Introduction
Council on Competitiveness is a non-profit and non-partisan organization founded in 1986, whose membership is inclusive of labor leaders, corporate CEOs, university students and national laboratory directors (Fisher, 2004). Its main aim is to increase the US leadership and economic competitiveness in the worldwide marketplace as well as bringing the economic activity of high value in the country. The council assists in shaping the future of America by focusing on a few critical issues such as competitiveness and security, regional and national innovations, workforce development, globalization and US economic performance benchmarking against other countries (Fisher, 2005) This is accomplished through national summits, policy recommendations, conferences and seminars, where new ideas and solutions are developed, as well as acting as platforms for articulating the Council’s findings. The Council then make recommendations which are presented to government officials, policymakers, experts, media and the public in general (Percival, 2003).
The council’s business case for security model integrates security management into seven main elements which includes visionary leadership with articulated goals, strategic planning that guarantees continuity of a business in the face of attacks targeted against infrastructure and companies, security entrenched across global supply chains, business processes and facilities, applying technology in risk management, partnering with both private and public sectors to share cost, information and risk, training and engaging workforce for security embedded, and financial impact and opportunities assessment (Fisher, 2005).
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Homeland Security Assessment Process
Bullock, Haddow & Coppola (2011), defines Homeland security as a department in the US that was formed to prevent attacks from domestic terrorists, reduce terrorism vulnerability, and mitigate damages after attacks and accelerate recovery. It also provides recovery efforts and federal responses in case of natural disasters or other emergencies. Since terrorist attack in 2001, great efforts have been put towards improving homeland security, which includes the deployment of Malcolm Baldrige criteria as a benchmark to measure homeland security performance excellence against the standard quality performance of the criteria, which is considered as the national standards for performance.
The Baldrige criteria involves expanding involvement of leadership in homeland security, developing homeland security strategic plan, aligning initiatives of homeland security with vital customers and markets, process management which entails documenting and showing in flowcharts main homeland security processes, defining responsibilities and roles for all the employees involved in homeland security initiatives, collecting and analyzing key measures and transferring within the organization the best practices of homeland security, and collecting and sharing homeland security result data with customers, employees, suppliers and partners (Fisher, 2004). When making a comparison, this assessment process for homeland security has followed the council on competitiveness business model in a number of ways.
Firstly, it includes the element of visionary leadership and recognized best practices which are found in the council on competitiveness. For instance, involving senior leadership to develop homeland security plan for the organization and personal leadership plan for promoting security in the whole organization. Additionally, it includes strategic planning that would guarantee sustainability in case of an attack, for instance, involving all stakeholders including suppliers, customers, employees and partners in the process of strategic planning for homeland security. Similarly, homeland security assessment process includes the element of defining roles and responsibilities for all the employees involved in homeland security initiatives, an element that closely relates to training and engaging workforce for embedded security in the council on competitiveness. For instance, developing a follow-up procedure which is consistent to ensure that all knowledge received in training in homeland security impact on a job application.
The homeland security assessment process has followed the council on competitiveness business model of process management. It includes problem-solving tools to identify, evaluate and improve the problems of homeland security and sharing of homeland result data with partners, suppliers and customers as a way of sharing costs, risks, and information with such partners. Homeland security assessment process has closely followed the council on competitiveness business model for security case, which will help homeland security achieve its main functions of preventing attacks from domestic terrorists, reducing terrorism vulnerability, and mitigating damages after attacks.
References
Bullock, J., Haddow, G., & Coppola, D. P. (2011). Introduction to homeland security: Principles of all-hazards risk management. Butterworth-Heinemann.
Fisher, D. C. (2004). Homeland security assessment manual: A comprehensive organizational assessment based on Baldrige criteria. Milwaukee, WI: ASQ Quality Press.
Fisher, D. (2005). Homeland security assessment manual. Milwaukee, Wis.: ASQ Quality Press.
Percival, R. V. (2003). The Role of the Council on Competitiveness in Regulatory Review. Congressional Testimony, 25.
