For years, I have been telling old clients and prospective new ones about the great illusion created by companies like G4S, Wackenhut, Allied Barton, FJC and alike volume based globally recognized security firms. With the illusion of grand operational capabilities and unlimited resources & logistics, supported by smoke and mirror marketing tactics, these companies have done more damage to the professionalization of an already stressed and under compensated industry. Using bottom-feeder tactics to win large contracts, G4S and similar volume based providers, have reduced the competitive marketplace to just a handfull of players, none of whom can deliver the final product without the help of local mom and pop security professionals who are typically partnered with to support these contracts.
Aside from the obvious question, how G4S, a foreign company to the core, continues to thrive both here in the US and abroad, the larger question is why? Why are these companies with more documented failures, high employee turnover and an inability to sustain long term client relationships growing in wealth? Why has performance, interpersonal relationships, and client values and culture become replaced by quantity and sub par billing rates?
At a time where many municipalities and private institutions are cowering under the weight of a bloated operating infrastructure and poor economy, why are companies like G4S being tasked to look after their greatest commodities?
