That's the kind of message Group 4 Securicor (G4S) delivers to staff during trainings to assure them of their career path because no company can grow if it doesn't take care of its staff.

"If someone starts as a guard, they obviously don't want to think that they will end up as a guard their whole life," Ambrose Nathan, general manager of G45 Security Services Sdn Bhd tells The Brunei Times.

"What we do here is provide opportunities," he says.

By taking care of its staff, G4S has made a success of giving clients peace of mind in the 10 years it has been in Brunei.

G4S set up business in Brunei in 1999 after two international banks sought the presence of a security company in Brunei.

We were servicing them all over the world, under Securicor, and in 1999 we came here with two imported vehicles and 10 staff," Nathan says, adding when the firm first starred here the office was set up at the managing director's residence. From there, the business grew as other banks sought its services, prompting a move to the current premises at Jalan Tutong in 2000.

"By the time I got to Brunei in 2002, business was growing fast and we had 80 staff with four vehicles and four people holding management positions, myself included," he says.

G4S, with its sister company, now boasts of more than 500 employees and 30 vehicles.

"In the beginning, it was more traditional. We did cash transportation and guarding. Those were the two core activities we started off with. Over the years we developed a number of new things, G4S started retail cash collection and automatic teller machine management while on the guarding side, we went into providing reception services which were guards who did minor customer service," Nathan says.

G4S's other company, Business Process, is a 20,000-square feet archiving service provider in Mentiri. "We archive documents, tapes, scanning and basically logistics like card distributions in a mute environment," he says.

In 2007, G4S started setting up electronic services like CCTV cameras, door access systems and full alarm systems.

"The final piece of the jigsaw was in 2008, when we opened up a branch in Belait. Basically, we can be nationwide now and that's how we've grown since 1.999," he says.

Nathan says one of the challenges the firm faced in the past was dealing with the mindset of Bruneians about security.

"The requirement of security services in the past was not much and we still face that currently. People are still very complacent about security bemuse of the impression that Brunei is a safe place. No doubt it is. I think Brunei is lucky in terms of being sheltered from so many things," he says.

He feels though that things may change in the next couple 3f years as people become more affluent. As activity level rises, this may lead to the rise of crimes as well.

"The border is open here and the value of money is 2.5 times across the border, so certain targets can be met by unscrupulous people as the attraction is there," he says.

Nathan says as the economy improves and more foreigners enter the country, there are more threats, especially now as almost one-third of the population is foreign.

"But I believe people will change and over the last seven years, people's mindset has become more aware. Now they need to realise that security is a specialised product. What you pay for is what you get and not some $199 security system purchased from computer stores," he adds.

He says there's a need for a security association in Brunei to consolidate the security standards in the country and help the image of security agencies.

"We are now working to bring expertise in to Brunei to develop it. There is so much opportunity here for the nation to have a better level of services. A lot of things can be achieved with the establishment of an association and hopefully people recognise this," he says.

Nathan says the company is successful because of the standards delivered. "Almost every week there is some form of training going on. Also at

G4S, we try to build a culture within the company which are the six core values: customer focus, integrity, expertise, performance, best people, teamwork and collaboration."

The company has been successful because of the opportunities the employees have been given. 'What happens is we promote those who joined from the bottom to the top. For example, now there is a lady who controls all cash services and she started off as a guard nine years ago," he says.

Nathan also attributes the company's success to the way it developed the company culture and the monitoring process. "With a good mix of those two, we can manage our business well and grow it," he says.

He says G4S will introduce more interesting products, citing a vehicle tracking system offered with Mimic e-Technology. "A number of large corporations is interested with what we are doing and we have the most concise digitised map of Brunei," he says.

G4S also hopes to introduce more cash-focused products for financial institutions.

"The furthest you can go with guarding is integrated security solutions and we are progressing in that sort of product line," he says.  -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Write comment

Name

Email

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment