An Alberta-based company is offering globe-trotting business people common-sense tips on topics most travellers overlook – such as what to do if snatched by hijackers or taken hostage.
Security Management Consulting Inc. (SMC) recently published TravelSecure: The Essential Travel Security Guide for Canadians – a new handbook aimed at corporate Albertans and anyone else planning to travel outside North America.
The Calgary-based firm provides security information to a roster of clients, many of them corporations with employees posted in far-flung locations.
SMC’s suite of services also includes traveller tracking, crisis management, foreign advisories, a 24-hour worldwide emergency call centre, kidnapping and hostage awareness training and corporate safety workshops.
SMC founder and managing director Dave Rourke says Canadian companies have become more aware of the potential for danger in the wake of tragedies such as last September’s terrorist attacks in the northeastern U.S.
But too many corporate leaders have an ‘it-can’t-happen-to-me’ mentality about security, especially when doing business in distant and often politcally unstable lands, he says.
“People are complacent. They don’t think long-term. They see a car accident and for two days they drive safer,” says Rourke, a former Calgary Police Service officer.
A message printed on an SMC binder spells out his point: “More effort and emphasis is likely to have gone into planning the funeral for an employee than they or their organization devoted to their security or survival.”
The spiral-bound, 104-page travel handbook is filled with practical information on luggage, hotel, transportation and contact information for Canadians around the world.
It includes information specific to business – such as cultural awareness and interpreter services – but also offers advice on civil unrest, hijacking, hostage-taking and how to get help from embassies abroad.
Says Rourke: “As a traveller, I think you certainly want to be aware of what type of security is in place. I think it’s up to the employee to ask his or her employer what protection is in place for them.”
SMC business development officer Shane Brown, who has settled in Calgary after a 15-year career with the U.S. army special forces, says Alberta’s proximity to the U.S. and its proliferation of corporate head offices is a good reason for companies to stay alert on the local level.
“Calgary is a pretty safe place . . . so far. But you never know,” says Brown, who was posted in Asia for nearly a decade and speaks languages including Thai, Russian and Korean.
Through his military ties, Brown – whose wife is from Calgary – lost several friends and colleagues in the World Trade Center disaster and the war on terrorism in Afghanistan.
“Calgary is a big city with a diminishing small-town attitude. We can’t continue to be that way. People still haven’t realized that they need to be more proactive.”
SMC’s team of consultants includes former city police, RCMP and CSIS officers, and former U.S. military agents.
The book retails for $24.95 and is sold at a number of local bookstores including Pages on Kensington, Self-Connection Books, Socrates’ Corner and the University of Calgary Bookstore.
