Profile: Jason Trigg (CEO, The Cardinal Group) (Part Two)

27 Jul 10

According to The Cardinal Group’s website, CEO Jason Trigg’s operation is “a privately-owned company delivering dynamic and innovative security solutions throughout the UK via responsive partnerships” [with its clients].

The promotional ‘About us’ blurb goes on to state: “Our commitment is to act with absolute integrity, honesty and transparency, respecting the confidentiality of the working relationship and to provide services that meet and often exceed expectations.”

There’s more... “All services are fully supported by our quality management systems. Cardinal’s distinctive competence lies in a rapid response to customer demands and having the structure to be proactive, with ideas to meet the ever-changing demands of the customer’s business.”

On top of that, Trigg has sketched out a definitive roadmap – current Buzzword Bingo parlance for ‘business plan’ – for Cardinal, the company he built from scratch and which, of late, has seen some serious investment. “I’m concerned with targeted resources, and risk to reward,” he stressed.

Development of a flat structure

“Our core business is security guarding, and within that we have what I would call a flat management structure,” explained Trigg. “Titles are irrelevant to me. I’ve also made a conscious decision to look for people who are young and dynamic, and not necessarily from the industry, as well as ‘Best in Class’ individuals who do have security business experience and want to work outside of the box.” Sounds like the ideal mix to me.

A self-professed admirer of “people who are passionate about they do”, Trigg asserted that the role of the security officer “is a role chief executives and directors of guarding companies are duty bound to make intelligent” so that it adds to the core business offering.

As far as Cardinal’s concerned, that core offering involves building an end-to-end service and product offering developed around people, product and process. On the commercial front, the company can offer site management, reception/concierge services, uniformed guarding, loss prevention consultancy, compliance/process reporting, key holding, patrol and response, undercover operatives and technology solutions.

The latter include data sharing platforms being looked upon favourably by the Home Office, no less, and the latest C-Instore offering that delivers experiential marketing tools into stores. Those tools are also linked to security solutions. “We’re talking about interactive technology that encourages customer dwell time,” added Trigg, “while at the same time improving the security of the stock and the people.”

In the retail arena, Cardinal provides retail officers, store detectives, profit protection personnel, key holding/patrols, internal shrink management consultancy, covert security, real-time incident management and reporting, auditing and stock control.

If that wasn’t enough, it also handles leisure and entertainment sector security (encompassing crowd management, celebrity escorting, close protection security, door supervision and event merchandising security).

Letting technology take the strain

Trigg is a great fan of letting technology take the strain, and has teamed up with both Innovise and Northgate as Cardinal’s preferred software houses. “At the moment we’re focused on an involvement with crime-fighting partnerships and how best we can deploy technology to support them,” said Trigg while brushing an unwanted piece of fluff from his suit jacket.

With Cardinal’s contracts now spread across the retail, logistics, hotel and gaming and pharmaceuticals sectors – to name but a few – Trigg feels the only way the business can function effectively is if it does harness (and then fully embrace) the latest developments in IT, but supported by the right people and training to join it all up.

Indeed, he talked at length about smartphones, voice-over-IP and GPS tracking – all now commonplace in Cardinal’s service arsenal, and part of what Trigg firmly believes is the need to offer “a cradle-to-grave solution”.

With a tangible degree of frustration, Trigg then bemoaned the fact that the US “is five years ahead of us, at least” when it comes to using technology in the security space. He has spent much time in the States these past few years, and is determined to help break down the traditionalist UK mindset that, in several practitioners’ eyes aside from his own, does the security sector no favours whatsoever.

“Like I said, we’re targeting risk to reward. We want to bring in new ways of thinking and working.”

A statement amply evidenced by the company’s wholesale tie-in with the Wicklander-Zulawski method of non-confrontational investigative interviewing championed in the US (several candidates were due at Cardinal hq later that week, in fact, to take part in the training programme).

Don’t be afraid to move matters on

By now in full conversational stride, Trigg opined: “Guarding companies cannot be afraid of technology and how it can move businesses on. It can be used effectively to help in the successful and cost-effective deployment of a company’s most important assets: its people. How can technology further their development and improve performance? These are all questions that guarding providers should continually ask of themselves.”

Some of the business models Trigg has built for clients since Cardinal’s inception have realised 10%-15% savings on budgets – savings which the host organisation has then been able to plough back into core enhancements.

“It’s all about being dynamic with your people, and dynamic with the solutions they offer the client,” explained Trigg. “I’d like to think that all of our solutions add value to the on site officer as part of an end-to-end service delivery.”

Trigg is a firm believer in that element of Security Management Today and infologue.com’s joint (and ongoing) Four Issues One Voice campaign strand that says in-house operatives must be licensed.

“There should be a level playing field for everyone,” he posited, “but that’s not the case at present. What’s more, at no point has anyone from the Regulator justified to me that training standards have risen, that the industry is now more knowledgeable and that there’s a better understanding of the security business. I don’t believe the Security Industry Authority (SIA) has put across a powerful enough message.”

Pre-licensing, plenty of companies were making it plain that they already operated beyond the standards asked for by the Regulator, so the ‘cost’ induced by licensing should have been only that: the cost of the licence.

“Prices have been undercut on contracts to such an extent that charge rates have had to go up, but in the main clients have not bought into the Approved Contractor Scheme (ACS).”

Trigg added: “Just look at the retail sector. Why are so many of the clients there still operating with in-house teams? They haven’t felt comfortable with the delivery and services offered by the contract sector, that’s why. We all need to convince the clients that there’s real added value in moving towards contracted-in security.”

Added value: can it be defined?

On that last note, he continued: “Added value is possible. Security officers could be tasked with performing carbon checks, for example, as part of a company’s Corporate Social Responsibility agenda. Now’s the time for The Environmentally Responsible Security Officer.”

In terms of added value in the CCTV field, Trigg talks of “footfall analyses” and “video analytics”. Nothing new there, to be honest, but his concept of the pure security element of Cardinal’s business building off the back of other elements of the company (such as Task2C) represents nothing other than forward-thinking and an integrated service.

The proof of the pudding, as they say, is always in the eating. For the last few years, Cardinal has been appointed to manage security for The Open Golf Championship’s merchandising operation. The latest tournament, of course, finished only just over a week ago at St Andrews. The company watches over the retail marquees, controlling the stock going in and the take at the end.

“We’re only paid the fee for our work if we hit the right shrink numbers,” said Trigg. “For the time that we have been involved we’ve blown the numbers out of the water. Beat them hands down. As a result, we’ve secured the same contract for the forthcoming Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor. Pricing is based on results. That’s a pretty fair way of doing things, I reckon.”

Managerial style: self-taught or learned from without?

What of Trigg’s own management style, I wondered? After all, he’s pretty much a self-taught businessman, so did he learn solo how to manage his workforce as well?

“Well, having started by running payroll I must admit that it has been hard to let go and invest my faith in other people, Brian,” he replied. “The plus side is that, as a result of freeing up more of my time, I can now be more strategic and look at new concepts and ways of working. I’ve gone from living on the edge to 100% empowerment.”

Furthering our discussion, Trigg freely admitted that “lots of different personalities” have come together as one to form the Cardinal business and help it to progress. “It’s not about egos at all. We want people here who will make a genuine difference.”

People like Colin Culleton, for example. The managing director of Task2C, Culleton is an extremely well-respected retail loss prevention executive with a career spanning 29 years.

Armed with a wealth of experience in security, auditing, loss prevention, Health and Safety and enterprise risk management skills, Culleton is a champion of information and intelligence sharing across businesses and left HMV (in October last year) to take on his current role.

“Through the development and implementation of CR:IISP, Colin aims to help revolutionise the way in which businesses share intelligence with each other on known suspects and offenders, nurture Business Crime Reduction Partnerships and work with the police. That’s the kind of forward-thinking attitude I want to see on display at Cardinal.”

Trigg made no secret of the fact that he “demands to be challenged” by his colleagues in Cardinal’s management. “I don’t want people to tickle my ears. I want them to question what I say and what the industry is doing. Of course we’ll make mistakes. We’ll not always be on the money with an idea, but it’s what you do to rectify an error that makes you what you are.” How very true.

Empowerment, empowerment, empowerment

Looking further afield now, Trigg expanded on the empowerment theme. “If a client wants someone on the door of their premises or on main reception, there needs to be a recognition that this individual is, first and foremost, there for the ‘Meet and Greet’. That’s not to say that their skills set shouldn’t be developed.”

He continued: “You can train them on CCTV systems, tagging checks and the like. Empower them to increase their knowledge and intelligence in the sphere of security.” In turn, more knowledge is entering the client’s premises each morning, which can only be to the benefit of the end customer.

Naturally, the most convenient and obvious way for, say, retailers to save money is to cut down on shrink – whether that be through the front or back door. “Bundled bid pricing isn’t the way to go in that environment,” chipped in Trigg. “Most of the bigger security companies are about turnover and margins, but the latter have been slashed to the bone. We are about people, process and technology. It’s about performance and measurement – doing exactly what you say you’re going to do and delivering a quality service.”

Intriguingly, Trigg added: “One size does not fit all. The eyes of procurement can be opened up to this truism. The Fashion Forum is what that’s all about, to be honest.”

The Fashion Forum and the fight against shrink

The Fashion Forum is now quoted as an effective weapon in the fight against shrink in the fashion sector, and an excellent example of the retail industry moving forward as a collaborative force to lobby the police and the Home Office on issues ranging from shoplifting to eBay security.

Where it differs from the British Retail Consortium, for example, is that it’s sector specific. Although there are generic overlaps – shoplifting, fixed penalty notices, etc – there are specific issues facing the fashion industry (counterfeiting, for example) which would not be such an issue for what could best be termed as ‘general traders’.

The Fashion Forum currently comprises 25 of the High Street’s largest retailers, and they share data and Best Practice to reduce their collective loss and prioritise strategic and tactical initiatives. They’ll look, for example, at town centre partnerships, their cost-effectiveness and value for money.

As a result of its efforts, the Fashion Forum has a collaborative working relationship with the fraud teams at eBay to work together to reduce criminality – something that would have been unheard of even a couple of years ago.

As you may have surmised by now, quality customer service is the be all and end all for Trigg and his colleagues at Cardinal, where client-visible rostering has been the order of the day since inception.

“Visibility and transparency is all part of the Service Level Agreement. This ought to be the case for every guarding contract in the sector,” explained Trigg by way of furthering the point.

“Years ago, someone must have set up a notional ‘Bible of Security Guarding’, and no-one has had the courage to break away from it ever since. Budgets can be apportioned all over the host business, but we want to see them all under the one umbrella. That’s far more efficient.”

Delivering the core product groups

By this time, some of Trigg’s team had joined us for our discussion (among them md Diane Johnson and director of central operations, Bryn Taylor).

For his part, Taylor is clearly responsible for one of the most important areas within the business in terms of delivering the core product groups to clients. In the main, he’s focused on after-sales and contract management, and he and his team work tirelessly to satisfy (and go beyond) customer expectations.

“Bryn’s also responsible for our 24/7 Control Room,” added Trigg, “which is vitally important as it’s dedicated to supporting our officers on site.”

How has Diane Johnson fared on the male-dominated guarding scene, I wondered? “Security is still a man’s world, Brian. I cannot lie to you,” said the charming Johnson just prior to us all departing for a local hostelry and a spot of luncheon.

“How you progress is all about sheer hard work and being good at your job. Making sure you manage your client’s business well is all part of the transparent and measurable world in which we operate. If we can demonstrate that we have the right people, processes and innovations, we hold on to our contracts and word gets around. That opens other doors and pushes us another step forward towards our goal of being the Best in Class.”

Many more commentators these days are suggesting that we desperately need more females in the top jobs within this sector (at least in part on the basis that women are proven to have better people skills, and that this is a people-driven business). On that note, Johnson said that the current landscape isn’t all doom and gloom.

“I think the concept of the ‘token female’ is not only sexist, but completely outdated. Hard work will eventually demolish the notion of security as a male bastion. Women will soon come to see you as a security person first and foremost,” said Johnson, who was working with security officers at Sabrewatch some 25 years ago.

In-house versus contracted-in: who wins?

Johnson feels that charge rates should be built by the client at the top of the contract and, like Trigg, is on a mission to prove that a quality security solutions provider contracted-in and working with the client on a partnership approach will always be a better option than in-house protection.

“When I was on the client side of the business,” she added, “I saw lots of guarding company sales people who’d come and pitch for business. To be honest, I may as well have put on a blindfold and tried to pin the tail on the donkey. They were all so similar in terms of their service offering. At times I had to stick with in-house anyway, as that was company policy.”

It was then time to drag one of my favourite questions to the fore. “If I were to ask your officers who they work for, what would you rather they said? ‘Cardinal Security’ or ‘Company X’, the customer?”

“I would rather they said: ‘I work for Cardinal Security in partnership with ‘Company X’” replied Johnson. “That’s a virtuous circle, not a vicious one.”

Ten years in the business and stronger than ever

2010 marks the tenth anniversary of Jason Trigg’s engagement with the security business sector. He’s certainly come a long way from his youthful days in Harlow, the golden dream of playing professional football and cheekily skipping lectures on a Monday to learn the ropes at Eurotech.

“Being owner-led enables us to operate with a customer-focused management team,” concluded Trigg. “Through ongoing audits linked to our ISO and ACS accreditation, we ensure ongoing compliance and Best Practice.”

In short, it’s a simple yet visionary approach designed to deliver greater value for money, a better standard of service, higher levels of professionalism and an improved company image. What’s more, it’s working.

It strikes me that the guarding sector – and its client base – could do with a few more people in its ranks who mirror Trigg’s outlook on life.

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