Strategic Business Analysis - Essay Example

In this paper, the discussion would revolve around the current state of the security management market in United Kingdom. The objective is to provide an overview of the UK security industry and this had been done taking into consideration one of the leading banks of UK – Abbey National Plc.UK security companies and their services are world leaders, achieving success with equipment and services in overseas markets, particularly in America, Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East. The UK security industry was worth £4.

37 billion in 2002, divided into electronic security £1.4 billion, physical security £331 million, police and public services £63 million and manned security £1.79 billion. The first study that looked at non-public policing sector was perhaps that undertaken during the 1980s by Stephen and Shannon, which investigated the increasing significance of the private security industry in Canada (Stephen and Shannon 1981, 1982, 1995). In the UK, similar studies illustrating the importance of the private security industry were also undertaken around this time (Robert 1993; Anthony 1965).

The next stage of research was the recognition there was also a wide range of voluntary, public sector and quasi-public sector organizations engaged in security management (Chandler 1962; Stern and Stalk 1998). Such has been the change in the focus of the study of security management that, today; much of the literature now considers the ‘pluralisation’ or ‘fragmentation’ of security (Bayley and Shearing 1996; Chandler 1962).