A 21C growth industry

Transnational crime is increasing in size and impact, benefitting from globalization and technology advances. A growth “industry”, the global cost of crime and corruption runs into trillions of US dollars, including illegal trade in drugs, arms and humans, cybercrime and money laundering, with criminal organizations controlling substantial financial assets.  A multitude of factors are increasing criminal organizations’ reach and effectiveness while reducing society’s ability to detect and punish crimes. These include: Increased and low-cost travel, lowering of border restrictions in free trade blocs, burgeoning trade, a globalized financial system (despite the crisis), rising migration, the global transfer of knowledge, mobile communications and increasingly powerful computers. There is also evolution in terms of the organizational flexibility of the criminal organizations. Technology is allowing the freedom to create networks of small criminal organizations, as has happened with terrorist networks. These networks are not only harder to detect, but also allow more individuals to access crime, which may threaten beliefs and values globally.

Questions for business leaders

• What types of criminal activities threaten our organization – and the extended business network in which we operate, e.g. customers/consumers, suppliers, government stakeholders, societies?
• How do we keep our business secure in a world of increasing cyber-attacks?  And how much effort do we spend on securing the past versus creating the future?
• What do we need to do to help our leaders, employees and stakeholders be aware of criminal and terrorist threats – and to counter them?  What are the ethical implications?

The GT Trend Report: Criminal Organizations offers analysis and food for thought as you tackle these questions.