Telecom & Technology Consulting
Every CIO has to consider others players in their category when formulating technical strategies. But they must also grapple with risks presented by outages, supply chain issues, cyber attacks, and the unpredictability of today’s global business climate. These forces can affect the bottom line as much as any competitor.
This is why tech leaders are increasingly focusing on identifying and mitigating risks. And in the process, they’re proving that resilience efforts can deliver measurable ROI.
In order to overcome the aforementioned challenges, CIOs are designing sophisticated resilience strategies to guard their organizations against future threats. They’re creating safe AI practices, undergoing disaster training, reducing third-party threats, and establishing a host of other risk-mitigating policies.
Let’s consider some of these in more detail. To begin, AI has been rightly crowned as an innovation for the ages. But AI’s power is also its weakness, as it can expose new vulnerabilities, as well create security, governance, and compliance issues.
Today’s software supply chain is also unstable. More specifically, security and tech leaders are paying more attention to the pitfalls associated with third-party vendors and supply chain stakeholders. And of course, data breaches, ransomware attacks, and global outages can disrupt – or completely destroy – major business initiatives. In this case, companies have no choice but to practice cyber resilience at the utmost scale.
Global events are another factor that must be considered when future-proofing the enterprise. The recent COVID-19 pandemic exemplifies the unpredictability that a non-business issue can have on the economics of an organization. This magnifies the importance of resilience, and should compel CIOs to implement long-term risk management strategies. In fact, leaders would be wise to plan for emergencies and conduct exercises on how they would respond if disaster strikes.
For example, companies can look at network downtime as an opportunity to rehearse for an ever-bigger crisis. The goal is to go beyond prevention and determine how to achieve true resiliency.
In that spirit, CIOs have been pushing for formal resilience efforts. To that end, there are now resilience task forces, which are made up with cross-functional leaders from all key departments. They meet regularly to discuss the state of AI, business goals, current global events, and other matters that can affect resiliency.
But it’s also important to look into the impact of potential disruptions. This process allows leaders to explore the potential harm of different scenarios, how they could specifically impact employees and customers, and then identify current steps that would reduce future damage.
A smart resilience strategy does more than protect the enterprise – it actually delivers a number of tangible benefits. Perhaps most importantly, resilience boosts productivity. That’s because when you have contingency plans and backup systems in place, you naturally minimize disruptions, which gives employees more time for both tactical and strategic work.
Resilience also means reduced security incidents, better compliance, and enhanced data governance. Actually, when companies monitor data access patterns, they can measure if governance policies are working or if they require more detail. The practical result is that, as these metrics protect operations, they allow leaders to immediately adapt to market shifts and opportunities.
CIOs must also advocate for the right financial investments. They must quantify why resilience is essential for stability, growth, and brand longevity. In this context, CIOs can’t be one of many equal voices in the C-Suite meetings regarding strategic direction; they must lead the conversation with conviction and clearly communicate how resilience is foundational for company survival. Doing so may include illustrating the business case for resilience, coupled with ROI stats such as reduced costs and productivity gains.
Some may see the drive for resiliency as too much of a focus on “negativity,” doom and gloom predictions that traditionally have no place in the generally feel-good offices of corporate executives. There’s some truth to that notion. Yet the stakes are too high to ignore the reality of not only modern business practices, but also societal norms. Bad things will happen if enterprises don’t take a proactive approach to risk mitigation. Fair warning.
