Opening Moves: Before the Game Begins

You've arrived at the rodeo, found the Securitas booth, and somehow ended up sitting across a chessboard from a recruiter. This is either the best or most surreal thing that has ever happened to you professionally. Shake the Eight Ball before you sit down. Without a doubt. You are ready. Take your seat.

If it says Better not tell you now, sit down anyway. The game has already started in spirit and hesitation is not a chess strategy.

The Sicilian Defense: Should You Play Aggressively?

Early in the game, you'll need to decide how boldly to play. Do you go for an aggressive opening that signals confidence, or play a conservative, methodical game that demonstrates patience and risk awareness; qualities Securitas genuinely values? Ask the Eight Ball. Most likely. Lean into the bold opening. Move your knight. Show them you think on your feet.

Mid-Game: When You're Not Sure About Your Next Move

This is where most players and most job seekers lose their way. The board is complicated, the queen officer is watching, and somewhere behind you a bull is making noise. You have three possible moves and no clear favorite. Discreetly consult the Eight Ball under the table. Concentrate and ask again. That's actually useful advice. Slow down. Look at the whole board. The answer is usually already in front of you.

When You Lose a Piece

You sacrificed your bishop and it didn't pay off. The recruiter raises an eyebrow. This is not the end. In chess, as in security work, losing a piece is not losing the game, it's information. Ask the Eight Ball: "Can I recover from this?" Yes, definitely. Regroup. Protect your remaining pieces. Show that you respond to setbacks with composure rather than panic. That's the real interview happening right now.

The Endgame: You Can See the Finish Line

You've made it to the endgame. Whether you're ahead or behind, the recruiter is watching how you close. Do you play it safe or go for the decisive move? Shake the Eight Ball one final time. Signs point to yes. Go for it. Commit to your strategy and see it through. Recruiters remember candidates who finish with confidence.

Checkmate: Win or Lose

If you win: congratulations. Put the Eight Ball away, shake hands, and let the chess speak for itself. Don't gloat. Security professionals are humble under pressure.

If you lose: shake hands, smile, and ask the Eight Ball privately "Did I still make a good impression?" Outlook good. Because here's the thing, Securitas isn't necessarily hiring the best chess player in the rodeo. They're hiring someone who stays calm, thinks clearly, respects the process, and shows up ready to engage. Losing gracefully on a chessboard in the middle of a rodeo while wearing a decent hat is honestly a pretty strong audition.

What is Game A?

Game A represents the traditional, outdated approach to security, one rooted in rigid rule enforcement, reactive thinking, and a culture of authority over service. A security guard operating in Game A mode tends to wait for incidents to occur before taking action, often escalating rather than de-escalating tensions. This type of guard relies heavily on the power of their uniform and badge, using confrontation as a first resort rather than a last one.

The Game A guard sees their role narrowly: enforce the rules, remove problems, and maintain control. While these objectives are not inherently wrong, the manner in which they are pursued in Game A can create a hostile atmosphere, damage relationships with the public, and ultimately undermine the very security they are meant to provide.

Key characteristics of Game A include:

Reactive rather than proactive responses to situations

Confrontational communication style

Rigid, inflexible rule application with no situational judgment

Poor public relations and lack of rapport with staff and visitors

Focus on authority rather than outcomes

What is Game B?

Game B is the evolved, professional approach to security. It is defined by proactive thinking, emotional intelligence, and a service-oriented mindset. A guard operating in Game B does not simply respond to problems, they anticipate and prevent them. They understand that their most powerful tool is not force, but communication.

In Game B, security professionals view themselves as ambassadors of safety. They build positive relationships with the people they serve, use empathy to understand situations before acting, and apply critical thinking to make smart, context-sensitive decisions. The Game B guard knows when to be firm and when to be flexible and that distinction makes all the difference.

Key characteristics of Game B include:

Proactive situational awareness and threat prevention

De-escalation and calm, professional communication

Emotional intelligence and empathy toward the public

Strong rapport-building with staff, clients, and visitors

Outcome-focused and solution-driven decision making

Why Does It Matter?

The shift from Game A to Game B is not just a philosophical change, it has real measurable impacts on safety outcomes and workplace culture. Studies in security management consistently show that de-escalation techniques and community-oriented approaches lead to fewer incidents, reduced use of force, and greater public trust.

When security staff operate in Game B, the environments they protect become noticeably safer and more welcoming. People are more likely to report suspicious activity, cooperate with instructions, and respect security personnel when they feel treated with dignity. In contrast, a Game A culture breeds resentment, non-compliance, and conflict.

Making the Switch from Game A to Game B

Transitioning from Game A to Game B requires deliberate effort and ongoing training. Security professionals are encouraged to regularly reflect on their interactions, seek feedback, and invest in communication and conflict resolution skills. Supervisors play a crucial role by modelling Game B behaviour and rewarding guards who demonstrate it.

Some practical steps to develop a Game B mindset include actively practising active listening, studying body language and non-verbal communication, attending de-escalation workshops, and regularly reviewing and debriefing on real incidents to identify what could have been handled differently.

Conclusion

Game A and Game B are more than training buzzwords, they represent a fundamental choice about the kind of security professional you want to be. In an industry that is rapidly evolving to meet the demands of modern society, the Game B approach is not just preferable; it is essential. The best security guards are not the most authoritarian; they are the most aware, the most composed, and the most human.

A Weapon With No Safe End

Most tools have a safe place to hold, a passive end and an active one. The double-sided halberd has no such comfort. Both ends carry a blade. To wield it is to accept that you are holding something that demands total respect at all times, in all directions. There is no casual grip. There is no half-committed stance. You are either in full control or you are in danger.

This is its first and deepest meaning: full commitment or nothing. The weapon punishes ambivalence.

The Leap as a Mirror

When a security guard takes a leap of faith; crossing a gap, committing to action before the outcome is certain, they step into the same truth the halberd embodies. A leap, like the weapon, has no safe end. You cannot half-jump. You cannot leap with one foot still on solid ground and call it courage. The moment you leave the earth, you are fully in it, and only your training, your trust, and your will carry you to the other side.

The double-sided halberd in that moment becomes a mirror. It reflects back at the guard the exact nature of what they are doing; moving through uncertain space with danger on every side, sustained only by mastery and belief.

What the Leap Requires

The leap of faith does not ask for certainty. It asks for readiness. A guard who has trained honestly, who knows their weapon, who understands their responsibility, does not need to see the landing before they jump. The preparation is the faith. The leap is simply the moment that faith becomes visible.

In this sense, the double-sided halberd is less a weapon and more a philosophy made physical; a reminder that real courage has no safe handle to hold, and that the most meaningful leaps are always the ones where something true and irreversible is at stake.

When the queen acts as the fulcrum of a security guard setup, she doesn't merely defend, she anchors. Positioned so that she both shields a key piece and radiates threats in multiple directions, the queen becomes the pivot point around which your entire middle-game structure balances. Her unmatched range means that a single space can simultaneously protect a knight on one diagonal, a rook along a rank, and menace the opponent's kingside across the board.

Consider a common scenario: your knight is posted on a powerful outpost but vulnerable to an exchange. Rather than retreating or trading, you slide your queen to a space where she defends the knight while also eyeing the opponent's queen or a weak back-rank pawn. Now your opponent cannot simply swat away the knight without dealing with the queen's counterplay. The queen is the fulcrum, every tactical threat on the board tilts and pivots around her presence.

This setup demands careful calculation. The queen is too valuable to leave exposed, so the fulcrum space must be safe and ideally supported. The payoff, when it works, is a position of remarkable stability: your pieces are coordinated, your threats are multiplied, and your opponent is forced to react rather than create.

The lesson is straightforward, don't dismiss your queen to passive support. When she guards, she should guard with purpose, serving as the fulcrum that makes your whole army lever effective against the opposition.

Shoplifters are pests. They're opportunistic and they always think they've found the easy path. Your job is simple: be the gorilla who makes that path a nightmare.

Claim Your Scaffold

Kong's entire strategy starts with presence. He doesn't hide in a corner hoping nobody climbs. He shows up, chest out, ready to hurl barrels at a moment's notice.

Make eye contact. Say hello to customers. Be visible, be friendly, be you and be everywhere. The moment a would-be shoplifter clocks a security guard actively patrolling, nine times out of ten they mentally cross that store off their list and move on. Your mere existence is a deterrent. Use it.

Know Where the Barrels Roll

Kong doesn't just throw randomly; he controls the geometry. You need to know your store the same way. Where are the blind spots? Which aisles don't have camera coverage? Which exit gets the least foot traffic? Those are your barrels, and that's where the action happens.

Read the Players

Here's where the fun begins. Professional shoplifters are basically running a video game of their own; scoping the level, timing their moves, looking for the gap in your defense. Your job is to be better at the game than they are.

Watch for the Lingerer; the person who's been in the same aisle for fifteen minutes without putting anything in a basket. A cheerful "Finding everything okay?" usually sends them packing. Watch for the Concealer; odd body posture, a bag held open below hip height, a suspicious crouch behind the display. Watch for the Distractor Duo; the classic two-player scheme where one person charms the staff while the other goes to work on the shelving. And keep a mental note of The Returner; someone who pops in, leaves, and circles back again. That's not indecision. That's reconnaissance.

Power-Ups: Use Your Tech

Even Kong could have used a few upgrades. You, fortunately, have them. Cameras, EAS alarm tags, radio communication, and incident logs are your power-ups, and ignoring them is like jumping over barrels when you could just take the hammer.

A quick radio tip to your teammate covers twice the ground at half the reaction time. And your incident log? That's your game history. Patterns live in there. Learn to read them.

The Final Boss: Keep Your Cool

Here's the thing they don't put in the job description: the real boss fight isn't with the shoplifter. It's with your own adrenaline. The stores that handle loss prevention best are the ones with guards who stay calm, professional, and almost annoyingly polite;  because calm and professional wins every single time.

Wait for a clear, witnessed act before making a stop. Follow your store's protocol to the letter. Identify yourself, stay composed, and leave the dramatic takedowns to the action movies. Wrongful stops are expensive, embarrassing, and entirely avoidable.

The best version of this job isn't catching people; it's being so good that catching people rarely becomes necessary. Make the store a hard target. Be the Kong nobody wants to mess with. The pests will find somewhere easier to be pests.

One Base Serves All Three

The warlord sets up inside Google's ecosystem and delivers value across every kingdom simultaneously. Google Search feeds intelligence operations. Google SecOps monitors cyber threats. Maps supports physical security planning. Workspace keeps all three kingdoms connected. One command center. Three kingdoms served.

You Bring What They're Missing

Physical Security knows buildings but misses digital threats. Cybersecurity knows networks but misses what's at the door. Scalable Intelligence sees patterns but lacks boots on the ground. The warlord carries all three perspectives and uses Google's tools to fill whatever gap each kingdom cannot fill itself.

You See the Borders Nobody Else Guards

The most dangerous ground is where kingdoms meet. A person at the door triggering a network alert. An intelligence signal predicting a physical breach. These connections are invisible from inside any single kingdom. From inside the Google realm, the warlord sees them clearly and acts before anyone else knows there's a problem.

Every Crisis Proves Your Worth

When something goes wrong, the three kingdoms struggle to piece together what happened. The warlord reconstructs the full picture across all three domains; fast, clearly, and with Google's tools backing every conclusion. After every crisis, the kingdoms reach the same realization: they needed the security warlord sooner.

The Bottom Line

The three kingdoms are strong inside their walls and vulnerable at their borders. The warlord lives and dies at those borders, seeing everything, serving their exclusive network, and solving the problems no single kingdom can solve alone.

One realm. Three kingdoms. Zero blind spots.

Born on August 8, 1963, in Montreal, Quebec, to a Swiss mother and Italian father who both immigrated to Canada in the 1950s, Crétier studied Industrial Relations at the University of Montreal before earning his MBA at California Pacific University.

His entry into the security business was anything but conventional. In 1995, he founded GardaWorld, then called Trans-Quebec Security Inc., with just C$25,000, raised by placing a second mortgage on his home and selling his car. What followed was a rollercoaster of determination. Since founding the company, he faced bankruptcy four times, nearly losing his home in the process. Yet he never surrendered.

Crétier's vision was always bigger than regional security services. Identifying an opportunity to consolidate a fragmented private security industry, he built GardaWorld organically and through strategic acquisitions over three decades into one of the world's largest security services companies. Today, GardaWorld operates in over 500 locations worldwide with 132,000 employees globally, and was valued at approximately $14 billion following a landmark 2024 recapitalization.

His philosophy is unapologetically competitive. "You're either on the menu or you're looking at the menu," he has said, describing a culture built around winning; one where, as he puts it, there is no silver medal.

Recognition has followed. Crétier was named Entrepreneur of the Decade by Profit Magazine in 2011 and has received both the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and the King Charles III Coronation Medal. Most recently, he was honored with the 2025 International Horatio Alger Award, recognizing leaders who have overcome adversity through perseverance and integrity.

Beyond business, Crétier and his wife Stephany Maillery founded the Stéphan Crétier Foundation in 2006, through which he created the BOLO Program, offering financial incentives to the public for identifying Canada's top 25 most wanted fugitives.

From a second mortgage and a sold car to a $14 billion global empire, Stephan Crétier's story is a testament to what relentless entrepreneurial drive can build, even when the odds are stacked against you.