Reputational risk, and how to mitigate it, is a frequent topic at the boardroom table. It is a risk which could affect anyone, particularly high profile corporations and government agencies. The impacts are wide ranging including financial loss, lost revenue, increased operating and regulatory costs and most importantly loss of trust from the local community, stakeholders and customers.

Reputation damage is the highest rated risk according to 1,400 risk management professionals in 60 countries (Aon Global Risk Management Survey 2015)*. Many companies have put significant resources into reputational risk planning and there are large numbers of case studies highlighting both the good and bad in managing reputational issues.

We’ve all heard stories of the consequences of a damaged reputation. One of the most famous being when the CEO, Gerald Ratner of massive UK jewellery retailer, Ratners, called his products “total crap” – wiping GBP500m off the value of his business and bringing it to its knees. On the flip side, Halifax Bank of Scotland’s swiftly deployed its crisis management capabilities when false market rumours regarding liquidity issues at the UK bank caused shares to fall by 17% in just 10 minutes of trading led to a coordinated, global response. It enabled the bank to promptly and unambiguously deny the rumours, with the Bank of England moving to reject speculation of a liquidity crisis and reassure the marketplace. The share price recovered 10% by the end of the day.

There are sound templates available to help companies structure and manage risk issues and at leading commercial investigations firm, Insight Intelligence, we believe there are some keys areas where companies should place particular attention and help can come from a rather surprising source. Namely, military intelligence.

When your reputation spirals out of control, loss of revenue and brand become inevitable. According to a Wharton study, it takes a whopping 80 weeks for stock prices to recover from a sudden price drop^. The instant exchange of information in today’s social media society means managing reputations requires a cool head in times of crisis and some particular skills in deciphering the key information to focus on and how to respond.

Reputations can be diminished or even destroyed by just a few key strokes on social media, whether the original intentions are spiteful or not. The broader public applies little grading and valuation to the source of information, instead that information often becomes the ignition of speculation.

Here is where some military intelligence know-how comes into its own. Counterintelligence operatives are trained in the art of filtering information, determining its importance and developing the most appropriate response. Armed with this knowledge, organisations and high profile individuals are much better equipped to swiftly and effectively respond to a reputational threat.

For example, when you are getting dozens, if not hundreds, of social media comments from various places in the blink of an eye, a well-drilled plan that is executed with precision makes all the difference.

So, what does military intelligence help look like in practice? The following 5 key areas of reputational risk management are all improved by a ‘spy’s eye’:

In our current environment the key to survival for an organisation depends on their ability to see the bigger picture and this is particularly so for insurance companies and claims agencies.

Claims are ongoing on a daily basis regardless if it is worker’s compensation, life insurance, public liability or third party and these will be a loss for the organisation in a monetary and or productivity level.

Insurance companies or any other corporation that has the need for surveillance investigation must prior to conducting a surveillance investigation need to determine what is the objective and what information is to be obtained from social engineering about the claimant in order to produce a quality intelligence finding that is the backbone for a successful investigation. Without determining what is the objective and what information is to be collected, any investigation not just the surveillance is set to fail and this will result in additional costs to the organisation.

Fraudulent claims are unfortunately a daily occurrence, it is happening and it will continue to happen. A fraudulent claimant will develop new skills, they work hard at getting new information, learning new techniques and tactics on how to avoid to be under surveillance, being undetected or how to go about ensuring that a surveillance becomes illegal.

Why are fraudulent claims not detected? It is very simple; they know what you need to see to approve their claim.

Saying that the claims managers must understand and must keep up to date with new trends on the market on how fraudulent claims occur. The claims managers need to know how the social environment and changes in the claimant’s social behaviour could be a fraudulent claim. By not being aware of these practices can create losses and increase costs for the corporations and insurance companies.

Surveillance Investigation is a most effective way of investigating POI’s (person of interest) and best way to not approve or decline the claim and recuperate losses via legal channels.

The most fundamental concept of an investigation for any organisation is the intelligence cycle: planning, gathering, analysis and dissemination. This cycle contains all of the elements required to produce actionable surveillance investigations.

By developing the Intelligence Cycle and Action Plan for Surveillance Investigations it will certainly create a new base for reducing fraudulent claims due to the fact that you will know more about how to analyse intelligence in preventing fraud and setting up a benchmark for your organisation in reducing losses and costs.