Forward Observational Risk Management (FORM): A Proactive Approach to Security

In today’s security landscape, proactive risk management practices are essential to ensuring client safety in diverse and sometimes unpredictable environments. One of the most advanced methods in the security management consultant’s toolkit is Forward Observational Risk Management (FORM). FORM is a strategy in which security management consultants travel ahead of the primary security team or client, often days or even weeks in advance, to conduct thorough threat assessments and gather critical intelligence. This approach offers a deep understanding of the operational area (AO), allowing security teams to mitigate potential threats long before they pose a risk to the client.

Here's an in-depth look at the steps and benefits of FORM, illustrating how this preemptive strategy fortifies security operations and enhances the overall safety of clients during high-stakes events, trips, or missions.

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Understanding Threat Risk Assessments and Security Audits

When it comes to conducting threat risk assessments, it's crucial to recognize that multiple approaches and methodologies exist. Here we will focus on the approach used by Head of Security, which is a proven method that has significantly contributed to my success as a security management consultant.

Our threat risk assessment process follows a step-by-step sequence, meaning each phase must be completed before moving to the next. This structured method, known as the waterfall methodology, has been used in various fields, including software development, where both waterfall and agile methodologies structure workflows. For security management consultants, the waterfall methodology is our preferred approach, as it requires us to systematically complete each step, ensuring thoroughness and accuracy in our assessments.

Once we transition from assessment to the threat risk management phase, we adopt a more agile approach. Agile...