“What we’ve done over the last two years is take what was predominantly a manpower-related service, and a very successful one at that, and develop it still further to reflect the ever-changing shape and look of the industry. In essence, we wanted to become a risk-based security provider.”
Bob Forsyth wasted no time at all in imparting his vision for MITIE Total Security Management – an operating division of the famed MITIE Group plc – for which he has served as managing director since April last year.
“We’re now all about assessing risk, and then reviewing that risk around what we need to do to protect given properties and assets of the customer base,” he continued in a forthright manner. “Before, in the guarding marketplace it was all about: ‘How many security officers do you want, and when would you like them to book on and book off?'”
This last point is something of a generalisation, of course, but if truth be told that’s how many security companies acted.
Certainly, the MITIE security business has changed tremendously across the last two years. A number of new strands have been introduced in terms of what the Total Security Management brand can provide. For example, and as stated, the company is now very much focused on being a risk-based security solutions provider.
“12 months ago we introduced the risk and resilience team headed up by Andy May,” asserted Forsyth, a devoted and long-time fan of West Ham United FC (an experience which he described as being “character-building”). As a lifelong Hammers fan myself, I know exactly where he’s coming from!
“That was a big introduction, and a pretty hefty investment in terms of the cash underpinning it all. We had to secure upwards of five or six senior people with great skills sets and good backgrounds in different areas. They’re ex-police and ex-MoD, etc.”
As eagle-eyed readers of SMT Online will already know, former City of London Police professional Brett Lovegrove has joined the ranks to assist with that project, and indeed with the policing sector in general.
“Those guys have already completed over 100 projects,” stated Forsyth, “covering anything from disaster recovery plans through to risk reviews, and all aimed at assisting our current client base” [which numbers over 4,000 companies]. “We think that has helped drive our retention rates on contracts, which have been better than we’ve ever experienced.”
On that note, Forsyth added: “I don’t think you can ever say we did one thing to realise that result, but it’s certainly an element of us having demonstrably given good value to our customers.”
Risk and resilience ‘route to market’
The decision to go down this risk and resilience ‘route to market’ was of Forsyth’s own making. In terms of the plan, he looked at the business long and hard when he was first made managing director.
To reach that pinnacle, Forsyth joined MITIE back in 2004 and duly presided over an array of notable achievements. Having successfully implemented the merger with Initial Security in the southern region, and developing a profitable part of the business, it was this time back in 2007 that he implemented MITIE’s stand-alone response service.
June 2009 witnessed Forsyth putting the finishing touches to the launch of the Total Security Management approach, with the bold plan of providing an integrated, risk-based approach to security and incorporating response services with security systems.
“I felt there were clearly some areas of the business which we simply had to streamline,” Forsyth told me. “As we all know, margins have been under great pressure these last five years, probably more so than at any time in the past. Given that those margins were coming down and down, we just couldn’t operate the way we had done in the past.”
A strong relationship builder who’s financially astute and clearly boasts first class negotiation and communication skills, Forsyth decided to strip some resource out of the regional businesses – and several other areas – and feed that into the risk team. It has proven to be a great move.
“The other area in which we’ve made huge strides by shaping ourselves to be different is across the systems business. This is integral to our ability to be able to review risk and put in place technology such as access control and lone monitoring systems to the benefit of the customer.”
According to Forsyth, what MITIE had was an external-looking systems business, and what that operation was doing involved eyeing up small projects.
“Instead, we determined to focus on our top customer base rather than hunting for small value work. At that point we developed a risk team to work with our customers, and refocused the systems business equally to work with our end users. The response team has been grown exponentially across the last two years as it’s a significant part of our integrated strategy. It’s a fantastically well run element of our business. It’s flexible, too.”
Forsyth is adamant that MITIE’s customers wish to see flexibility in its products. “They want to be able to ‘pick them up and put them down’. They want manpower resources that are flexible. Response is an ideal way of taking out, if you like, costly manpower provision in certain areas and putting in technology and response.”
It’s fair to say, then, that Forsyth and his team have totally changed the focus of the business.
“Structurally we’ve changed. We’ve put more investment into our systems and risk businesses, and we’ve also launched the MiTec security hub which has, if you like, closed the loop around our product lines.”
Before, MITIE was clearly outsourcing the CCTV provision of monitoring and intruder alarms, etc. They’ve totally shut that gap. “We can now offer customers everything from risk and review processing using the security profile and risk calculator (SPARC) tool we’ve implemented over the last year or so,” asserted Forsyth, “through to security guarding, monitoring and systems integration via one management team.”
Indeed, the business is all about one management team and one Board. “We’re not siloed in terms of our approach to the integration of products and solutions,” explained Forsyth, himself a member of the Institute of Directors. “We can look at one big project as a whole and then take a decision on margin, pricing and risk.”
He made a point of stating that other businesses are not joined up in the same way, and may suffer from internal politics as a result. “I don’t want to do this with that product…” “I can’t do this at that margin…”
Reasoned view of the security package
As far as Forsyth’s concerned, the way in which MITIE’s security offering is structured means that the company can take a far more holistic and reasoned view around the whole protection package.
“It’s our customers who have driven the demand. They want us to offer them more solutions. ‘Can you do this, and can you do that?’ We’ve driven the Total Security Management approach, yes, but it’s definitely true to say that our clients have come along for the ride.”
Those customers wanted one management team to deal with, right across their scope of security.
“A management team who understands them, and can communicate with them on one level. When you have three or four different suppliers – one coming in to do systems, one to look after fire protection, one to tackle manpower, etc – this represents quite a disjointed approach to addressing risk.”
Isn’t that the truth? Often, what you find is that one supplier can be working to one particular risk evaluation level while another might be working to a wholly different set of parameters. Neither of them are talking to each other, neither of them are communicating.
“Our approach really works because it’s so clear on the communications front,” continued Forsyth. “The administration burden on the client is eased. They’re not dealing with numerous suppliers, and only looking at one set of Terms and Conditions. It does come back to the ability to speak to one management team about what they need as a customer and then leaving us to review the situation. To my mind that’s a strong way of working.”
Forsyth outlined the fact that he’s even seeing this form of working relationships being written into tenders. “The more services you provide, the more the client has invested in you. The client can get what they want.”
Not a bad premise given that security is part of what we call ‘the service sector’, but it’s still the case that customers sometimes have to be steered towards the right end goal.
Maintaining that theme a tad longer, how savvy are the clients these days? “I think most customers now have an open remit that says: ‘This is what we’ve currently got in place, but that isn’t necessarily what we want going forward. Please come in and look at it afresh. Give us your ideas…'”
Typically, Forsyth’s operation is looking at giving end customers compliant bids around a pricing matrix, but then again MITIE is also offering innovatory bids that say: ‘We don’t think you need that. We think you need this.’ The end result may involve more or less manpower, but this so obviously depends on the risk profile.
“We work within the parameters of client budgets, which are under huge pressure these days. I think most customers now accept there is a better knowledge within the industry than there was five years ago. We as an industry have come a long way. We couldn’t have done what we’re doing now seven or eight years ago. I don’t think we, the industry, were trusted to the same extent we are today.”
A keen advocate of MITIE Group plc’s stated partnership approach to doing business, Forsyth astutely points out that there isn’t the money available in most companies to spend on security that they used to have. There are less ‘security people’ around in the larger organisations, too, when compared to just a few years ago.
Is MITIE Total Security Management still faced with clients saying: ‘This is what I have to spend, so what can you do for me within that budget?’
“Yes, we are,” opined Forsyth. “In a way it’s good to be told what the end customer’s spend is likely to be as you can then try and tailor products, solutions and genuine innovations around that spend. The way I look at it is that the clients have premises and people to look after. If they only have X amount to spend then they only have X amount to spend. That said, we wouldn’t want to take on a contract where elements of security have to be stripped out if they cannot be afforded and where, if anything goes wrong, the responsibility would rest with us. That’s unreasonable.”
Innovation and the concept of ‘added value’
MITIE does work with customers on limited funding in terms of assisting them to think differently.
“Innovation around technology helps us to do that,” enthused Forsyth. “It’s about us bringing to the table different options for those clients and, in some cases, being able to save the end user significant amounts of money.”
That statement brought us neatly round to the subject of added value in security: a phrase that for one client means one thing, but to another something entirely different. How would Forsyth define this term?
“Added value to many clients is about us being able to innovate and change and having flexible services that, as I said, they can ‘pick up and put down’. When I talk to customers, what they tell me they really want is flexibility that may have to be ramped up in times of higher risk or downgraded when those risks are somewhat lower grade.”
Anecdotal industry evidence suggests that some customers feel added value from security provision is manifested by trained and Security Industry Authority-licensed security officers walking around filling up photocopiers and setting up meeting rooms, etc.
“This has been done and is being done,” stressed Forsyth. “It’s a standard approach, but there are times when you could say that’s taking individuals away from their core role of being a security professional and looking after the premises, its people and contents. There’s a fine balance to be struck around that, and we try and make sure we get that balance right.”
Regulation and licensing: a success story?
Speaking of the Regulator, what’s Forsyth’s overall and considered view on regulation and licensing to date, and where we are now?
“There’s no doubt that regulation and licensing has been a good thing. We have been a passionate supporter of the approach taken by the Regulator. Has the Security Industry Authority got everything right so far? No, but then again not everyone does.”
According to reports, it’s looking highly likely that regulation will be of the lighter touch variety in the future.
“We as a business welcome this,” said Forsyth with great positivity. “What I’m slightly concerned about, though, is the potential situation wherein lighter touch regulation could lead to those who have left the industry wanting to come back. How the Private Security Industry Act 2001 is going to be policed as we move forward is the key area, and we don’t quite know how that will be done.”
Forsyth told me that he feels the Approved Contractor Scheme has induced much good for the industry, but what about the cost of that initiative and, indeed, individual licensing? Are clients complaining if and when the fiscal burden is passed on to them?
“The subject of clients having to pay extra due to the costs of licensing isn’t an issue and hasn’t been for a number of years now. It’s just not on the agenda. All sectors want to try and reduce spend, particularly given the present economic situation, and where we can bureaucratically do so then clearly that’s of benefit.”
Forsyth outlined that the biggest reason a lot of companies have gone out of business is not because of the Security Industry Authority and regulation but rather the economy and cold hard cash.
“Cash has driven companies out of business,” he asserted. “In other words, they don’t have any. The mad pricing mechanisms they’ve had in place simply couldn’t carry on like that. You cannot fund security guarding businesses of over GB pound 10 million if you don’t have a margin in there to sustain and support them.”
Examining how the past frames the future
Closer to home, what experiences have framed Forsyth’s managerial style? His answer is steeped in a nod towards the past.
“I did start out as a security officer around 18 years ago for a company by the name of Reliance Security. There are a lot of people in the industry who want to achieve and progress through levels of management to Board level. It can be done. I’ve done it, and if I did it then there’s no reason why the security officers of today shouldn’t aspire to becoming managing director at some point in time.”
Clearly one can add modesty to the list of Forsyth’s personal traits.
“This industry is one of the best at promoting talent. If you have a spark within you, it’s easy to see. We want to bring people through. If you look at our Board there are a number of people there who’ve risen through the ranks. MITIE as a company is always heavily involved in the areas of training and career progression.”
There is a ‘but’, though. “They do have to work hard and must have the right attitude,” said Forsyth. “It’s a hard industry to work in. It’s tough. The hours are often long, and it’s sometimes a difficult environment in which to be.”
Having worked his way up through various levels of operational management in Reliance, at the regional level Forsyth masterminded the opening of offices for the company in Norwich. He then went to run an office in Bristol.
“That was a GB pound 10 million turnover operation,” he told me. “In those days this was a decent-sized region. I ran that for a couple of years, and was then promoted to start work on developing major accounts.”
Forsyth was working on the larger accounts around the Reliance High-Tech company’s integrated security approach, and predominantly out of the company’s Alarm Receiving Centre. It was the early stages of integrating defined products with security guarding but – and somewhat strangely given today’s scenario – he found that this role wasn’t quite where he wanted to go at the time.
Forsyth joined MITIE by way of a ‘start-up’ called MITIE Security South West Ltd. He was the managing director and had an equity stake in the business.
“When I joined, the security side of the MITIE business was worth about GB pound 45 million. I was in that role for around two years. We did very well. The company then acquired the Initial business. I was duly bought out of that model and became regional managing director for the south. This integrated the Initial model with my own business.”
Forsyth took on another couple of Board jobs. He first established the response concern and then set up what we now see as Total Security Management: encompassing response, systems and security guarding. That business was then worth in the region of GB pound 80 million.
Integrating service lines for the customers
By his own admission, this was the tipping point at which Forsyth’s early thought processes began to centre on how the company might integrate all of its service lines for the benefit of any one given customer.
On promotion to managing director for MITIE Security, Forsyth duly changed the business model, changed the structure and changed the company’s approach across an 18-month period to the point where the risk management business was started, the aviation business pushed on to bigger and better things and the response business as we know it today was set up.
On top of that, the systems business was tweaked slightly and the all-encompassing MiTec hub launched in Belfast. Indeed, across the next 12 months MITIE plans to launch a raft of customer-centric solutions from this focal security point.
All of those experiences have obviously helped in formulating Forsyth’s managerial style, but how would the man himself describe it to the outside world?
“I’m an open manager in that I like to inform members of the team about exactly where we’re going. It’s really important that everyone understands why we’re taking the decisions we’re taking. My colleagues have buy-in here, which is really important to me.”
Indeed, Forsyth continually talks to his team members about the importance of change and evolution in the business.
“We’ve changed drastically from where we were two years ago to the business we’re working in today. The next two years will involve just as much change. Having the mindset that’s all about today being OK will not be acceptable to clients tomorrow.”
MITIE Total Security Management is currently working with a number of partners around software products for management information packs, and in other areas where Forsyth is majorly interested in driving innovation and change “and looking at things differently as a business”.
As far as Forsyth’s concerned, that last point is critically important in security which has really altered as a discipline during the last three years or so.
“There are three companies at over GB pound 200 million and then there’s a big gap to the rest,” he suggested. “That has fundamentally changed the dynamic in the sector.”
Does Forsyth believe that third parties are continually looking towards his operation, as one of the bigger security companies, to take the lead all the while?
“MITIE and some other companies have changed the way in which they ‘do security’. They’re venturing into other areas where perhaps they haven’t been as strong or invested as much in days gone by. For sure, those companies that are planning on sticking to a security guarding diet alone are not going to lose weight. They’re going to go under.”
If Forsyth had to think of four words to describe himself in a business or managerial sense, what would they be?/p>
“Passionate, energetic, a driver, fun…” are the words that come back at me.
Three of them are cemented by the truism that Forsyth takes every opportunity to engage himself with the wider security sector through continued involvement with organisations such as the City Security and Resilience Networks and the BSIA. He’s also a member of the Resilience Industry Suppliers Community, the leading Think Tank on UK security and a recognised advisor to the Government.
The policing agenda and the private sector
What about the whole policing agenda, and the 20%-25% cuts planned by the coalition Government?
For a long time there has been talk of the guarding sector ‘taking up the slack’ of lower level policing. However, no-one has ever formally asked the security companies if they want to do this work.
Does MITIE Total Security Management’s leader believe that 20% cuts are manageable without private sector involvement, and does he envision a role for the private security sector in lower level policing?
“In terms of the budgets, I couldn’t comment on whether that’s achievable or not. I do think there are opportunities for companies like MITIE to assist the police in general terms at lower levels. It’s a difficult time for everyone, but there’s a part outsourcing can play.”
Focusing on the typical number of hours per week worked by officers at MITIE, Forsyth replied: “I’d say around 48-50 hours per week on average. We have a number of very large contracts where there are 42-hour working weeks. There are a number on the 56-hour programme, too, and we don’t see any change to that. High 40s, low 50s is the average, but that would be my best guess.”
Forsyth – who cites The Telegraph, Time magazine (mostly online) and Fortune as his reading material of choice – clearly believes there’s “some really good stuff” happening around MITIE’s people just now.
“MiTSM, for example,” pinpointed Forsyth. “This is one of the biggest innovations ever achieved for our 12,000 security staff. They can all access important information from their PDAs, their mobiles and from site-based computers on schedules, holidays and wages, etc. We can communicate really easily through our regular bulletins, and we have a lot more ideas to come.”
