Rethinking Security Paradigms in the Face of External Backlash: A Case Study in Private Security

Security of premises, assets and personnel form an essential requirement for commercial organisations. Lack of security impacts beyond the bottom-line, signalling a joint failure of organisation’s leadership and public governance, attracting more crime. The overloaded government’s police force can hardly dedicate resources to specific businesses. Private security firms, while offering a way out, create legal and socio-political challenges when, in line of duty, they resort to the use of firearms. In this article we research a manufacturing firm whose different security paradigm offers a rare insight into the hitherto relatively unexplored world of industrial security in an Indian context.