Economic security in the modern world of business is becoming an increasingly important and multi-purpose component of administrative management. The concept of “security threat” has become volatile: the list of threats constantly includes new items and old ones cease to be relevant. The fact is that the threats and risks of the security sphere reflect changes in the external environment of the enterprise, which lead to a negative change in the subject of security. The internal structure and conduct of business are also subject to constant changes.
Definitions
"The threat to the economic security of the enterprise is a group of factors of the external and internal environment of the enterprise aimed at creating obstacles and hindering its work."
Another definition related to people:
"The threat to the economic security of the enterprise is the actions of individuals or legal entities that violate the activities of the enterprise, which can lead to its cessation of work or other losses."
These dry formulations involve a wide variety of situations: unfair competition, failure to fulfill contractual obligations by partners, the economic crisis, theft within the company, managerial incompetence, etc.
Classification
There are many classifications of threats to the economic security of an enterprise; it all depends on the criteria. The most common version is the classification of threats by their area of occurrence:
- Threats to the whole enterprise: incompetent management, financial bankruptcy, deterioration of reputation.
- Threats to information: leak of confidential data.
- Threats to assets of a material type: damage, loss, complete destruction.
- Threats to intangible assets loss or recall (licenses, certificates, etc.).
External threats
The threats of this group are extremely difficult to predict and analyze. They differ in their uncertainty, and this is all the difficulties associated with them. External threats can be divided into the following types:
- main and secondary;
- objective and subjective;
- controlled and uncontrolled;
- existing in reality and potential;
- random and regular (deterministic).
Environmental factors - a serious threat, they can undermine the work of the enterprise as a whole and irrevocably. In order to deal with truly priority threats and not waste resources on small and insignificant factors, you need to be able to track and correctly analyze the external environment. It is easy to write on paper, but very difficult to put into practice.
It is almost impossible to determine all hazardous environmental factors with the calculation of probable damage. Therefore, start with those external threats that can be controlled with the help of a marketing policy.
The list of external threats and destabilizing factors that are possible in principle for any company:
- raider captures with intrigues of competitors;
- Greenmail (light raiding with the aim of receiving payments, not seizing property);
- political change;
- corruption;
- economic crisis and collapse of currencies;
- activity of criminal groups;
- theft of tangible assets or intellectual property;
- industrial espionage;
- selling confidential information to competitors by former employees of the company;
- violations of officials and law enforcement agencies;
- all kinds of force majeure from natural disasters to terrorist acts.
Russian additive
The list can be continued, but it is already impressive and very "unpleasant", so we stop and confine ourselves to a purely Russian "addition" of external threats:
- low level of capitalization of the economic system as a whole;
- a high level of monopolization of the main markets in the country's economy;
- pronounced dependence on imports;
- predominantly raw export format;
- too stringent customs restrictions;
- low labor productivity (this threat is both an external and internal problem for companies).
The enterprise is able to control some of the external threats to economic security: competently, for example, choose suppliers, come up with new tools for building customer loyalty, identify market segments for planned new products, etc.
But no company will be able to control, for example, government initiatives in tax policy or the so-called restrictive business practices, which need to be discussed separately.
Restrictive business practice is a fairly new concept. It is associated with monopolistic pressure on partners and consumers with the ultimate goal of restricting competition and capturing a dominant position in the market. A favorite tool for this practice is the unspoken barriers that undermine existing business arrangements.
Internal threats
If we group the internal threats to the economic security of the enterprise, then they will look according to their priorities as follows: personnel, equipment, finances, information.
Internal threats are no less dangerous than external ones. The main and inexhaustible source of internal threats is employees. “Not out of malice, but solely out of ignorance” - this famous phrase is able to bring security officers to complete despair, which happens in reality more often than we would like.
For each company, the list of current threats is individual, especially for internal sources. The list of "common" typical sources is as follows:
- sabotage or inaction of employees, interfering with the implementation of planned tasks;
- information leakage (unintentional or theft);
- undermining the business image of the company (more often it is an unintentional threat);
- incompetence of staff and, above all, the management team;
- conflicts of a different nature and between different parties: from internal between colleagues, to conflicts with representatives of state bodies or partners;
- failure to comply with safety and health regulations;
- untrained staff with low qualifications;
- lack of clear procedures and work processes.
For the attention of the first leader
Now attention! Of the eight points above, all eight are controllable. This means that internal threats to the economic security of the enterprise are in the area of competence of the first leader. For each item, systematic preventive actions can be taken to minimize threats of at least an internal order. Thus, external and internal threats to the economic security of an enterprise differ in the most fundamental way in terms of controllability and predictability. Everything that can be done to minimize threats needs to be done. For the most part, this applies to internal factors.
What does not apply to threats to economic security
Not every negative event results in a threat to the company. For example, management decisions on reengineering or improving operational efficiency carry certain risks and can result in losses due to failure or in case of market changes in the market. But such actions relate to the fulfillment of tasks and goals, this is the essence of entrepreneurial activity. But it always carries risks and involves a certain share of losses in this case.
Losses due to a marketing decision, for example, about a total price reduction for promoting a new product, do not apply to threats to the economic security of an enterprise. Because it is entrepreneurship again.
It is enough to remember that the main threats to the economic security of an enterprise have three characteristic features:
- conscious selfish character;
- usually there is a goal - damage;
- inconsistency of action.
External sources (factors) of threats
There are threats, but there are sources of threats to the economic security of the enterprise. They are sometimes called factors, which are the same in our context. Threats and threats are different things, they should be distinguished. Factors are environmental conditions affecting safety in general or its parameters in particular. This is not a threat, but only their source. Why do you need to know them? Then, to track changes in these sources. To analyze and predict them from the point of view of economic security.
Sources (factors) are also divided into external and internal. External sources of threats include:
Jumps in supply and demand, prices for raw materials and products, dynamics of market capacity, financial condition of counterparties, etc.
The level of economic legislation in the country, monetary policy, foreign economic relations, investment climate, etc.
The demographic picture in the country, crime rate and criminogenic situation, climate, natural phenomena, etc.
Internal sources (factors) of threats
Internal factors that can affect economic security are the most “densely populated” population to which any manager of any company should pay close attention.
Here is a list of them:
- Financial: profitability, return on investment, dividend policy, asset structure, liquidity of assets, etc.
- Personnel: the quality of development strategies, the level of remuneration, social policy, motivation and incentives, etc.
- Production: quality management system, structure of fixed assets, level of operational efficiency, etc.
- Technological: innovation policy, research and analytical components of process technologies.
- Marketing: optimality of the product line, targeting of consumer groups, customer relationship system, customer loyalty policy, etc.
Financial threats: more than theft
Financial threats to the economic security of enterprises deserve special attention and special explanation. They can be both internal and external. Internal are malicious acts of a deliberate nature on the part of employees or the organization. Also, low-quality work of employees of the financial departments of the enterprise or partner organizations can become internal financial threats. This may be, for example, the lack of effective control over the structure of capital investment. Or an incorrectly established ratio of the shares of financial capital for the risks and income of its components.
If we talk about external financial threats, then most often these are force majeure circumstances that relate to an uncontrolled type of threat.
Risk Analysis and Assessment
An analysis of threats to the economic security of an enterprise should be the main component of the entire activity of economic security services: this is the only way to build an effective security system that takes into account rapidly changing conditions for the emergence of threats.
This is a systematic collection of data on markets, competitors and other factors with subsequent analysis and forecasting. It is necessary to analyze and evaluate all of the above sources of threats - both external and internal.
A high level of economic security will depend on the state of the following components of the enterprise:
- High level of technological base, its competitiveness.
- Effective organization management system.
- Effective personnel policy, including strict criteria for hiring employees.
- Information Security.
- Clear legal regulation of all issues related to the activities of the company.
Neglecting the risks and threats to the economic security of a death enterprise is similar. But the main rules and precepts of economic security completely coincide with the methods of increasing the overall operational efficiency of the company. There are no special additional measures, all within the framework of a smart and adequate strategy. And this is great news.