Make those rules up for yourself!

I'm aware of many instances where security advisors and managers, etc advise their employees on the importance of bomb awareness, and the potential for attack from suicide bombers. However, their superiors with little or no experience of security – but who firmly believe they're experts – overrule the security practitioner's advice.

Recently, I was fortunate enough to have been tasked with managing the operational aspects of a large security section within a Government department. Although I was primarily working as an advisor to a contract company, I did have a close working relationship with their own advisors. That said, my superiors blocked several ideas that would have benefited the client before my suggestions even reached the intended recipient.

No doubt many security managers who read SMT suffer the same frustration within their own environment, but we cannot allow bomb awareness training and contingency planning to sit within directors' in-trays as a low priority.

A bomb being detonated in the building next door or across the road will still affect your company's business. This is one particular message that needs to be brought home in no uncertain terms to the powers that be.