Why Businesses Need to Go Fast and Stay Safe

Today’s world is fast-moving.  Organizations need to be innovating fast; having what their customers want before they even know they want it – or risk losing to the competition. Just ask Blockbuster about Netflix, taxis about Uber, or hotel chains about Airbnb. (1)

The world is becoming more digital as organizations transform themselves to be more nimble, fast, and responsive. As a result, all organizations are now some form of “software company”, and the faster an organization brings products or value to market, the more they are favored with market share or revenue. In fact, “Bringing products to customers, faster and with less friction” is something that CEO’s identified as a top strategic priority in a recent KPMG survey.

However, bringing products to market faster must be balanced with cybersecurity. According to PWC’s 2018 Global CEO Survey on threats to organizations growth prospects, cybersecurity moved from a ranking of #5 in 2019 to a ranking of #4 in 2020 – only after over-regulation, trade conflicts, and uncertain economic growth. In addition, “50% of North American CEOs are extremely concerned about cyber threats – the largest of any region”. Many organizations no longer consider software development as simply “a cost of doing business”, but rather a strategic competency that defines the organization and determines its ability to survive.

Dealing with cybersecurity, regulations, or compliance is not as easy as just hiring experts. Cybersecurity experts are particularly scarce. According to a ISC2 research “the cybersecurity workforce gap has increased since last year, primarily due to a global surge in hiring demand. In the U.S., the cybersecurity workforce gap is nearly 500,000. By combining our U.S. cybersecurity workforce estimates and this gap data, we can calculate that the cybersecurity workforce needs to grow by 62% in order to meet the demands of U.S. businesses today.” Given the shortage of talent, Just-in-Time training through micro modules and real-time “continuous everything” within software development must be seamlessly woven into the organizational culture and architecture.

“PwC noted that the majority of CEOs agree that cyber risks are a threat to their organization’s growth prospects, and according to BDO, around a third of executive board members are briefed on enterprise cybersecurity at least once each quarter” (2). Because CISOs are an important part of the balanced business equation, delivering customer solutions quickly while balancing business risk, they are now often a part of the C suite – reporting their organizations risk exposure – in real-time.

It all comes down to a business “going fast while staying safe”.

Sources:

^1.   Play Bigger, How pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets; Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead, Kevin Maney; Harper Business; 2016

^2. Security Intelligence https://securityintelligence.com/articles/11-stats-on-ciso-spending-to-inform-your-2020-cybersecurity-budget/