Why Amazon is not “just another competitor”

Many words have been written about the timing of Amazon’s Australian launch, with constant speculation and misinformation about the date. In coming years, the launch date will be nothing but a footnote. What really matters is how to respond to Amazon and, on this, there is much well-intentioned but unhelpful advice. Unhelpful because many commentators are now downplaying Amazon as “just another competitor” – when in fact the retail marketplace is about to be transformed. Following that advice could be the modern-day equivalent of launching a cavalry charge towards soldiers armed with machine guns.

My advice is to take a fundamental look at your online operating model.

Why Amazon is different and not “just another competitor”
To assess Amazon’s likely impact, it helps to understand why Amazon is different and not “just another competitor”. Let me explain by illustrating a framework based on two key elements of online retail strategy – product range and delivery offer (see matrix below).

The horizontal axis categorises an online retailer according to its range:

• A “niche” range is based on a curated selection of products or a differentiated service.
• A “category” range is based around one category (or a small number of related categories).
• An “everything” range is made up of products from several unrelated categories.

The vertical axis categorises an online retailer according to its delivery model:

• “Consolidated” delivery is when the consumer normally receives multiple products in one delivery, for example when ordering through Amazon Prime.
• “Split” delivery is when the consumer receives several deliveries after ordering different products, for example when ordering on eBay.

To illustrate with real-life examples, let’s assume that by 2020 Amazon in Melbourne and Sydney offers a similar range and fulfilment model to Amazon in the UK right now. In the matrix, Amazon would sit in the top-right quadrant, offering products from almost every category (including fresh) in one consolidated delivery. For the consumer, this will be more convenient and cheaper than receiving multiple deliveries.

If we look at the Australian market now, we see online retailers in every quadrant except the top right. Only those operating a “niche” strategy, in my opinion, will be in the “blue ocean” and able to stand up in the long-term against Amazon’s consolidated / everything strategy. Everyone else will be competing in the “red ocean” of a market dominated by Amazon - unless they adapt their models. Here are some examples.

1. “Niche” retailers
Niche players target a specific segment with a differentiated service or range. An example is Appliances Online which offers an end-to-end service for white goods, including installation. Strong niche retailers have least to fear from Amazon’s arrival because Amazon is unlikely to seek to compete head-on. Amazon will sell white goods, but it will struggle to match Appliances Online’s exceptional customer proposition and product knowledge, built up over years of experience.

2. “Category” retailers
Category retailers make up most of the online market and focus on one category (or a few related categories). Their challenge is that Amazon will likely match their range but also offer consumers consolidated delivery with the rest of their shopping. If I currently buy groceries from Woolworths Online and clothes from The Iconic through two separate deliveries, then Amazon can make my life simpler by delivering everything in one go. In the long-term, my prediction is that these retailers will either need to become niche players, so they are not competing directly with Amazon, or partner with other retailers to offer a consolidated delivery option.

3. “Everything” retailers
The everything retailers are at greatest risk but also have the greatest opportunity. The risk will eventuate if their business model stays unchanged because Amazon will provide a superior offer – a similar range but ordered and delivered together.

The opportunity comes if these players can find a way to consolidate fulfilment. eBay is the longest-standing member of this camp, and will find it challenging to shift to consolidated fulfilment. Some others have more flexibility:

• Catch Group is enjoying fantastic success with its new marketplace and already possesses Australia’s most sophisticated pick and pack operation.
• Shipster, Australia Post’s innovative multi-retailer subscription service, could offer an alternative to Amazon Prime, if it can transition to shared fulfilment. 
• Wesfarmers and Woolworths could match Amazon’s range across their portfolio of brands. The big challenge will be shifting their business model (and culture) to enable collaboration.

Within a few years Amazon in Australia will have a much stronger hand than most Australian online retailers, if the latter have not found a way to consolidate deliveries and extend their range. We see from recent moves by Catch, Shipster, and new developments in Wesfarmers’ and Woolworths’ brands, that some of Amazon’s Australian competitors are now moving in the right direction.

For leaders keen to truly understand Amazon and its likely impact, check out my one-day workshop Are you ready for Amazon? We have public workshops coming up in Melbourne on 5th December and Sydney on 6th December and I also offer in-house workshops and executive briefings for teams. Find more information on my website.

Guest Blog Written By:

Jonathan Reeve , Author, Retail's Last Mile 

Jonathan Reeve is a speaker, author and adviser. He is passionate about helping retailers to build profitable, stress-free, online operations.

Jonathan has worked in retail businesses in the United Kingdom, United States and Australia for over fifteen years. He was part of the team that developed the operating model for Tesco.com, a global pioneer of online grocery retail. Jonathan’s perspective is unique: he has both developed online retail strategy and led the frontline teams that deliver the service to customers. Jonathan has also worked in store retail and was the store manager of a large Tesco supermarket in London.

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Overcoming Safety Challenges in the Current Threat Environment

In response to a heightened safety and security threat environment, venue security and procedures also need to be heightened while still balanced with ensuring an optimal customer experience – increased collaboration between all stakeholders, plus the target hardening of venues themselves, has never been more urgent.

In this article, I share details of comprehensive risk management strategies employed to overcome safety challenges at some of Australia’s biggest and most high profile events, with a specific look into recent major events.

Minimising Risk

Overcoming Challenges with Comprehensive Risk Planning

“The biggest challenge with an event like Vivid or New Year’s Eve is of course that they’re open, free access events. Looking after the safety and security of over a million people on New Year’s Eve on the one night, and 2.3 million people over the 23 days that is Sydney’s Vivid Festival (an annual festival spanning multiple locations across Sydney from the Royal Botanic Gardens to Darling Harbour, Circular Quay, Chatswood and Taronga Zoo) with no screening and multiple entry points is a huge challenge.

Recent terror attacks across the UK and Europe and the recent thwarted planned attack on Melbourne NYE highlights the need to target harden a number of key locations in all major events and crowded places moving forward.

It is important to work closely with your jurisdictional Police Force, to target harden identified vulnerable locations and work in collaboration with them to monitor the outer perimeter for early risk detection – things like hostile vehicles, unauthorised people in designated event areas, that sort of thing.

With an event like New Year’s Eve or Vivid which not only are open and free access, but span a number of different locations it’s of the utmost importance to develop a consistent strategic management plan across all precincts that brings together everyone involved within the operation, from transport, police, ambulance, port authorities, fire brigades and of course owners and operators, to ensure that everyone is collaborating to mitigate risks through application of appropriate controls measures. The sharing of timely information and Intelligence is crucial.

With major events like Vivid and New Year there a many risk categories, such as patron safety at the water’s edge, crowd crush, general crime and of course terrorism risk that need to be addressed and therefore working closely with law enforcement agencies and intelligence agencies is important to receive and communicate timely and early intelligence.

Prevention Strategies

Developing a Risk Management Plan

“For events like Vivid and New Year’s Eve ir for events in Stadia, which the government declares a hallmark event (major tourist event), there is an integrated Strategic Command Post within the risk management plan, located at the Police Operations Centre or Government Coordination Centre.

With a large-scale event there is a large deployment of security personnel on the ground and an integrated approach by all agencies under an Event Operations Centre and a Transport Management Centre to work seamlessly together to ensure all identified security risks across the entire transport network, from buses to trains and ferries, are managed effectively.

Underpinning all the management centres is a Crowd Control Strategy which outlines a number of crowd control actions as part of the risk management methodology to make sure the ingress, circulation and egress of patrons across the event footprint is safely managed.

Strategies deployed at major events include fencing at major intersections, barriers, way finders and VMS signs. These methods coupled with a strong communication strategy utilising traditional media, electronic media - social, all contributes to providing people clear direction on how to travel to various event sites, what to expect, which way to walk etc.

Risk-free Culture

Balancing Safety and Experience

“With the current global environment, it’s important to take a ‘worst case scenario’ point-of-view when developing a plan to overcome safety challenges at any public event, but especially in an open access environment.

With the implementation of command posts, crowd control strategies and event operations centres, Security on the ground, it is important to have an effective communications strategy and coordination structure in place to achieve a really comprehensive strategy that accounts for all possible scenarios.

Pre-major events it is extremely worthwhile to conduct tabletop exercises with all operations centres and security staff across the event footprint, where we can scenario test worst case scenarios – so a drill essentially – for various kinds of disasters from weather events to explosions, terror attacks or threats from active armed offenders. Training and continual testing of staff and procedures is critical to respond to any incident or emergency.

Every risk event comes with its own contingency plan where you can escalate up resources if necessary, and these scenario exercises really allow to test emergency response, command and control posts, and communication operations – the drills are essential in allowing all facets of the operation to come together and really understand the environment, the various threats, risks involved and the best solutions.

The latest technology such as CCTV sectoring, video analytics, artificial Intelligence should all be considerations of a suite of mitigation strategies.

In an open access environment, it’s impossible to screen everybody, but having comprehensive security plans and thorough strategies in place helps make these types of event safer. Open communication to patrons highlighting that while certain restrictions on which way people can walk, or where they can go may be a slight inconvenience, at the end of the day we all need to understand that in a PROBABLE threat environment all security measures are in place for the benefit of everyone.

Guest blog written by: Craig Sheridan APM, Managing Director, Sheridan Consulting Group

Craig has been appointed to a number of notable positions since retiring from the NSW Police Force including Lead Security and Risk Consultant, Vivid Festival Sydney 2016 and 2017, Lead Security and Risk Consultant for Property NSW, introducing an operational readiness framework for New Years Eve 2016 and other major events held across the Sydney Harbour Foreshore,  Lead Security and Risk Consultant, Department of Premier and Cabinet, New Years Eve 2016 and Australia Day 2017 Crowd Management as well as Head of Security, Rugby League World Cup 2017.

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The skill every EA should be including on their resume

Whether you’re an Executive Assistant actively looking for a new role or just open to new opportunities, it’s important to keep your resume and LinkedIn profile up-to-date with the skills and traits potential employees are searching for.

Whilst it may seem organisations prioritise different skillsets, there are many traits which all companies are begging for.

We analysed a cross-section of job ads from across public and private sectors to identify the most common traits executives were looking for in their assistants.

So what’s the trait in highest demand?

A positive, can-do attitude. 

Most, if not all, job ads said they were searching for applicants who were proactive with willingness to learn and perform well in high-pressure situations. They had their eyes peeled for an EA who could foster positivity throughout the office, take pride in their work and collaborate easily with other staff members.

Being technologically savvy came in next with desired proficiency in Word, Excel, Microsoft 365 and Adobe. A keen eye for detail and proof-reading was also highly regarded.

Other notable skills include minute taking, organisation, diary management and stakeholder relations.

See below the full list of skills to incorporate in your resume:

·         Ability to take control and thrive in high pressure situations

·         Excellent communication and time management skills

·         High attention to detail

·         Able to exercise a high level of discretion, confidentiality and sometimes political sensitivity in liaising with internal and external stakeholders

·         A positive, can-do attitude

·         Strong written and verbal communication skills

·         Flexibility and a proven willingness and ability to learn

·         Good computer skills, especially in data entry, Microsoft Excel, Word & Powerpoint is essential

·         Prior minute taking experience

·         Highly competent & organized

·         Proven experience arranging travel, diary and events management at an executive level

·         Be a strong, credible advocate for the company with all stakeholders

·         Identifies more and less critical activities and operates accordingly

·         A team player but also able to work on own initiative

·         Ability to build rapport and operate at all levels of the business

Someone just viewed your LinkedIn profile- make sure they’re impressed with what they see.

Written by: Claire Dowler

Claire Dowler is a Senior Conference Producer with Akolade. She recently graduated with a double degree: a Bachelor of Journalism and a Bachelor of Media and Communications Studies majoring in International Communication. Claire minored in sarcasm and puns.

A ballroom-dancer who collects salt and pepper shakers and volunteers for animal rescue, you might say Claire has eclectic interests.

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Improving NDIS Service Delivery Outcomes: one speaker’s thoughts on unlocking innovation for providers

For providers operating in a NDIS environment the way one deals with an age of consumer choice and control is an innovation opportunity.

1. Selecting the lane for your innovation ambition

To survive and thrive you need to develop and adopt a clear and conscious strategy. In some parts of your organisation and operations you may select to be in a certain lane:

•    fast lane: being a leader of change
•    middle lane: being a fast follower that adopts innovation from others; or
•    slow lane: choose incremental continuous improvements and drive safe reliable services

The recommendation from research is to be clear on your innovation ambition.

2. Managing an innovation portfolio

Find a way to get a good grasp of all the dispersed initiatives - by managing an “innovation portfolio

Image source: Harvard Business Review, “Managing your Innovation Portfolio”

So, what does this looks like?

• In the band of activity at the lower left of the matrix are core innovation initiatives - efforts to make incremental changes to existing services and incremental in roads into new markets.
• This could be improvements to current programs for current beneficiaries.
• At the opposite corner of the matrix are transformational initiatives, designed to create new offers—if not whole new businesses—to serve new customer needs. For organisations operating or considering operating in the disability sector – this is a key area of focus
• In the middle are adjacent innovations, which can share characteristics with core and transformational innovations.

Bansi Nagji and Geoff Tuff of Deloitte make the argument that organisations require a balanced innovation portfolio

Organisations with a clear innovation ambition - strike the ideal balance of core, adjacent, and transformational initiatives across the enterprise, and have put in place the tools and capabilities to manage those various initiatives as parts of an integrated whole.

Best practice suggests that outperforming organisations typically allocate about 70% of their innovation resources to core offerings, 20% to adjacent efforts, and 10% to transformational initiatives.

In contrast, cumulative returns on innovation investments tend to follow an inverse ratio, with 70% coming from the transformational initiatives, 20% from adjacent, and 10% from core.

 The ideal balance differs depending on industry and organisation.

One thing is common: Organisations should consider executing at all three levels of ambition and managing their innovation system deliberately. 

3. Maintain a culture for innovation

One of the most important things is to maintain an open mind. A sense of inquiry, of curiosity is essential for innovation. Indeed – curiosity - could be an elevated to an organisational value.

Disruptive innovation, requires a culture of experimentation, a model that allows for testing and learning.

The challenge to acknowledge is around creating a culture of innovation in well-run, well-established risk averse organisations.

The antidote, is having skilled and able innovation managers across all functions of your organisation. So, what should you look for when you seek out these change makers:

• They are good at bringing the creative ideas of others to market
• Demonstrate sound judgement about what creative ideas will work
• Can manage a creative process from ideation to fruition
• Can estimate and articulate how potential ideas will work in the marketplace.

Failing fast requires a paradigm shift.

A question for your board and management team (and even funders) to consider: “Is failure an option?” Failing fast tends to be cited as a key element for start-ups. So the question for consideration by organisations: are the board, team, and funders ready to accept the “failing fast” paradigm? If not, maybe an alternative more palatable option is to “think big, start small, act fast”

4. Partnerships may provide strength

In unity there is strength, according to the moral of the fable from Aesop, “The Bundle of Sticks”. Just like Aesop’s fable unity and innovation arises from successful partnerships between organisations, their people, and collaborators with other leaders be they from the same sector or from outside.

So, what should you consider before collaborating with others?

• Know yourself: Understand your organisation’s strengths and weaknesses.
• Recognise your partner’ strengths: Understand what each collaborating partner contributes to the design and delivery of services.
• Shared Values: A commitment to improve social, cultural and economic outcomes for the community that the organisations represent.
• Shared culture: Mutual trust, respect with openness in all activities.
• Structure: A collaborative approach to decision‐making and working together recognising the interdependence between the organisations.

5. Understanding the vectors of innovation

Collaboration within your organisation and outside your organisation are just 2 vectors for innovation. Other required for an organisation to be innovative, were identified in the Innovation Index for the Not for Profit Sector, delivered through a partnership between Westpac, Give Easy and Australia Post.

The Index is a diagnostic assessment tool to measure the depth and breadth of innovation capabilities across all sectors.

The list of vectors are:

• Internal Collaboration: the ability for individuals and groups to connect and work together 
• External Collaboration: building and maintaining diverse networks and partnerships with outside suppliers, service providers, organisations and thought leaders.  
• Innovation Focus: innovation needs a strategy in its own right, including a vision, goals and metrics.  
• Openness of Culture/Vision: creating an environment where separate ideas and perspectives can collide regularly, with a culture of openness, sharing and generosity.  
• Organisational Velocity: achieving exceptional levels of performance, relentless focus on improvement, quick to respond and adaptable to change.  
• Rewards/Recognition: encouraging innovative behaviour through an active program of acknowledgement, including peer recognition, promotion or financial reward.  
• Stakeholder Centricity: deep engagement and empathy with donors and beneficiaries so we can engage with them in the most relevant ways  

Today’s world is one of constant change.

Every day there are new challenges; new problems that need new solutions; new solutions that may come from innovation.

Guest blog written by: Lali Wiratunga, Board Director, TAD Disability Services NSW 

The opinions expressed here represent Lali’s own opinion and and are intended as general information.

Lali Wiratunga is a Board Director at TAD Disability Services and the National Manager of Westpac's Davidson Institute . He is an active mentor for emerging leaders in the community and cares deeply about helping people and organisations realise their potential. In 2016, Lali was recognised in Pro Bono Australia's Impact 25, an award that recognises leaders in the social economy.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laliwiratunga/

Twitter: @laliwiratunga

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The gruesome reality inside Australia’s youth detention centres

Dylan Voller in a spit hood and shackled into chair. Photo: ABC

ABC’s Four Corners shook the country last year when it revealed the abuses inside the Northern Territory’s Don Dale Youth Detention Centre.

Investigative reporter Caro Meldrum-Hanna exposed to Australia’s population how children and youth were abused by detention staff. The image of 15-year-old Dylan Voller in a spit hood and shackled into chair has become an iconic image of the gruesome truth that’s been happening behind closed doors.

Within 36 hours from that the show broadcast, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced a royal commission into juvenile justice and child protection.

The $54 million final report, Royal Commission into the Protectionand Detention of Children in the Northern Territory, has now finally been released.  The report includes 143 findings and 226 discrete recommendations with some recommendations being particularly welcomed, for example closing the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre and High Security Unit, increasing family support mechanisms, increasing diversionary approaches and increasing engagement with Aboriginal organisations in child protection and youth justice.

"The failures we have identified have cost children and families greatly, they have not made communities safer and they are shocking," Commissioners Mick Gooda and Margaret White said according to Sydney Morning Herald.

The report stated that "Senior executives and the management and staff at the detention centres implemented and/or maintained and/or tolerated a detention system seemingly intent on 'breaking' rather than 'rehabilitating' the children and young people in their care," Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The commission makes several recommendations to both the NT government and the Federal government, and it is estimated that if these recommendations are put in place, $335 million could be saved.

NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner promised to take action and work in partnership with communities and the federal government to see improved outcomes following the Inquest.

But the Commission has also been criticised for not going far enough, particularly in two areas, the ABC reported.

The Commission makes the recommendation to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12 years. This is however not in line with international standards.

The UN Committee on Rights of the Child urged in 2007 that the minimum age for criminal responsibility should be higher than 12, and recommended the age of 14 or 16 instead.

The second failing, and the most prominent failure of the report, is that it doesn’t include a recommendation of criminal charges for the torture the children and youth experienced inside the centres that were investigated.

Former NT Corrections Minister John Elferink has condemned the lack of recommendations for criminal prosecution.

"What they haven't recommended, is a single criminal charge to be lodged against any human being associated with youth detention in the Northern Territory," the ABC reported.

Written by : Mimmie Wilhelmson

Mimmie grew up in Sweden and first came to Australia as a backpacker after high school. After travelling around the country for two years she returned to Europe and pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism in London. But the longing for Australia and the sun became too strong. After having worked for some time in the media industry, Mimmie decided to make a change and swap the news for conferences. She now gets to do what she loves the most, meeting new people and keep learning about cultures and issues while producing conferences on current topics.

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The role of social media in contemporary emergency management

Information sharing between communities and public emergency services agencies is absolutely critical in times of a disaster, especially during large-scale events such as terror acts, bushfires, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, etc. This is a fairly novel channel of communication between citizens and government emergency services agencies and it is a two-way road. In recent years, social media and collaborative tech have become key ingredients of emergency preparedness, response, and recovery. It is through the use of social media that members of the public who are in the impact area have the ability to provide the relevant agencies with timely and accurate information and vice-versa.

To illustrate, the first responders and government officials working to help Florida residents survive Hurricane Irma relied on social media to communicate and coordinate their efforts, a sign of technology’s growing importance in emergency situations. Florida became one of the places Facebook activated its safety-check tool, which allows users in emergencies to mark themselves as safe on their profiles and share other information.

Other tech giants such as Airbnb and Uber also chipped in - the former encouraged hosts in Northern Florida and Georgia to make rooms on its site available for free to hurricane evacuees while the ride-sharing app provided Floridians free rides to shelters.

While there clearly are tremendous benefits that social medial can provide both the public and the emergency services agencies in times of a disaster, we also need to consider the dangers of misinformation that has potential to be spread just as rapidly.  This means that the emergency services will have to come up with a reliable way of monitoring the information that circulates on social media. Some agencies have already started to address this issue – a recent paper, presented at the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, discusses exactly that – the establishing of the new operational role within a State Control Centre in Victoria, Australia dedicated to obtaining situational awareness from social media to support decision making for emergency management. The authors of the paper state that by sharing our experience it is hoped other agencies will consider the value of adopting similar arrangements.

Written by: Simona Zukaite

Simona joined Akolade and relocated to Sydney after eight years in Hong Kong where she worked for a leading media and publishing company producing legal and financial conferences in Asia-Pacific. Simona studied Law in the UK, Paris and Hong Kong and found her passion for events after working on an international arbitration law conference and moot trial competition in Hong Kong in 2012. The recent move is the next chapter of adventures Simona has sought to pursue in Australia following the running of an annual FX investment conference in Sydney for three consecutive years.

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Risk management in the digital age

It’s no secret that new and emerging threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated, widespread and complex globally; As old-world and new-world challenges collide in today’s digital environment, it’s critical that organisations understand how to digitize their existing frameworks and transform current risk practices to reflect new threats.

Although organisations have become reasonably good at managing predictable, lower-level risks, many have a false sense of security about their ability to anticipate and deal with more hazardous fraud threats that evolve rapidly in a digitally-connected world.

Cyber attacks represent a present and growing danger that threatens businesses irrespective of size and sector.

The current size of the cyber breach and privacy market is expected to grow to approximately $5 billion over the next five years as the number of first-time purchasers increases at a rapid pace.

What’s critical, is that organisations embed Cyber-related risk mitigation efforts into their organisational risk management frameworks.

The Australian Cyber, Fraud and Risk Summit is a unique event that will explore some of the most exciting case studies and innovative strategies for responding to new and emerging threats in today’s digital landscape. With powerful keynote presentations and panel discussions from Australia’s leading Fraud, Cyber Fraud and Risk professionals, this event will address the most significant challenges and threats being faced today and uncover the knowledge, strategies and technology to mitigate and overcome them.

It’s a discussion not to be missed – we look forward to seeing you there!

Written by: Beth Hampton

Beth came to Australia in late 2016. Having spent some time travelling through Southeast Asia and briefly living in Singapore – she was ready to embrace the lifestyle of a working Sydneysider!Beth grew up in London, and completed her degree in Psychology at the University of York. She always dreamed of landing a job in the police, but figured it was worth swapping the handcuffs and late shifts for an exciting new city and a job full of fun and opportunity in a fantastic company like Akolade!

Beth loves cooking, playing the piano, terrible British soap operas, an ice-cold G&T and exploring new places.

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Antidote to Community Fear

We live in a globally connected world where extremism, in many forms (ideological, political, economic, social, and personal) is a constant threat to community safety.  This is why community safety is a key priority for all levels of Government, especially when major public events occur, such as the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, the Australia Open in Melbourne, and so on.  All forms of contemporary extremism begin with extreme views by people who, in the main, fall within the bell curve of psychologically ‘normal’ individuals.  This profile fits for right & left wing extremists, Jihadists, militants, activists, fanatics, zealots, fixated persons, active shooters, and cyber terrorists.

This ‘alarming normal’ profile presents a major difficulty when seeking to counter extremism in that holding ‘extreme views’ (cognitive radicalisation) does not automatically lead to ‘extreme actions’ (behavioural radicalisation).  There are multiple and complex factors dynamically at play which push ‘talkers’ towards becoming ‘doers’ of extreme violence.   Hence, to counter ‘extreme views’ that may lead to violent actions at public places and/or major events requires following a methodology  I designed as a 4D matrix for community security & safety.  It is illustrated in the figure below.

 As can be seen, security & safety are two sides of the same community coin.  The 1st and 2nd boxes deal with ‘Defining & Detecting’ the types of extremism and extremists you are interested in finding out more on from a ‘Security’ point of view.  The 3rd and 4th boxes are all about ‘Designing & Deploying’ appropriate strategies and staff (paid and volunteers) to monitor, report on, and take action, if necessary, at public events and public places where an emergent community threat is potentially possible.  This is the ‘Safety’ side of the matrix.  It is these ‘Safety’ dimensions of Design & Deploy which I wish to focus on for this rest of the article.
  
Of course, operationalising this 4D matrix is neither easy nor cheap.  The resourcing implications of trying to cover all this ground will break the piggy bank of most Governments, or at least put a serious financial hole in their budget.   However, if Governments fail to lead the way in mobilising community safety then the greater risk will be vigilante-style groups popping up in the community to take matters into their own hands.  This is a now an emerging trend in many Western democracies where ‘alarmingly normal’ citizens become engaged in sectarian hate groups against others they perceive as threats to their community.

How to best mobilise community resources is the key question?   Especially, since we all know that the safety of the community cannot be solely left to police and security agencies.  There will never be enough police officers and security personal on the streets, in shopping centres, parks, bikeways and beaches to observe and respond to the new and emerging threats. For instance, improvised and low cost weapons that can severely injure, mutilate, and kill scores of innocent people, who just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.     

One potential way Governments can harness and steer community anxiety about extremist threats in a proactive and productive manner is through funding a broad range of small scale, grassroots community groups through a community-based network mechanism I designed called the ‘Safety Alert Volunteer Enterprise’ (SAVE).  My concept of SAVE is that of a self-evolving grassroots interconnected network of self-directed suburban neighbourhoods clustered around local Safety Alert Volunteer (SAV) teams dedicated to community safety for everyone in  their  geographical region.  This vision of SAVE builds on the notion of ‘citizen volunteerism’ which is a well-established principle in the Australian community as it is in many countries around the world.  For instance, many community-based organisations, supported by Government assistance, such as Crime Stoppers, Neighbourhood Watch, Surf Lifesavers, Lions Club and many others rely on volunteers donating their time, talents, and energy to provide various forms of much needed community service.

The mission of SAVE is to equip community members with established principles and protocols of situational awareness training to enhance their community vigilance and timely response notification capacity to assist police, security and emergency management agencies with emerging and imminent safety threats within their local community at public places and with planned public events.

To conclude, ‘SAVE’ proofing a community is best done by communities themselves.  This can be achieved by communities forming ‘community safety clusters’ of 3 to 5 geographically local suburban neighbourhoods connected to and supported, in an training and advisory capacity only, by an umbrella SAVE network.  Each of these community safety cluster’s would maintain their independent, self-evolving nature to decide what works best for them in the particular circumstances, conditions and constraints of their local community region.  Communities just need minimal funding from Government to equip them with the knowledge and skills of SAV training to kick start their community looking out for and taking care of one another’s safety, by themselves and for themselves.   

 SAVE is a community enterprise open to anyone who wishes to participate as a Safety Alert Volunteer (SAV).  Members of the community in any geographical location in Australia can register, via email, their interest in becoming a volunteer in the SAVE network (safetyalertvolunteers@gmail.com ).

Guest blog written by: Dr Geoff Dean

Dr. Geoff Dean is CEO of the Safety Alert Volunteer Enterprise (SAVE) & Managing Director of the company Violence Prevention Consulting as well as Adjunct Professor at the Griffith Criminology Institute (GCI) and the Policy Innovation Hub at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. He is an international peer reviewer and guest editor for several prestigious journals, publishes extensively, and consults globally with police and security organisations.

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CCTV and Privacy

There are cameras all around us. ATMs, lifts, shops, traffic lights, parking stations all have cameras. Most of us even have a camera we regularly use on our phones. Everywhere we go there is potential that our movements are being recorded and monitored.

Most people accept this as being part of living in today’s world. We surrender some of our privacy in exchange for being able to conduct our lives without needing to go to extraordinary lengths to avoid this level of surveillance. However, the information being recorded is our personal information and for those public authorities owning and operating CCTV there are legislation and guidelines dictating how CCTV systems are to be used. In NSW this is found in the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (PPIPA), the Workplace Surveillance Act 2005 and the NSW Government Policy Statement and Guidelines for the Establishment and Implementation of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) in Public Places (2014). Other Australian states have similar legislation.

In 2013 the NSW ADT (SF v Shoalhaven City Council) found that the Council had breached section 10, 11(a), 12(c) of PPIPA and until the council could comply cameras had to be turned off.

Section 10 of PPIPA relates to requirements when collecting personal information. In this section reasonable steps must be taken to inform:

•          information is being collected; purposes of collection;
•          intended recipients of information;
•          if supply is voluntary or not;
•          right of access to information and correction;
•          name and address of agency to hold the information.

The breach of section 10 related to signage. The ADT found that the signage was not sufficient to “ensure that individuals are made aware of all the information addressed by section 10” To comply the Council had to change their signage. 

Signs went from:

To this:

The original sign was no different from signs displayed by most Councils in Australia. Additionally, the Council needed to install signs under or near each camera.

The breach to section 11 (a) of PPIA. This section concerns the collection of information in that the information collected is relevant to the purpose of collection, not excessive, is accurate, up to date and complete. The ADT considered the majority of personal information collected by CCTV was “collateral” and not relevant to “crime prevention”. This refers to the collection of images of all people in a location even though they are not engaged in the act of committing a crime.

Compliance with this section required the NSW government to exempt local government from section 11 of the Act with respect to the collection of personal information.

The breach to section 12(c) related to procedural matters of how guidelines were being followed by Council partners when accessing the live feed. This was addressed by reinforcing with Police the access procedure.

The Council CCTV system was turned off for four weeks with cameras being gradually restored as signs were updated. Many other Councils would probably still have signage that doesn’t comply.

Guest blog written by:

Alan Blackshaw, 

Community Development Co-Ordinator, 

Shoalhaven City Council

A Community Development worker with 14 years experience in the field. A community builder who works alongside others to create great communities building on existing strengths and assets. A creative thinker and problem solver.

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