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A Case for Anticounterfeiting

Wherein our anonymous CSO makes and proves the argument that anticounterfeiting should be a security function

Second, due to the nature of our business, the security team is represented throughout every business channel around the world. This level of organizational penetration has served us well and lets us drive consistent and collaborative support of traditional security themes and best business practices. The mentality that all of us in security strive for—to make sure "security is everyone's job"—has been maintained by the rallying cry and constant reinforcement of our local security agents with their business-channel partners.

In addition, this presence at our locations around the globe enhances the company's ability to respond nimbly to reports of counterfeiting to protect its business globally. If a report about counterfeiting comes in almost anywhere in the world, security has someone onsite who is prepared to investigate possible illegal activity. By leveraging security's global organization, the company can maintain effective focus and commitment to brand protection. In a sense, brand protection is everyone's job, too.

Third, a standard operating procedure for security has been to maintain a commitment to process improvement. By expanding into anticounterfeiting operations, the company has embraced process improvement into this area traditionally served by counterfeit product seizures, prosecution and litigation. Now, new aspects of business are scrutinized through the window of process improvement to focus on protecting the brand. For example, we are reviewing internal operations to identify ways to ensure that counterfeit items do not enter the supply chain, and all customer touch-points are under scrutiny to see how our well our employees are trained to identify counterfeit products. Along these lines, security also is looking for opportunities to employ a covert product security tool that will improve the ability of any company representative to distinguish between a genuine item and a counterfeit one on the spot. Improving our methods of identifying counterfeits also improves productivity, because suspected fake goods don't have to be sent back to a central location staffed by quality assurance specialists.

The decision to move anticounterfeiting operations also leverages security's vendor network and other relationships. Many security and risk-management companies that specialize in areas such as background check investigations, competitive intelligence and compliance also specialize in brand integrity and intellectual-property services. Rather than having another department form an alliance with vendors that my department already deals with, security can simply modify its contracts or service expectations with our vendors to include anticounterfeiting functions.

Anticounterfeiting's Benefits to the Organization
This has already paid off. One day, management expressed concerns that certain gray-market organizations were selling our products and causing confusion in the local market, but they didn't know if the items were counterfeit products or authentic ones that somehow came from one of our distributors. My team was able to respond rapidly by having one of our existing security vendors investigate. That vendor conducted site visits, product buys and quality documentation for litigation purposes, and the information was then hand-wrapped and delivered to our legal department.