Is It Time to Scale Your Executive Protection Programme?

The sign: Your organisation subscribes to threat intelligence and receives alerts. But when a major incident occurs, there is no pre-agreed plan, no confirmed resource, and no provider with a contractual obligation to act. Intelligence without response capability Without a response capability in place, organisations may find themselves making critical decisions and sourcing support at the same time. 

Why it matters: The geopolitical volatility of 2026 has exposed this gap at scale. When Operation Epic Fury, the US-led military campaign against Iran, triggered rapid airspace closures, Iranian retaliatory strikes, and mass displacement across the Middle East, organisations with fragmented security arrangements were left scrambling. Traveller tracking, close protection, and emergency response sat with different vendors who had no shared protocol and no obligation to coordinate. Employees were stranded. Evacuation costs surged. Those without pre-negotiated crisis evacuation plans faced significantly higher fees – and significantly longer exposure windows – than those with an integrated response structure already in place. When mass numbers attempt to evacuate simultaneously, the market for seats, logistics, and ground support dries up fast. 

Ask yourself: Do you have a provider with a confirmed commitment to respond, not just report, in a crisis? Have you tested that commitment against a worst-case scenario? 

The sign: When a crisis hits, whether from a natural disaster, civil unrest, or a security incident, your team spends critical minutes establishing who is where, rather than responding. And that problem is no longer limited to international travel. With hybrid working now standard, the same visibility gap exists domestically: do you know, at any given moment, who is in the office and who is working remotely? 

Why it matters: Real-time visibility across your entire workforce – travelling executives, employees on international assignments, and staff working from home or third-party locations – is an important part of duty of care. A travel risk management app that provides live tracking, journey monitoring, and two-way communication tools can build the full picture of where your people are, not just those on booked itineraries.

Ask yourself: If an incident occurred right now, could you accurately account for every employee – those abroad, those travelling domestically, and those working remotely? 

The sign: Your duty of care policies were written for a different risk environment. They may not account for geopolitical tensions (a concern for 46% of organisations), regional conflicts (43%), or the growing expectation from employees that their employer will actively protect them – not just have a policy on file. 

Why it matters: Employee expectations have never been higher. Employers deemed in breach of their duty of care face not only legal liability but reputational damage that can affect their ability to attract and retain talent. The potential cost of failure far exceeds the cost of building a robust programme. 

Ask yourself: How do you define duty of care for your employees? Has that definition kept pace with today’s threat landscape? 

The sign: You have a plan. But it hasn’t been validated recently against a realistic worst-case scenario – a terrorist attack, a natural disaster, or civil unrest in a market where your senior leaders are present. 

Why it matters: Many emergency response policies contain restrictions that organisations are unaware of. Insurance providers may not cover war zones, terrorist attacks, or natural disasters – gaps that only become apparent under pressure. A 24/7 Global Security Operations Centre (GSOC) that has been tested and validated provides the continuity and confidence that a paper plan cannot. 

Ask yourself: Have you tested your emergency response plan with your current provider to validate they have the resources to respond in a worst-case scenario? 

The sign: Your security briefings are generic. Travellers receive country-level advisories rather than contextual, event-specific intelligence that shapes routing, accommodation choices, and on-the-ground protocols. 

Why it matters: An intelligence-led approach to executive protection is what separates organisations that prevent incidents from those that merely respond to them. Today’s threats rarely occur in isolation – one major event triggers a cascade of others. Pre-travel planning grounded in current threat intelligence significantly reduces exposure. 

Ask yourself: Where have your executives or travelling employees felt most vulnerable in the past 12 months? What intelligence would have changed their behaviour? 

The sign: Your organisation’s profile, whether through public-facing leadership, high-value contracts, or geopolitical associations, is raising the risk level for your executives. But your protection programme has not evolved to reflect this. 

Why it matters: Corporations increasingly recognise that their brand and reputation can expose employees to risk both domestically and internationally. High-profile leadership, media attention, or operations in sensitive regions all alter the threat calculus. Executive protection must be calibrated to the organisation’s specific risk profile.

Ask yourself: Could your company’s brand or the public profile of your senior leaders make them a target? Has your protection programme been assessed against that reality?  

The sign: During your last significant incident, your team spent time establishing who was in charge, which provider to call, and what the escalation path was – before any response could begin. Ownership was unclear. Handoffs were delayed. The programme itself became an obstacle. 

Why it matters: Unclear escalation paths and multiple points of contact have a direct operational cost during a crisis. When close protection, travel risk management software, and GSOC support operate within a single coordinated model under one point of contact, organisations move from insight to action without delay. Where that structure does not exist, the gap shows, particularly in fast-moving, large-scale incidents where every hour of indecision carries consequences. 

Ask yourself: In your last significant incident, how much time elapsed between the alert and the first coordinated response? Where did that time go? 

Scaling effectively requires bringing the right elements together into a structure with clear ownership and tested capability. 

Together, these create a resilient model where executive protection supports both routine business travel and complex, high-risk environments – with one point of contact, clear accountability, and continuity from planning through to response. 

Reviewing Your Corporate Travel Security Programme 

Solace Global Risk supports organisations in developing and scaling executive protection programmes aligned with modern travel risk management requirements. 

If any of the signs above reflect your current position, we can help you assess your programme and identify practical next steps – before an incident makes the decision for you.