When cyber security is part of your business strategy, it acts like a fitness plan. You’ll never know what illnesses or injuries you avoided by being on the plan, but you notice that your ability to maneuver is much better than your peers. Still, it’s often difficult for executives to contemplate the ROI of cyber security. Maybe that’s because you can’t directly measure the output from the input. You can, however, when you make it a habit to consider security alongside your business goals.
Mobile Workforce Initiative Meets Many Business Goals
Let’s say your workers have been asking to be equipped with mobile devices so they can do their work away from your location. As you contemplate this request you recognize that this would contribute to your objective for employee retention because your people would love it. The initiative would also increase productivity, help employees be more efficient and might speed up delivery of your service which could all be in your business goals. So far so good.
Mobile Workforce Creates More Exposure to Risk
Now put on your cyber security hat and think about the implications of the initiative. Your remote workers are essentially taking access to your data and systems outside your four walls, creating more exposure to risk. You’ll have to use resources to adequately protect the devices and allocate training time for employees to learn security procedures that will keep your data safe.
In this mobile device initiative, choosing to ignore the need for increased layers of cyber security can negate all your other corporate goals including profitability. If you have a breach will your employees still be productive? Will they be happy? Will they be providing value to your customers? Probably not.
The Impact of Security on Your Ability to Innovate and Grow
If you are satisfied that part of the ROI that you get from putting security into your business strategy is avoidance of some risks, let’s move on to an undervalued outcome. Agility.
Go back to our fitness plan analogy. You’ve got two people who are the same in every characteristic except their fitness level. When they want to run around kicking a soccer ball with their kids, one can keep up and one is sitting on the sidelines watching.
A Security Breach Can Pull Your Corporate Legs Out From Under You
If you desire to be innovative and to fuel growth in your business, the way you manage security can be a factor determining whether you can jump on new technologies and respond to changes in your marketplace or get left behind. Why? Because a security breach can pull your corporate legs out from under you. You might be able to get back up again but in the meantime the competition is getting further and further ahead of you.
Many a corporate executive have been shocked when this very thing happened even though they thought – we’re not a target; we don’t have anything cybercriminals want; we’re compliant so we must be secure.
Have the Security Conversation
Cyber security isn’t just an IT issue. It’s a business issue and should be part of the conversation when executives are creating business strategy. That doesn’t mean that C-levels and business owners have to become IT experts. It does mean, however, that they need to partner with IT experts who can help them identify how their decisions affect their risk exposure, and recommend ways to use security to be a stronger more agile competitor.
Uncover your cyber security blind spots
Curious to learn if common practices and behaviors at your company are increasing your exposure to cyber risk? Access our on-demand webinar – Executives: Beware of These 7 Cyber Security Blind Spots.
