Harsh Wardhan
Chief Executive Officer, CSC India
SecurityLinkIndia (SLI): Kindly explain the entity called Contemporary Services Corporation (CSC) USA (World).
CSC was established in 1967 in Los Angeles, CA by Damon Zumwalt. CSC is the global leader in Crowd Management, has 55 years of service, 200+ cities served, 48+ branches nationwide, 25000+ events annually, 200+ cities served, and millions of patrons served annually. CSC provides services to 150+ stadiums, amphitheaters, arenas, over 120 universities, and high schools. Competent professionals are on hand to mitigate and resolve any possible problem. 50+ convention centers and numerous clients with the MLB, MLS, NBA, NFL, NHL, and NASCAR.
SLI: What does CSC deal in – manpower, technology, or both? Kindly elaborate
CSC has more than 60,000 active and trained team members nationally. CSC provides crowd management, and related services to more than 190 stadiums, amphitheaters, and arenas, including 110+ universities and scholastic institutions, 50+ convention centers, 10 NFL teams, 6 MLB teams, 4 NBA teams, 7 MLS teams, and 6 NHL teams. CSC is dealing with both manpower and technology.
SLI: CSC is known as one of the leaders in Crowd Management. What else products and services do CSC predominantly provide? What is its specialty?
CSC has also delivered crowd management services for all types of sporting and entertainment events, including 31 Super Bowls, 4 MLB All-Star Games, 8 World Series, 9 NCAA Men’s Final Four, 5 annual College Bowl Games, 5 Presidential Inaugurations, 4 Papal visits, 7 NBA Finals, 10 Olympic Games, 2 FIFA World Cups so far, and the list continues to grow.
SLI: What makes CSC different from any other else? How does it stand out?
By establishing a suitable crowd management strategy and comprehending the situation threats be effectively controlled, and losses reduced. This can only be accomplished by specialized organizations like CSC who have the expertise in providing the full spectrum of crowd management services topped with a world-class experience. It involves incorporating flexibility, utilizing the latest technology that’s proven to be effective. CSC has many X-factors, but professionalism of trained officials with effective measures stands out the most.
SLI: Give a brief of CSC India. How has CSC India been formed?
Crowd Management is the need of the hour in India, and there are not many professional services available in the country right now. Thereby, CSC stepped in to form a base in India too. Our goal is to live up to the standards and original vision of CSC USA, using a futuristic approach to extend its roots in pan-India. India is a country where religious and political gatherings take place frequently; events, concerts, election rallies, festivals, sporting events like IPL have become very entertaining; hence, crowd control and management becomes essential in such a diversified society.
SLI: What are the objectives of CSC India?
Public Safety in India can obtain better world recognition if crowd management systems get reformed and go hi-tech. India is the second most populated country in the world, soon to be on top of the charts. Crowd management in a country like India becomes even more important to avoid any stampede-like situations during big or small events. Our objective is to continue striving for excellence, to raise our standards and ensure that we are delivering every client with the best possible service.
SLI: What is the modus operandi of CSC India in terms of completing a project – Government or private?
Our team will include ushers, safety supervisor, crowd marshals and trained officials to look after the project. For the events like IPL where large gatherings take place, we will also ensure the crowd’s safety by adding doctors to avoid any medical emergencies. Our team will be connected through hi-tech tools to communicate with each other and maintain decorum at the venue.
“CSC is coming to India, which I am really excited about. CSC has been operating in North America for the past 54 years, delivering services in a variety of fields. Initially, we want to cover all of India’s major cities and have more than 20,000 employees in less than three years, organically or inorganically, as the finest service provider in the market, and we’ll start operating from our Gurgaon headquarters in January 2022”
Dr. Abraham Kumar
Vice Chairman and Managing Director of
CSC India, based in the United States
Checking of restricted objects, explosives for the safety of the people are also taken care of. We will be ensuring fire-control systems, and announcement systems (if necessary) can also be integrated to avoid panic. CSC’s Quick Response Team will be fully trained and equipped for damage control in real-time. Covid safety measures will be included as per the guidelines, individual safety, coordination with the ambulances, fire brigades, police authorities, ticketing system, and efficient strategies will be incorporated into the plan based on the number of people and the crowd’s profile.
“I thought of having professional abilities to manage crowd in India therefore I discussed the possibility of bringing CSC expertise to India with Dr Abraham Kumar and Damon Zumwalt, Chairman of CSC, USA. They are Leaders in crowd management. They agreed and formed CSC India Pvt Limited.
We must plan crowd management to save lives.
The launching of crowd management services in India by CSC is going to be a game changer in the manner we are handling our large public, religious and sports events.
We must learn lessons from festivals and political event tragedies and make professionally devised systems and protocols to ensure public safety and security. Let people enjoy sporting events and religious congregations without any fear of unforeseen accidents. Crowd management is a collaborative outcome of risks analysis and security professionalism. The venue organizers and event personnel jointly anticipate potential problems and prevent emergencies. Crowd management will allow safe movement and enjoyment of attendees within a confined area where crowd control is defined to manage a crisis after crowds become rowdy or emergencies arise. It includes methods used to prevent injury when participating public have reached safe behavior limits inside a space.
We have to focus on preventing an unsafe situation from developing. Professionals of our company CSC India will determine, in advance, the probable nature of the crowd and the venue’s limitations for safe containment and enforce intervention procedures and effective physical boundaries for every group of participants and teams.
Our teams trained by the most experienced experts will usher a new culture and environment for organisations and public to enjoy large events of public importance. 50 thousand youth from colleges and universities will be specially trained by following global standards.”
Kunwar Vikram Singh
Non Executive Chairman, CSC India
SLI: What is your priority in working with – government or private sector?
Currently, we are focusing on pan-India, starting with the private sector first. As and when the opportunity comes, we will certainly work with the government sector, especially in the areas where responsibilities are demarcated. We will always be needing their support and work in coordination with the government.
SLI: How has CSC been doing in this testing period of Covid?
CSC has just entered India and is coordinating training centers, setting up its infrastructure including control rooms, imparting our specialized training to personnel for best crowd management services India has ever experienced before.
SLI: The Omicron phase is on the rise recently in India, how do you plan to introduce CSC India and compete in this pandemic situation?
The Omicron phase will pass by eventually, if not immediately. The government is taking adequate measures & encouraging vaccination to which people have been responding diligently. Cases are coming down; these fluctuating situations will hopefully get normalized soon with people’s support.
CSC believes that with over 50 years of experience, we have the expertise, knowledge of managing high-profile events in large crowds by using the latest technology, and IT tools. With such rich experience and successful implementation, there is not much competition for us on the ground. However, competition always expands the industry.
SLI: India is working with the mood of Atmanirbhar Bharat, how would you be contributing to the mission? Kindly give your take.
As CSC will be recruiting, training, and offering job opportunities to approximately 50,000 young people; they will be building their careers in this field. This is a specialized field that involves communication, training, IT, public dealings, understanding of rules and regulations, basic first-aid knowledge and certification.
By giving jobs to approximately 50,000 people, CSC is making each of them Atmanirbhar for the future. We will be getting our crowd marshals, trained by CSC USA. Specialized knowledge will be imparted to the trainers from the specialists of the USA. Further, making CSC trainers of India more self-sufficient and independent to train hundreds of marshals in the coming future.
SLI: How would CSC India impact employability in the country?
Crowd Management is a less explored field and a relatively new concept in India. We are currently engaged in start-up operations of CSC India, and we will be employing approximately 50,000 in a period of 2-3 years. We are confident that, with this initiative there will be many new competitor companies in India. We all will be able to contribute together to this untapped field of crowd management, further boosting the employment opportunities within the country.
SLI: How do you arrange for the training of your employees?
Well-established training centers will teach the curriculum designed by CSC USA. These crowd management practices will be tailored to Indian requirements and by keeping in mind the population of India. CSC will be having highly trained multilingual officers at different corners of the venue to make it easy for the diverse crowd to communicate, in case of any emergencies.
SLI: Given the government scenario in India, do you find this is the right time to introduce CSC in India? Kindly explain.
To bring efficiency in the processes, systems, for the management of crowd, events, malls, religious events and more; we believe people in general and government authorities will appreciate more safety for proper management of the crowd.
SLI: Does CSC work and complete a project solo, or in partnership as well? Kindly elaborate with examples.
Both. CSC will encourage partnerships that share the same vision as that of CSC. The most important are work ethics, integrity, probity, and purpose.
