What is big "S" security? Be careful how you pronounce it.

Gotta give credit to Jim Rice at MIT's Center for Transportation and Logistics for this one (you can even check out the photos of Jim's cute kids at this link - sorry, Jim, couldn't resist). Jim and I collaborated on an article for MIT's Supply Chain Strategy publication on supply chain risk management. In the middle of writing it Jim and I were heading out to eat beignets at Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans (I was a beignet virgin at the time. Note to readers: There probably is a way to eat beignets while wearing a dark suit, but I have yet to develop the kama sutra-like flexibility required to execute this maneuver) and Jim said something along the lines of "You know, what we're really talking about is big "S" security." I misunderstood him and queried what the heck he meant by "big a** security"? His response: "You know, you're the second person who's said that, so I guess I'd better be careful about how I pronounce it."

As Jim and I talked about it, and as captured in the article, he called it "Big 'S' Security" because the influence of security in this type of company is big. This isn't your father's security force -- a bunch of knuckle draggin', cop wannabes of the guards, gates and guns variety. This is the new, post-9/11 security where professionals focus on identifying, assessing and mitigating risks to protect the company's key strategies and ensure its ultimate economic viability. This is the new security for a flat world where asymmetric threats are as likely to be directed against the private sector as they are the public one. Those are big a** risks, and that, friends, is why companies and governments now need to think about Big "S" Security.