Michael D. Moberly August 25, 2009 (Part Two of Two Part Post)
The phrase ‘knowledge-based economy’ is a business reality and economic fact, not a meaningless cliche’. For securiy product/service vendors this phrase should provide critical insight into how the private sectors’ security needs, demands, and expectations are evolving. No longer, for example, are tangible – physical assets, i.e., plants, real estate, equipment, inventory, etc., the predominant source of most company’s value and revenue. Instead, in the ‘knowledge-based economy’ the predominant sources – origins of company value have shifted to intangible assets, i.e., intellectual property, proprietary know how, brand, reputation, image, and goodwill, etc. (For a comprehensive list of intangible assets see https://kpstrat.com/brochure.)
Predictably then, we should see the security (product, service) industry become immersed in training and product and service development to safeguard intangible (asset) sources of company value and revenue which is what companies, their management teams, and boards most want and are being mandated to protect and monitor.
Safeguarding, monitoring, and mitigating risks to intangible assets are the new security drivers for the 21st century! Consequently, these new ‘security drivers’ present many viable opportunities for security product and service companies to profitably engage this still evolving nexus of needs, demands, (management) expectations, and regulatory mandates.
Some outstanding challenges facing the security product and service industry are analogized in a security product presentation I recently attended. All told, the product had numerous (venue) applications and multiple favorable ‘selling points’. Unfortunately however, the vendor either overlooked or did not recognize the various ways in which the product could deliver ‘security intangibles’, i.e., additional value, well beyond the products’ primary security features.
Had the vendor appropriately bundled and characterized the ‘security intangibles’ in the presentation and accompanying promotional materials, management receptivity to purchasing the product would have likely been substantially elevated because return-on-investment projections would have been more clear and much broader.
