Selected Case Histories

IMG provided our GlobalSecur® Travel Safety Program to a global manufacturing client to enhance the safety of their employees when on business travel outside the country, or while working overseas. GlobalSecur® was an attractive service for the client because of the available tiered options that allowed them to utilize and pay for only the services that met their operational and budgetary needs.

Their program provides them with a customized website accessible through their Intranet. The client's travelers have access to comprehensive security, safety and health-related information, including country and city intelligence reports on locations of interest to their company, daily intelligence updates, itinerary monitoring and worldwide Emergency Response Center call-in. All travel itineraries are monitored and can be viewed based on headquarters and subsidiary company requirements.

A U.S. automotive supplier hired IMG to develop a strike contingency plan for one of their facilities in Spain. The strike was anticipated as a result of the company announcing that the facility would be closed. Fortunately, the company engaged IMG’s services approximately six months before they planned to make the announcement, allowing for sufficient time to plan for multiple contingencies.

IMG’s planning took into consideration the contractual obligations of the company to deliver parts to its customers (they were facing costly fines if they failed to deliver parts on time), the key interdependencies in the company’s supply chain, as well as recent union and government protests in the area against plant closures.

IMG worked closely with the company to determine their critical objectives and understand their tolerance for supply chain disruptions. Once these objectives were clearly understood, IMG was able to develop a robust contingency plan for the company that identified clear steps that needed to be taken, and milestones that needed to be reached, in order to achieve the client's objectives. 

As a result, the company was able to close the plant without missing one day of production of critical parts. When the unions realized they had no leverage, there was no call for a strike and the company was able to quickly negotiate a severance package for the union members and close the plant.

Case 1:

IMG was commissioned by a major US pharmaceutical client to examine certain international supply chains from the point of manufacture of bulk materials to delivery to the end user to determine and rectify losses involving a well-known product that were in excess of $1 million per month. IMG was also asked to review an overseas manufacturing plant with a view to preventing cross-contamination and theft of finished product.

The study resulted in numerous improvement options, one of which was that interrelated, worldwide personnel did not have a clear perception of supply chain activities and its vulnerabilities. When corrective procedures were implemented further losses were avoided.

Likewise, recommendations were made to reduce the likelihood of cross-contamination and theft of valuable product. These embraced technical and security process improvements to product movement, storage and packaging areas as well as site security enhancements.

A global high-technology company requested IMG’s assistance after they had suffered major losses of product in the United States and a number of Latin American countries. Many of the losses were simple disappearances and inventory shortages while others resulted from hijackings, burglaries, robberies, and pilferage in US ports and South American destinations.

• IMG helped the client to develop a clear understanding of its logistics operations and implemented practical, system-wide procedural enhancements to manage and reduce its losses. Starting from an analysis of the various supply chains, IMG traced the movement of product through warehouses, distribution centers, ports and airports, customs checkpoints, etc., to end-user delivery, and identified existing and foreseeable vulnerabilities.
• IMG examined the transportation lanes used to move the product from the United States to Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and Chile, and reviewed the contractual relationship between the client and its network of logistics providers who had access to the product.

IMG's efforts provided the client with a clear understanding of its logistics processes and a blueprint for continuous improvement. Our solutions were systematic and practical. The resulting recommendations addressed weaknesses across the full span of the client’s operations and provided specific best practice solutions that optimized business operation, and supporting systems, and offset future risk by contractual indemnity. IMG inaugurated a continuous business improvement program using self-audit components and subsequent mechanisms to monitor progress and apportion risk.

A multinational corporation received word that an anonymous newsletter filled with proprietary information and unflattering comments concerning the personality and activities of its senior management had been mailed to many of its distributors and suppliers. The newsletter compromised sensitive marketing information and had the potential to cause serious morale problems within the company.

IMG was asked to assist the client in identifying the source of the newsletter and to reduce the likelihood of future similar publications. A highly skilled investigator with extensive FBI experience was immediately dispatched to the site.

Within hours the investigator developed an appropriate strategy and initiated a plan of action based on a coordinated collection and analysis along three operational lines:

• A forensic psychologist analyzed the newsletter and developed a behavioral profile of the author. The results included an assessment of the level of dangerousness presented by the individual.
• A forensic linguist, a member of IMG's extended team, examined the document and produced a profile of the writer's age, gender, level of education, and other significant characteristics.
• Finally, the investigator developed a detailed questionnaire and interviewed managers to establish which group of employees would have had access to the information used to prepare the newsletter.

The analysis of the resulting data allowed focus on a shortlist of three individuals who met the forensic profiling and had the required access to information. The investigator worked closely with the client's management team to set the scene for direct interviews with persons on the list.

After the first session of interviews one of the suspects' lawyers called to inform that his client was prepared to make an admission concerning that person's guilt.

IMG was hired by well-known law firm to provide litigation support services and post-incident expert witness testimony subsequent to a catastrophic workplace event. The event in question — a serious assault — occurred in a busy shopping mall occurred after dark.

The victim's attorneys alleged that mall ownership and management had contributed to the likelihood of an assault in that the design of the mall security program, its security force operations and the site's physical security measures were deficient and failed to meet accepted standards. Because of these deficiencies, the defendants “knew or should have known” that serious crime on the premises was foreseeable.

IMG conducted a thorough review of the mall's site security measures, operations and criminal history, benchmarked the findings against similar locations. The resulting analysis indicated that the location's security posture compared favorably with other, similar locations and that the mall's ownership and management had done everything reasonably possible to ensure their patrons' safety.

The information provided by IMG contributed to an out-of-court settlement.

A major global financial services firm turned to IMG to implement a world-wide travel executive protection program for their senior officers. IMG identified and risk-rated the countries and cities to which the executives were traveling in order to recommend suitable protective measures. These ranged from a car services with security-trained drivers to protection details using armored, nondescript vehicles and trusted corporate aviation.

To provide worldwide services, IMG relied on our in-house and global network of security professionals to provide routine and emergency planning, protection personnel and vehicles. IMG chose only those companies with a proven track record, a demonstrated record of excellence, and whose protection standards met or exceeded industry standards.

Case 1:

A leading manufacturer of car audio components contacted IMG and advised that they were missing several hundred thousand dollars in inventory. IMG tracked the missing products to a South American distributor and identified a former employee as the culprit.

IMG further identified the method used to steal the inventory and prepared an in-depth report to the company recommending several cost-effective security recommendations to prevent a reoccurrence of this problem.

Case 2:

In an unrelated case, a manufacturer of health care supplies asked for IMG's help to investigate possible wrongdoing relating to a distributor who was believed to be engaging in fraud against the company by claiming unearned rebates on merchandise allegedly sold, but not delivered to hospitals.

A complex fraud investigation followed and IMG obtained evidence that the distributor had illegally defrauded the company to the tune of $10 million or more. While considering criminal and civil action against the distributor, the company learned that the alleged offender had been jailed for an unrelated crime.

A major US provider of household fittings, appliances and building fabrication materials with worldwide operations asked IMG to provide a version of the GlobalSecur® Global Monitoring Service that was flexible, customizable and affordable.

IMG provided an “active” system that monitors their travelers’ and overseas employees’ whereabouts and equated this information with identified, and pertinent threats.

The service did not rely on the client to locate any employees who may be at risk, but instead, IMG constantly monitored their locations, linked these with potential threats and then notified the company and their employees of changing conditions.

The client indicated that they had chosen IMG's GlobalSecur® service because it exactly matched their needs and budget with no hidden costs, because of its flexibility and "tiered" service choices, the optional FoneTrac™ worldwide monitoring using regular smartphones, the highly-customized website with individual user accounts. The availability and provision of affordable, indemnified medical and political evacuation services was also a significant factor.

IMG was asked by a Fortune 100 company to plan for and provide security services at a sales award event in London. However, the attendance of senior executives and 2,000 sales associates from worldwide locations was placed in doubt by the July 7 terrorist bombings.

IMG had already completed the security planning for the event and representatives were dispatched one week before the start date to conduct a risk assessment and develop feasible security and contingency plans and recommendations. The latter would form the basis of advice to senior management on whether the company should proceed with the event.

IMG surveyed the major venue sites, established liaison with previously-known Scotland Yard and security service officials, heeded their useful advice, modified existing event security plans and received additional police attention to the event. As a result, senior management decided to proceed as planned and the event took place without incident.