Associated Risks Group Profile
Associated Risks Group Profiled
Associated Risks Group (ARG) is an independent security consultancy group that has gone on to grow successful businesses in sectors ranging from Security and Risk Management, Specialist Training, Firearms, Intelligence and Multimedia. The success of ARG is increasing and is marked by its vast capabilities within the private security industry. They are becoming known more and more within the industry and they seem to have the capacity for great things. Because of this, we have taken the opportunity to pick the brains of its founder and Managing Director Mr Paul Hutchinson to find out exactly what they are about.
Before I ask you anything else, I have heard some interesting things about your firearms training, can you tell me more?
We are very fortunate in being able to offer live firearms training in the UK and to a level that is unrivalled. Whilst we are able to create specific training packages for different clients in different parts of the world, our UK based live firearms training takes place at our purpose built training facility that adheres to strict UK legislation. The facility includes a purpose built outdoor and indoor range, all housed within a private training complex set on 12 acres of land.
At present, as well as various on-going firearms courses and projects, we are responsible for training many people who operate in hostile environments to provide specialist tactics and to ensure they are ‘up to scratch’ on their weapons handling and safety before deploying on transit.
It must be said that the main reason for our success is Bob Dunkley. Bob’s unique position and skill brings an unique dimension to what we do. Bob Dunkley has been the CQB firearms instructor to the worlds Special Forces, Police Forces worldwide and close protection teams for over 30 years. He is the leading firearms instructor and subject matter expert (SME) in the UK and possibly the world. He is one of five world masters in combat shooting. I have been serving my ‘apprenticeship’ with Bob for 26 years now and as I always say, I am only half way through it. All in all, we can be confident in saying that when people train with us they are getting something they simply cannot get anywhere else.
How did ARG come about and what was the inspiration behind your vision?
By 2006 I had been working in close protection for many years, having served as an Authorised Firearms Officer I have protected a number of people including Tony and Cherie Blair, and ex-Labour MP Lord Mandleson at a time when he was the Northern Ireland Secretary. I also worked across the globe for the former prime minister of Qatar and his family, a man who valued the high standards of British-trained operatives after graduating from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst himself in the 80’s. As well as this, because of what Bob has been and done and is still doing, I was afforded the backing of someone at the top of their game, and what came with that was the entire training complex from which we now do all of our training from. The reason I mention all of this, is because
I have worked in the industry at various levels and this led me to want to create a company whose core values were absolute professionalism, with the ability to maintain the highest of standards and integrity.
How many ‘departments’ do you have to ARG?
As we stand at the moment we have a number of departments who all work towards a common cause. Whist they are all in essence independent of each other, each of the departments complement and feed each other to create the company I envisioned so many years ago. I will break each of our departments down for you below to give you a brief idea of what each one of them is about:
Operations
ARG Operations was set up in response to the growing need to provide quality professionals in an industry which requires respect. Although we have been and continue to be operational ourselves, we went for some time simply passing on work to other people and providing people through recommendation to do a wide variety of CP tasks. It then came to a point that we realised we are very fortunate in having many people who we have worked with over the years who are highly professional, experienced and are ‘cut from the same cloth’. We then decided to officially become a provider of close protection operatives ourselves. In doing this, we instantly had an impressive database of operatives. In running our own operations wing and training wing, this gave us a special ability to increase our database further with those people who have trained with us and show an innate ability for close protection at the highest levels.
Training
ARG Training has been the building block on which the rest of the company was built. We provide training in a number of areas such as close protection, live firearms, surveillance, advanced driving and FPOS. As I mentioned earlier, this allows the capability to train our operatives in many different aspects of the security industry and leads to well trained and multi skilled professionals. As may be expected we now train many of our servicemen and women from different areas of our armed forces. My ethos in training is the same as with the other branches of ARG, our aim is quality and not quantity. It would be quite easy to put as many ‘bums on seats’ as possible, however that’s not what we are about. Firstly, we will never go above eight people on any one course and at a number of points the students may find that there is one DS for each student. As well as this, I interview every prospective student to find out what they are made of and for them to also see what we are made of, so they can make an informed decision about training with us.
We always have and always will offer an open door policy to all our students and operatives who are welcome to come in to see us for a brew and have a chat, or get further advice on things. The way I see it is we have a vested interest in each and every person who trains with us and works with us. There may be a number of other companies doing it now but we have offered free CPD events for years to anyone who has trained with us, regardless of whether they are still working with us, or have moved on to other things.
Intelligence
ARG Intelligence is a comparatively new development for ARG, as with operations each of us has worked in surveillance and intelligence gathering for years and in a great many capacities, again having forged many great working relationships with different people and companies. Having looked at the sheer amount of skilled individuals we work with, we decided to create our own corporate intelligence wing. Our current capabilities are quite impressive and have led us to some strong partnerships with companies and individuals around the world. Our current capabilities are global and range from enhanced due diligence investigations and digital forensics to asset tracking, recovery, penetration testing, advanced staff vetting to country reports and travel safety to mention but a few.
Multimedia
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In brief, having formed partnerships with various clients throughout the entertainment industry such as actors, producers and video game developers, our primary goal is to utilise our specialist, industry leading experience and professionalism to consult on various projects in our relevant fields such as military, firearms, intelligence, CQB, Surveillance and numerous other skills.
Recruitment
ARG recruitment aims to develop the ARG brand within the industry whilst maintaining the very highest of standards we set ourselves in every area of our business. One way we believe we can maintain these standards is to place ARG trained students into the field once they have achieved the expected grade. We consider this tactic crucial to ARG. Having said that, as previously mentioned, we work with experienced operators who may want to expand their client database and improve their networking.
Are you only based in the UK?
We have bases in London and the North of England, however our footprint is global. Like the rest of the UK a great deal of our operational time is spent in Southern England but have also made footprints in various parts of the world, not least in South East Asia where we now have a ‘field office’ in Kuala Lumpur. We have been fortunate enough to hold contracts in Europe, the Middle East, South East Asia and the Americas. In spending a number of years working with many good people and building some great contacts we are very fortunate to have people in many locations around the world, not only in close protection but also in intelligence, firearms training, surveillance, multimedia and many others.
How did you build your team?
One of the reasons I had taken so long to develop the various branches to ARG is because I needed the right people to head them up, I needed people whose integrity and professionalism could not be questioned and are yet again ‘cut from the same cloth’. It has taken some time but we now have the people we need heading up our branches with me at the helm. Having said that, I am very much of the opinion that the wisest man of all realises that on the scale of things he knows nothing, so based on that, each of the directors and I bounce off each other to make sure we are all heading in the right direction and are upholding the values on which the company was built.
What backgrounds make up your key players and network of professionals?
As should be expected, I will not go into too much depth with this, suffice to say we are all very fortunate to be surrounded by people with an impressive array of skills and experience, from the military, intelligence analysts and operatives, the police, specialist firearms, business, law and many more. I will say it again, I am truly blessed to be working with people of such high calibre, not only in their vocation but also in their character.
Where do you see the company growing?
For us, the main priority is to do the job and to do the job right. There are some very big fish out there in the CP and Intelligence world and we are confident with where we are on that scale. We believe we have a winning combination of factors that will carry us forward to even more success both nationally and globally.
There are many companies out there who operate within your industry, what makes you different?
I am not going to make out like we are the be all and end all, that is not what we are about. There are many companies out there, some good and some bad. There are some good companies out there, a few of which we have a good working relationship with. In answering the question however, I will highlight our own plus points and those points which differentiate us from others. Firstly, we pride ourselves on being totally self-sufficient in all aspects of our training. We have our purpose built training facility and our completely separate operations offices and Ops room. We can select the right people to train, and we can train them to a very high standard within close protection. As standard we teach the difference between Executive protection, Corporate, Diplomatic, Celebrity and Hostile Protection. We incorporate Kidnap and Ransom policies, business impact analysis, threat and Risks assessments and much more besides. We can then give them advanced driver training, surveillance training, medical training and firearms training that can’t be rivalled in the UK and with firearms expertise that can seldom be rivalled in the world. We work with our operatives to ensure they are always developing and last but by no means least, we are able to offer employment to those who are up to the standard by way of ARG Operations and ARG Intelligence.
As you have probably guessed, standards, professionalism and integrity are a big thing for us. We are proud of what we have achieved and are excited about what we will achieve. We aim to train and operate at the highest standards and seek out those who are like minded, we look for those who are like we always try to be, quite professionals.
PMCI article 2015
Self employed
3yAmazing 👏
All round good guy
3yPaul great to hear, is this full bore as we have to go out to Poland to deliver our level 4 firearms course.
Security & Safety teacher at Omnia
3yAs it sound’s great, I need to ask to whom do you offer this training in what capasity?