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Feeling the pinch

This year has been a tough one for the security industry. Actually, so was last year, but this year the political shenanigans have really hit home to many companies. Economic ups and downs are simply part of the way things are and there is nothing us peasants can do about that. However, it is possible for a government to make an effort to limit the fallout or at least try to speed the process of the recession. Not the looters in South Africa, there’s still something to fiddle so why worry, the people at the top are not struggling so there’s no real reason to get concerned.

At the other end of the scale, however, things are tougher than ever. As if all-time record unemployment isn’t enough to be proud of, we can expect to see a bunch of companies in multiple industries letting people go in the near future. They will try to keep it quiet, but people talk. And families suffer.

All is not lost however. At least we still have a good comedy on TV, for those that watch the parliament channel. At a time when politicians should be trying to do something (I know they are politicians, so a better way to phrase it would be to say, “at a time when politicians should be making the effort to pretend to be doing something”), we have a parliament full of 10-year-olds calling each other names. No wonder the big global investors are running like cats from a bath.

Of course, the situation is a goldmine if you happen to be running a crime syndicate, but how many of us have our own crime family?

The Residential Estate Security Conference Hi-Tech Security Solutions held in August with Rob Anderson showed us how security managers are struggling to deal with the never-ending criminal onslaught. It’s a no-win situation for them. Opportunistic crime is increasing, but so is syndicate crime, which is well planned and funded. Sadly, apart from a few lucky ones, estate security is not generally well funded. I heard a few horror stories at the conference, of estates that opted to buy security on price, or who relied on a trustee who ‘had a contact’ and could get it done ‘real cheap’. They got what they paid for.

The Residential Estate Security Handbook is also out this month and in it we cover a host of security solutions for estates. One of the topics is TCO (total cost of ownership), which was also one of the presentations at the conference, and it was a revelation. If you are making decisions on the purchase price you’d better make sure you have another job lined up before the maintenance ‘doo’ hits the fan.

On a more positive note, there are some, far too few unfortunately, who say the economic tide is turning and business should start picking up in the new year. I generally take economic predictions with a pinch of salt, but let’s hope that in this instance they are correct.

Andrew Seldon

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