This document discusses how a PEST (Political, Economic, Social, Technological) analysis can be used as an effective model for security managers to audit security procedures. It provides an overview of what each factor in PEST analysis entails - political (government policies), economic (economic conditions), social (cultural trends), technological (technological changes). The document then explains how considering these PEST factors through a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis can help identify potential threats to security from changes in the external environment. This would allow security managers to plan adequate responses and updates to procedures in advance to mitigate threats.

1. This short white paper to analyze how a marketing model, could be an effective model for Security
Manager to audit their Security Procedures.
Starting from this approach, is possible creating a system useful to collect any information divided by
“specialty” or: P=political, E=economic, S=social, T=technological and.. plan adequate actions.
Before continuing in my explanation a brief overview for who’s never heard “PEST analysis”. Following
lines are available on Wikipedia:
Political factors are basically to what degree the government intervenes in the economy.
Specifically, political factors include areas such as tax policy, labor law,environmental law, trade
restrictions, tariffs, and political stability. Political factors may also include goods and services which
the government wants to provide or be provided (merit goods) and those that the government
does not want to be provided (demerit goods or merit bad). Furthermore, governments have great
influence on the health,education, and infrastructure of a nation.
Economic factors include economic growth, interest rates, exchange rates and the inflation rate.
These factors have major impacts on how businesses operate and make decisions. For example,
interest rates affect a firm's cost of capital and therefore to what extent a business grows and
expands. Exchange rates affect the costs of exporting goods and the supply and price of imported
goods in an economy
Social factors include the cultural aspects and include health consciousness, population growth
rate, age distribution, career attitudes and emphasis on safety. Trends in social factors affect the
demand for a company's products and how that company operates. For example, an aging
population may imply a smaller and less-willing workforce (thus increasing the cost of labor).
Furthermore, companies may change various management strategies to adapt to these social
trends (such as recruiting older workers).
Technological factors include technological aspects such as R&D activity, automation, technology
incentives and the rate of technological change. They can determinebarriers to entry, minimum
efficient production level and influence outsourcing decisions. Furthermore, technological shifts
can affect costs, quality, and lead to innovation.
Now, how could be useful this approach to manage security in a plant or a mall or a strategic
infrastructures? Well, let’s go
Political
What will happen if tomorrow your company has to change one or more labor agreements reducing or
change something? What will happen if your company won’t be able to make the whole production for
changes in local or national laws?
Economic
Have you considered that your workforce population’s salary could be not quite aligned with the cost of
life? What will happen if your company has to cancel benefits and bonus because it’s in for economic
situation?

2. Social
Temporary workers can create an unstable environment? A restrained generational change can modify in
habits and in not written rules inside at the workforce population?
Technological
May new and modern process introduce barriers or discrimination for somebody in workforce population?
Now how approach this method in a structured and measurable way?
We have to study every P.E.S.T. point through SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and
Threats) in order to understand what phenomena weight more than the others.
Just an example could be: my strength point is the access control, who manages every entry and every
person. But my weakness happens when I have a fire alarm because all emergency ways are opened and
uncontrolled so everybody can pick some goods hiding them in some part of the plant. So, when will I have
to be worried? When Threat starts. And When will threat start? Threat will start (PEST) when company
hires temporary people, when part of workforce population’s salary is not aligned with inflation, when
some part of workforce population won’t be able to work in to the plant because part of production has
been automated and so on. What’re our opportunities? Well, identified our threats for every point of PEST,
we have the opportunity to plan accurate reactions before threat starts or alternatively you can contain
damages during or after the event.
So, to conclude:
1. Make a SWOT analysis for every word of PEST
2. Correlate these information to collect every threat who influences the same weakness and how
every strength point can mitigate or eliminate several threats
3. Build a weekly questionnaire to monitor how PEST phenomena can become a threat
4. Finally the opportunity to plan investment and update procedures…beforehand