Cost v Income. Which do you prefer?

Every retailer wants ROI from their security, but what if it made you money…

The world’s most famous scientist, Albert Einstein, once said “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you anywhere.”

And certainly, I think that it is time for retail to take a more imaginative approach to the way in which security is funded. Because thinking in that area has been devoid of imagination for some time.

As Walter Lippmann, the American writer, reporter and political commentator quipped “When all think alike, then no one is thinking!”

Of course, coming up with new ideas is not the problem in itself. The challenge is changing attitudes.

When you try to fundamentally change an industry you have to question… well… the fundamentals. And that makes some people uncomfortable…

Roger von Oech, an American speaker, conference organizer, author and toy maker whose focus has been on the study of creativity wrote, “It’s easy to come up with new ideas; the hard part is letting go of what worked for you two years ago but will soon be out of date.”

It all starts with challenging the norm…

Have you seen the graphic of the game of noughts and crosses, where the winning line of noughts is formed by putting the last nought outside of the grid of nine squares? Famously the caption is “Think outside of the box.” I ask you, is that innovating or is that cheating?

Resistance often comes to people trying to change fundamentals. Many people are creatures of habit. They want things to stay the same… but get better. And launching a new funding model for security in retail is almost inevitably met with suspicion. However, it is not somehow “cheating.” We are not changing the rules of the game… just how the game is played…

Perhaps the most well-known example of walking a line between innovative thinking and cheating is the Kobayashi Marutest.

Now I have been a Trekkie since I was a little boy. And despite that, I am happily married, with a daughter! However, for the uninitiated the Kobayashi Maru is a virtual training exercise in the Star Trek franchise designed to test the character of Starfleet Academy cadets by placing them in a no-win scenario.

The nominal goal of the exercise is to rescue the civilian fuel ship Kobayashi Maru, which is damaged and stranded in neutral territory between the Federation and the Klingon Empire.

The cadet being evaluated must decide whether to attempt to rescue the Kobayashi Maru, thereby endangering their ship and crew, or to leave the Kobayashi Maru to certain destruction with the death of all on board. If the cadet chooses to attempt a rescue, an insurmountable enemy force attacks their vessel. It is a no win scenario.

However, by reprogramming the computer running the virtual test, James T. Kirk became the only cadet to overcome the Kobayashi Maru simulation.

The phrase “Kobayashi Maru” has subsequently entered the language as a reference to innovative approach to a previously adjudged no-win scenario. It has been applied to real-world scenarios, with no perceived positive outcome, that require outside-the-box thinking, such as climate change, constitutional law and education.

So, I have, in a way, used Kirk’s unorthodox answer to the Kobayashi Maru test to inspire a redefinition of the premise upon which a retail organization operates their security and risk management models. And it is a “game changer” for sure…

By thinking outside-the-box we are now able to offer retailers security models that actually generate them income as opposed to costing them money.

How does it work? I’ll gladly tell you…

Although you will readily appreciate that such a game changing innovation will have piqued my competitors’ interest too.

So please get in touch reference “The Kobayashi Maru,” and let’s chat!

After all. What is the point in paying out for security when you can actually generate revenue from it!