle East

This is cool. The CEO of Garda was interviewed recently and it is neat to hear about some of the inner workings of Garda and their strategy in the market.

From what he said, they are trying to become the Walmart of private security. Interesting, but I think G4S has them beat there. lol But still, I think what is really cool here is that Garda became successful despite being in a hard place to do business.  It sounds like Quebec is a tough town in that regard, and for a private security company to excel is really unique.

I also perked up on his comment about their entry into Iraq. Here is the quote:

Q: Why the Middle East, given that it’s so fraught with danger and potential PR disasters?
A: You’re right, but at the same time you can have a PR disaster at Toronto Pearson, you can have a PR disaster in the shooting of armoured trucks. We’ve been extremely selective. People say, well, you’re just another Blackwater. But companies like Blackwater and Triple Canopy work as subcontractors to the U.S. government and army. We don’t. We work for NGOs in dangerous areas—oil and gas companies, reconstruction companies. We don’t work in war zones. When Iraq was at war, we weren’t there. We were in Kurdistan. We came in with the reconstruction of Iraq. In Afghanistan we are working almost exclusively with NGOs. We’re very specific about the type of business we want to do. We could do the same business as Blackwater, but it’s not the kind of culture we are looking at.

Interesting comment, but I do not agree. There are just as many complexities and issues working the oil/gas/NGO/reconstruction angle, as there are with working for a government like the US. I think the reason why Garda is not getting into that arena is because the market is filled with US PSC/PMC providers that are ‘preferred’ by the US Government and army, and not because of the culture. So for that market, they simply cannot compete.

I see this comment as more of the same when it comes to bashing US companies in order to differentiate and ‘elevate’ their company.  To say we are not like them, when in fact you are exactly like them, is telling. You provide a protective service to clients, and your culture is no different than a US company culture. (do a search on Garda or GardaWorld and they have had their fair share of issues–so their ‘culture’ is not immune despite the clients they choose)

Also, working for an NGO in Afghanistan, is working in a war zone. I think that comment was a misstatement. And if they are doing any convoy work or motorcades from Kurdistan to the southern Iraq or central Iraq, then they are operating in a war zone. And of course, Kurdistan has not separated from Iraq…yet, so working in Iraq is still working in Iraq. lol

Cool interview regardless, and check it out below. –Matt

 

In conversation: Stephan Crétier of Garda
On becoming the Wal-mart of security, and what exactly Garda is doing in the middle east
by Martin Patriquin
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Stephan Crétier stumbled into the security industry in 1994. Five years later, with a $25,000 second mortgage on his home, he bought and radically revamped the Montreal-based security firm Garda, best known for its armoured trucks and pistol-packing guards. Today, the company is one of the largest of its kind in the world with revenues last year of over $1.1 billion. Roughly a year after moving into the fraught security industry in the Middle East, four employees of GardaWorld, Garda’s global security wing, and Peter Moore, the man they were protecting, were kidnapped in Baghdad. Only Moore survived.
Q: You were actually on track to become a baseball umpire. Why the career change?
A: I was doing some minor league baseball in the U.S. It was really a question of looking down the road and asking, “Am I going to make it?” It’s a long road, and at the same time your friends are out of university and getting real jobs. One day, I decided it was enough, and I went back to Montreal. I worked for a small mom-and-pop [security] operation, and after five years I decided to start my own. The rest is history.
Q: You acquired Garda in 1999. What were the dynamics of the security services industry at the time that led you to believe you could make a serious go of this thing?
A: When I started the business—I don’t want to insult anyone, but it was security people in business instead of business people in security. We had security people trying to build a police-type model. We tried to replicate a model that existed in Europe in the early ’70s. Those companies really accelerated their growth when Europe discovered terrorism; [Europe] needed the help of a more modern and professional private sector to help take care of national security.

(more…)

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Company Spotlight: The Security Association For The Maritime Industry

I wanted to bring attention to this specific trade group, just because groups like this are great resources for guys looking for companies to work for. If you go to SAMI’s membership directory, you will see a number of companies that have signed on. Which is great, because at least if you get a job with that particular company who is a member, you can use the association as a means of keeping that company in check.

But like with the ISOA, if SAMI does nothing about complaints or does not have the courage to punish members, then what good is the association? It’s value in my opinion, is it’s ability to keep it’s members in check and keep them on the path of ‘doing the right thing’. Companies who treat their contractors poorly, or rip off clients, and who are members of these associations, in turn tarnish the reputation of those associations and the members that have signed on to such a group. So to me, it is ridiculous that an association ‘would not’ punish a member or expel them from the group, if they violated the codes that they and everyone signed onto.

The other problem with associations is that when a member pays good money to be a member of the group, and the officers and operations of that trade group depend upon those membership dues, then it becomes very difficult for these guys to punish members who do bad things. It’s like biting the hand that feeds you, and it is this financial component that works against the strength of an association–if they claim to abide by some standard or code of conduct. Of course an association needs operating funds to keep working on behalf of the association, but you can see the potential conflict of interest here?

Overall, I appreciate the efforts of these associations, because it gives the various clients out there another tool for their research. It also gives companies that believe in a certain standard, to gather and show their support for such a standard. These associations are also key to organizing industry, so that it can effectively communicate consensus. You can have a thousand chaotic and disjointed voices screaming for attention, or you can have one clear and concise voice backed by a thousand people.

But, I should also remind these associations that if you fail to listen and act on the concerns or complaints of clients, the public or the contractors that work for these member companies, then what good is your association? –Matt

Link to association here. (the website is under construction, and it is listed in my associations category for future reference)

 


The Security Association for the Maritime Industry (SAMI) provides an independent regulatory trade association for maritime security companies.
Providing credibility, trust and respect, SAMI introduces a level of regulatory discipline and scrutiny to ensure that the maritime industry can easily identify reputable maritime security companies. SAMI provides reassurance and guidance, where none has existed before and establishes the benchmark for standards within the industry.
SAMI as a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), represents the industry at an international level in a balanced and cogent manner with transparency, honesty and integrity.
The membership encompasses maritime security providers, consultants, trainers, individual operatives and the maritime security equipment, technology and hardware manufacturers – to provide direct links to the commercial shipping industry, offshore oil & gas industry and ports too.

(more…)

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Company Spotlight: G4S, The World’s Largest Private Security Company

These two deals I posted below are separate interviews, but they give you a good idea where G4S is standing right now. This company is amazingly large and successful. Not only is it the largest PSC in the world, but this company is the world’s second largest employer, right behind Walmart. That is impressive.

The thing I clued into is their business in the Middle East. That Saudi Arabia and the UAE were their top customers. The trend here, is these countries are serious about their security, and threats against oil and business are what drives this interest in security.

Mr. Buckles, whom used to work for Avon as an analyst, also mentioned in the interview the key to success for the company and why he stuck around:

‘The sensible one is that Securicor had a policy of developing internal talent and offering prospects for rapid promotion. But there was also the offer of a Ford Escort. A company car for a young guy was very attractive,’ he says. By 2005, he headed G4S. ‘The rules of best practice are the same for all businesses, including supplying security,’ he says.
‘Take staff with you by rewarding achievement, identify new markets, manage risk while taking up opportunities, understand your customers and have a strong culture of ethical dealing. Applying these principles has been key for me.’

That is an interesting list, and many of these ideas are just another way of saying ‘take care of your people’ and ‘customer service and satisfaction’. But he also focused on managing risk, which is cool. G4S has certainly gobbled up many companies in a short period of time, and because of the current global chaos and government austerity moves, their timing has been excellent. In other words, they positioned themselves with enough services to take advantage of increased security related opportunities. They have also been profitable during a time when many companies in the world are hurting.

And to further the theme of taking care of your people. When G4S goes into a new region, like Latin America, and they become the best paying gig in town, then of course that company becomes the popular choice of the locals. I guess they have learned the lesson of ‘pay better than the next guy, if you want to attract the best’. Which is great, because if you pay peanuts, you will get monkeys. Paying better and good training are both key aspects of keeping your folks happy, along with providing excellent leadership. Here is the quote:

Unlike most FTSE 100 chief executives, Buckles, 50, has responsibility for staff working in high-risk situations, so how does he handle the stress?
Looking relaxed at G4S’s headquarters in Crawley, West Sussex, he says: ‘The best training is provided and every assignment is assessed for risk and ways of minimising it. Pressure comes with the job, but I’ve been in the security business long enough to know the importance of teamwork and good communication to ensure we are on top of every contract.’
G4S revenues rose by 4.7 per cent in the first three months of the year, driven by the emerging markets of Africa, Asia and South America, where demand is rising for expertise in areas such as moving cash, guarding airports and providing personal protection.
In some developing countries we are seen as a stronger force in terms of training and pay than local police and a better option for providing security,’

The mention of South America also coincides with what the Small Arms Survey mentioned about Latin America. That PSC’s there are the most armed in the world, outside of the conflict zones. Security is huge business in Latin America, and especially because of the drug wars and poor economy. Speaking of which, G4S is also active in Iraq and Afghanistan. So they are definitely intertwined in many aspects of the industry.

Of course there are also incidents where G4S has had some hiccups. This is the extreme challenge of the ‘head knowing what the tale is doing’ within such a large company.  For a smaller security company, the ability to manage and watch each contract is a little easier than for a large mega-corporation to do so. Given that set of circumstance, G4S has done remarkably well. That doesn’t mean they haven’t had their share of issues come up, but still, for it’s size and exposure to risk, it has navigated those issues very well. Ask yourself how much negative news you hear in the media about G4S, compared to other much smaller companies, and you can see what I mean?

Finally, the one thing that I think is really important to emphasize, and some companies have a hard time understanding this. You can assemble a great team, pay them well, be an outstanding leader for them, etc., but if you don’t have some kick ass marketing and sales personnel hunting around for new contracts and actually winning them, then the company will not expand and get more revenue. Why is that important? Well, in order to pay those great salaries, offer good training, and attract kick ass leaders, then you need some cash coming in. Malcolm Gladwell identified these folks as the ‘salesmen’ in his book the Tipping Point:

Chapter 2: The Law of the Few: Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen
The attainment of the tipping point that transforms a phenomenon into an influential trend usually requires the intervention of a number of influential types of people. In the disease epidemic model Gladwell introduced in Chapter 1, he demonstrated that many outbreaks could be traced back to a small group of infectors. Likewise, on the path toward the tipping point, many trends are ushered into popularity by small groups of individuals that can be classified as Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen.
Connectors are individuals who have ties in many different realms and act as conduits between them, helping to engender connections, relationships, and “cross-fertilization” that otherwise might not have ever occurred. Mavens are people who have a strong compulsion to help other consumers by helping them make informed decisions. Salesmen are people whose unusual charisma allows them to be extremely persuasive in inducing others’ buying decisions and behaviors. Gladwell identifies a number of examples of past trends and events that hinged on the influence and involvement of Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen at key moments in their development.(from wikisummaries)

 These salesmen are a vital component of any company. To put a former security contractor or a military guy in such an important position is a nice gesture, but if they do not have the talent to do the job, then you will not get the contracts. What you really need is a professional with a gift, who can ‘sell snow to an Eskimo’ as they say. (like maybe an Avon salesman? lol) It also reminds me of a quote that Donald Trump made recently about negotiators. Here it is:

“You know, I can send two executives into a room. They can say the same thing. One guy comes home with the bacon and the other one doesn’t. And I’ve seen it a thousand times. It’s the messenger.”

The question a company should ask is do they have the right messenger, negotiator, or salesman to win that contract for the company and increase that company’s standing in the market? And to bring this back to G4S, they obviously have some very talented people working on this for them. –Matt

NICK BUCKLES INTERVIEW: I deal with trouble in Kabul, Baghdad …and Wimbledon
By David White
18th June 2011
As the world’s top tennis players and half a million fans prepare for the glamour and glory of the 125th Wimbledon tournament starting tomorrow, their safety will be in the hands of Nick Buckles.
‘There will be 700 uniformed staff to search vehicles and bags, check tickets and provide on-court protection and escorts for players,’ says the boss of G4S, the world’s biggest private security company.

(more…)

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