f it’s true that no publicity is bad publicity, Tom
Ridge’s tour to promote his book, The Test of
Our Times, was a success before its September
publication date. Four and a half years since he
had stepped down as secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Ridge
was suddenly back in the headlines as news
media began reporting that his forthcoming
memoir took some critical shots at President
George W. Bush’s administration for the way
it managed and communicated information
about terrorist threats.
The book, published by St. Martin’s Press and subtitled
“America Under Siege . . . And How We Can Be Safe Again,”
surely had plenty to say about the post-9/11 period when Bush
tapped Ridge as his assistant for homeland security. In 2003,
after the cabinet department was established, Ridge became the
first DHS secretary. But for Ridge, a Vietnam veteran, former
Pennsylvania governor and congressman who has been on some
Republican short lists to run for vice president, that’s all history.
I
of Law, his studies interrupted by decorated U.S. Army service
in Vietnam, and then embarked on the political career as assistant district attorney in Pennsylvania’s Erie County. He was
elected to Congress in 1982.
A recent, wide-ranging conversation with the long-time
public servant ran the gamut from concrete, how-to suggestions for risk professionals to a warning that a piece of business orthodoxy can damage the pursuit of resiliency, and even
some praise for the sitting Democratic president.
In tune with present-day enterprise risk management,
Ridge is philosophically holistic, seeing no separation between
risk and resiliency concepts and business itself. The Johnson &
Johnson Tylenol-contamination incident of 1982 was not just
a best-practices lesson in forestalling reputational damage; it
also points up the need to proactively identify and eliminate
any controllable threat to a company’s brands, supply chain
and profitability.
“Quality plus resiliency equals value is the equation for the
21st century,” Ridge says. Although a true believer in free markets, he stresses the need for boards of directors’ vigilance and
Risk assessment is a process tool...embedding quality.
During the book tour and media blitz, he was more than
happy to weigh in on some lingering strategic questions a year
after a presidential campaign (in which his support for his
party’s nominee, John McCain, never wavered). But Ridge’s
messages are at least as much about the future, and his vision
of security is far more encompassing than just keeping terrorist threats at bay. “In the end, Americans do not live in fear,”
Ridge wrote early on. Nor should a company, if it manages its
operational and reputational risks well, and that’s where Ridge
does much of his work and thinking today.
Thomas J. Ridge, 64, is founder, president and chief executive officer of Ridge Global, a Washington, D.C., consulting
firm that offers a laundry list of available expertise to businesses and governments: risk management and global trade
security, strategic business generation, technology integration,
event and campus security, crisis management and more. It’s
unlikely, though, that any project Ridge Global takes on will
be anything resembling the two years that he spent pulling
together 22 agencies and 180,000-plus employees under the
DHS banner. That topped a resumé that began with a scholarship to Harvard University that lifted Ridge out of working-class western Pennsylvania. He went on to Dickinson School
fiduciary responsibilities, and warns that an obsession with
quarterly earnings can undermine corporate soundness and
resiliency.
Bridging a Divide
Ridge sees no disconnect between his preponderance of pub-lic-sector experience and his ability to advise and assist the private sector. He presided over a growing economy and forged
strong ties with the business community while serving as Pennsylvania governor from 1995 to 2001. And his DHS experience naturally crosses over, because some 85% of the critical
infrastructure – among these key sectors are finance, telecommunications and energy – is not government-controlled.
Still, he has stocked Ridge Global with considerable governmental and military brainpower, consolidating years of focus
on preparedness and risk management that has been historically lacking – but is currently in great demand – in executive
suites. His staff includes DHS veterans J. Duncan Campbell
III, managing director of operations, and Christopher Furlow,
principal, U.S. public sector. The head of business development, Sandra Baer, has a strong media and communications
background, including senior positions at Sprint Nextel, Bell-
