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Measure what matters
In order to pull off the logistical nightmare of a busy EP team, it is important to look for ways to stay organized and optimize productivity in a schedule. Even an extra 30 minutes for the team to rest in their hotel rooms or grab a bite to eat made a world of difference. We constantly are working to improve the program anywhere we can, because even the slightest change in program management and implementation would have ripple effects that would impact the client and the EP team.
It may be helpful to look at to the client’s business model, strategies and decision-making processes to align your approach with theirs. Maybe we could apply some of our client’s management methods to running our EP program?
In the end, gut feelings matter, but the combination of experience and data-driven analysis is what can really set businesses apart. Therefore, measurable data that can give insight into your EP program’s deliveries and performance is necessary to collect. This includes statistics collected over a period of time, that can help determine the norms and the outliers – and provide insight into what needs to change in the EP program in order to improve.
Data-driven analytics: Collect the data that provides benefit
Beyond extensive daily reporting of different movements and the extra service-related tasks performed, you can also track a number of other data points.
Once, we compiled data and broke it down into easy-to-digest graphs and charts. The results were staggering. The consequences of our analysis had a profound impact on our team, the client and the resources we were being allocated.
When we presented our data and analyses to the client organization, they dove into the data points themselves and asked us to show them even greater levels of detail that could inform internal business decisions and budgeting. We would not have been able to provide this data to the client had we not been so diligent in recording it.
The data proves it: Secure travel logistics is a big part of corporate EP
We all know that the EP services we provide beyond those directly associated with protection really make a difference.
Preventing bad things from happening is our primary task. In addition to keeping clients safe, enabling their productivity is a huge and under-appreciated value add. Data analysis proves this.
The biggest single area of “extra” service for a corporate EP team has to do with secure travel logistics that keep executives as productive as they can be no matter where they travel. These moments of service are often the things that clients remember – and you should be documenting these, too.
By providing measurable and accurate data points relative to productivity-enhancing travel, in a language that clients are familiar and comfortable with, we helped them identify and understand a need that they didn’t even know existed – and appreciate the value of the EP team meeting that need.
The data we presented and packaged helped the company make decisions about where to focus the principal’s time in the upcoming year. By being able to document that when we ran travel logistics we never once had the client late to a meeting, we were able to gain additional resources. The extra manpower that I had been lobbying for years finally came our way, giving the EP team members the well-deserved breaks, they needed to be as operationally ready and well prepared mentally and physically as they could be.
The importance of good data
Consider the impact of making a company’s highest-paid executive more productive. It makes you wonder: Why wouldn’t a major corporation have an excellent EP program?
Decisions made by boards and executive teams at large corporations, whose principals we are charged with protecting, are increasingly based on data. As EP professionals, we need to adapt our approach to demonstrate the value our programs add (and the budgets we ask for) by presenting data in a way that is on par with how decisions are being made across all other lines of business in the private sector today.
Let’s all get better at quantifying what’s important
The entire corporate EP profession must adapt to the needs of our clients. We need to present information that makes decision making easier and better. Do this, and you will see the results you are looking for. Developing performance data has consequences beyond the immediate benefits of justifying program resources. It can also enable a client to optimize other areas of their business.
