(McGraw-Hill, October 2006)

By Luke Ritter, J. Michael Barrett, and Rosalyn Wilson

FROM THE FOREWORD

"The paradigm that now exists in transportation security is similar to the paradigm that existed when the now revered Dr. W. Edwards Deming tried to convince the business world in the 1960s that quality mattered. The now well-accepted theory of Total Quality Management was not initially met with open arms in the United States. I suspect that there are many professionals in the transportation industry today who may not endorse security management as a core business function that can create value. My hope is that readers will embrace the concepts of the TSM approach offered within Securing Global Transportation Networks and act upon them."

—Tom Ridge, First U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and former Governor of Pennsylvania.

ABOUT THE BOOK

On any given day transportation assets in the United States move approximately eight million truckloads of freight across four million miles of highway; 1.5 million railcars traverse over 170,000 miles of track; 2,400 flights pass through about 400 airports; and roughly 325 seaports transfer more than 25,000 containers. Transportation activity represents roughly 11% of the U.S. gross domestic product and accounts for as many as 10 million jobs in the United States alone; global figures are exponentially higher. In the midst of this critically important trade activity is an inherent fragility associated with the global transportation system.

Although portions of the global transportation network have been heavily scrutinized in the five years since the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and a host of government and regulatory measures have been enacted, the fact remains that experts and analysts agree that the global transportation system remains vulnerable to a significant terrorist event, with many fearing that such an event is likely to have a devastating and lasting effect upon the entire system of global trade. The economic impact of a significant and prolonged systemic disruption in this industry segment would be measured in the billions, if not trillions, of dollars.

Securing Global Transportation Networks: A Total Security Management Approach offers a much-needed framework for mitigating such risks. It is a comprehensive solution for approaching security in the context of sound business practices that integrates security prerogatives across all the activities of the enterprise. Readers will learn a whole new security management philosophy – Total Security Management (TSM) – as explained through domestic and international examples and case studies ranging from major retailers such as Home Depot to shipping giants such as Maersk and FedEx.

The authors walk the reader through a discussion of what the future may hold for enterprises that embrace the concept – a future in which security is managed as a core business function. They explain that by applying TSM, firms can realize cost savings, improve business processes, reduce theft, enhance asset management, increase brand equity and goodwill, and improve preparedness and resiliency. In this manner, security can be turned from a net cost into a net benefit.

The authors also demonstrate that the TSM approach enables firms to better understand, avoid, and respond to many of today’s threats, both natural and manmade, because it accepts that inevitably some disruptive events will occur and takes an all-hazards approach to improving security and resiliency.

In a recent report titled: Innovators in Supply Chain Security: Better Security Drives Business Value (July 2006), the Stanford University Business School points out that: “…when properly leveraged, investments in supply chain security may not only be offset to some extent by benefits…but, in fact,…can overall have a positive impact on a company’s bottom line.” Many of the viewpoints presented in this book have also been substantiated by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in a report titled: New Strategies to Protect America: A Market-Based Approach to Private Sector Security.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Luke Ritter is the CEO of Trident Global Partners and a specialist in commercial and military transportation operations and logistics. Following graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy and service in the Navy, he managed intermodal railroad and trucking operations for a container line, and provided transportation security technology solutions to government and commercial clients while working for a systems integrator. Mr. Ritter is a part-time instructor at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy's Global Maritime and Transportation School, and serves as a contributing scholar at the Heritage Foundation.

J. Michael Barrett is a terrorism and homeland security expert with an extensive background in military intelligence and national security. A former Fulbright Scholar to Ankara, Turkey, Mr. Barrett is currently a Fellow in Homeland Security at the Manhattan Institute and the President of Counterpoint Assessments, a terrorism preparedness and risk mitigation firm. He previously served as Senior Analyst for the War on Terrorism Branch of the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and as Lead Intelligence Officer for the Special Operations/Combating Terrorism Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense. He has published numerous newspaper and journal articles and has been interviewed dozens of times on television and radio, including ABC, NBC, FOX News, FRONTLINE, New York Public Radio, Bill O’Reilly’s The Radio Factor, and The Canadian Broadcasting Company.

Rosalyn Wilson is Manager at Reality Based IT Services, Ltd. [RBIS], an information technology security firm and subsidiary of SYS Technologies. With more than 25 years of transportation and logistics experience focusing on identifying and analyzing key industry issues and trends, she is also an independent consultant and Director of the Delaney Center for Logistics Innovation. Mrs. Wilson served in various capacities for more than 11 years at the Association of American Railroads AAR. She is the author of the State of Logistics Report, an annual benchmark for U.S. logistics activity and was the author of Transportation in America, an annual compendium of transportation statistics.