Training for a Purpose: Protecting People and Property.

Author: Andy Thompson, Founder of Marshal.

Many people espouse the concept of “purpose”. I have never thought about it too deeply until I began a business – choosing, instead, simply to follow paths I found interesting, adventurous and occasionally risky.

Yet, I stumbled upon my “purpose” inadvertently when reviewing the underlying trends of my career. From gaining a Law degree with the lofty ambition of helping people receive “justice”, to joining the British Army, having been enticed by a desire to play a small part in the NATO-led “peace support operations” in the Balkans in the 1990s. To then transitioning to a civilian career in Security Risk Management, helping commercial, governmental and NGO clients safeguard their people and interests in complex, high threat locations. I am currently developing technology that helps companies reduce risk exposure, loss events and liability, by enabling them to source and deploy personnel who are sufficiently trained, qualified and licensed to operate, more efficiently, and without having to process personal data.

Whilst I never consciously considered it as some sort of “calling”, the vein that runs through all of these endeavours – the purpose – seems pretty clear: to help keep people and their assets safe and secure (or words to that effect). There’s no bigger professional fulfilment for me than completing a task or project, however big or small, however delivered, that achieves that ultimate goal.

In practice, of course, this isn’t achieved in isolation. It takes many different skillsets of many different people, working together as a team. Inevitably, over the years, I have met people from a range of amazing backgrounds and have become fascinated by the scope and diversity of the skills and experience brought to bear to manage complex safety, security and risk management challenges – from Hostile Environment Awareness, to Remote Medicine, to Explosive Ordnance Disposal, to Driver Training, to Travel Risk Management, to Close Protection, to HAZMAT, to TSCM, and Cyber Security… the list goes on.

It all starts with training. Training and development is at the core of everything. It goes without saying, but the more that people train, and the harder they train, and the better the quality of training, then the more effective the risk mitigation and the more likely that the asset is going to be safe from harm or loss. Whenever anything goes wrong, the finger of blame can and will often be pointed at someone not being correctly or sufficiently trained. The post-event investigation audit trail invariably leads there.

Training can be a controversial topic. People pay hard-earned money for it, and invest significant time and effort. They expect value and a beneficial outcome. The number of training providers across the market is matched, if not vastly exceeded, by the opinions as to the competency of those providers. There is constant commentary on social media suggesting a particular course is “not worth the attendance certificate it is written on“, or another is “evidence of the race to the bottom that is destroying standards“.

There are charlatans amongst us, no doubt about it! But there are also many, many highly skilled, highly competent, highly professional people who are keen to pass on knowledge to those willing to learn, to improve, to make a difference, and to follow their own purpose … but who, ultimately, do what they do to keep people and assets safe.

Having established Marshal, (the name is a nod to the verb “to marshal”: the act of “gathering people together and organising them for a specific purpose”), our “Training Leaders” series focuses on profiling leading companies and individuals in the Safety, Security & Risk Management market, who help to ensure people are sufficiently trained, qualified, and licensed to operate in their chosen field. We gauge opinion on current market trends, innovation, good and bad practices, challenges, standards – and shortfalls, and advice to potential clients and customers.

The series enables us to hear and learn from some remarkable people with accomplished backgrounds, amazing experience, great stories to tell, views to share, and advice to impart.

Join in! What training services do you provide that help, directly or indirectly, keep people and property safe? I’d love to hear from you – as would many others who may be inspired by you to follow their purpose!

Marshal is a powerful, exclusive digital marketing platform that helps to simplify and scale access to the complex Security Risk Management and Resilience market, in order to develop opportunities, drive growth and achieve objectives across conflict zones to cyberspace.