A case for anticounterfeiting

Although I don't handle customer complaints directly, one day I received a call through our operator from a disgruntled customer who complained that our company should not allow counterfeit products carrying our brand name to be sold so boldly. She went on to describe what seemed to be an unbelievable story about a counterfeit ring that was selling hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of counterfeit goods in Middle America. Curious, I seized this unusual opportunity and assigned the claim to our investigations team, which usually focuses on theft and policy violations.

It turned out that the customer's story -- although it had seemed unbelievable -- was also, to a large extent, true. Within weeks, our investigations team, working closely with law enforcement, had completed a sting operation that led to the arrests of numerous individuals, the seizure of thousands of pieces of counterfeit goods and the discovery of a supply network that stretched outside the United States.

Protect our brand? You bet we did.

In today's business environment, business unit owners need to continually drive incremental value to their organizations. This is particularly true of operational business units that do not directly or tangibly generate material growth in revenue -- areas such as security. In anticounterfeiting, I realized there was an opportunity to add value to the organization. So I jumped.

After my team's success with this anticounterfeiting operation, I was able to convince our senior management to move anticounterfeiting operations out of the legal department and into the security realm. It wasn't an easy sell, but it wasn't that hard of a sell, either. In fact, once I started looking at the issue, it became obvious why my team could be successful fighting counterfeiting, and why the organizational move is a logical step for any brand-conscious organization.

Security Skills for Anticounterfeiting

Our security department's mission always has centered on the concept of protection, so it seemed logical to expand the mission to encompass protecting the brand from the illegal and unethical pirating of our products, which could erode customer confidence and trust in our brand. But bringing real value to the company centered on playing to and leveraging some of the strengths of our security team. Here's how I made my case.

First, many aspects of anticounterfeiting operations rely on solid and creative investigations -- something that played directly into the strengths of our investigation team. The team is adept at conducting comprehensive, fact-finding interviews, mining intelligence for additional leads, conducting surveillance, performing undercover operations and maintaining documentation and records for purposes of litigation. To take on anticounterfeiting responsibility, we had only to expand these skills outside of the traditional security responsibilities and apply them to efforts focused on the crime of trademark infringement.

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.