Page 23 - the SyI Quarterly V3 digital (1)

Crisis Management during COVID-19:

and how Security Professionals can use their skills to support

businesses and charities

Dr Michael McDonagh FSyI

The richness of the security industry never fails to stimulate
me, several weeks ago two things happened out of the blue:
I was contacted by the CMI and interviewed for a forthcoming
blog and article around COVID-19 and how major organisations
and my HNW clients are managing the current pandemic, and
a children’s charity contacted me and asked for some free
crisis management advice as they had reached out to another
consultant who had demanded a huge fee for crisis management
advice.

As, a former Police Officer, I jumped at the opportunity to assist
a charity, particularly a children’s charity as I spent many years
in child protection whilst in the Serious and Organised Crime
Directorate of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS).

I must state for the record, these are my thoughts, gained over
thirty years conducting strategic and major investigations, in
command leadership positions, in several crisis management
roles and in particular from the Avian Flu Pandemic in 2005-8
(H5N1), in which I was the operational lead for my Command.

In July 2008, the UK Parliamentary Committee for pandemics were predicting that up to 75,000 British People will die in the
‘inevitable’ flu pandemic that could kill as many as 50 million people worldwide. Furthermore the Committee warned, that
surveillance of emerging disease threats around the world needs to be overhauled to provide early warning of potential pandemics.

Additionally, if we look back further to 2002, to the SARS pandemic, we can clearly see that an unfavourable range of economical,
social and political effects were experienced by many nation states, their citizens and global organisations.

My research indicated that at the time of the 2002 and 2008 pandemics, the effects were negligible and mainly temporary, if noted
at all by most of the general population however, the impact to the wider global economy, financial markets and organisations has
changed significantly since 2008, as the world has become a more complex, interdependent, fragile and many commentators suggest,
more susceptible to global disruptions such as pandemics.

For much of the past twenty years, the West has relied on countries in the Far East (mainly China) to produce, manufacture and
supply a large proportion of our cheaper consumables (wearables) and everyday technology however, as time has moved on, we
now see that the Far East is becoming a major producer of key components for multiple sectors including our automotive, technology
(5G), clothing, food and more recently the emerging health market.
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