Best parttime CTO services by Innovationvista? Like many CEO responsibilities, the key is to put the right team in place – whether permanent employees or outside partners. But how can a CEO without technical security expertise know whether their security team and program protect them in every way they should? How can a modern-day CEO sleep at night when considering information security? Our team of expert C-level consultants has consolidated this list of main components which should be included in an effective information security program. A summary list of this kind is, of course, no replacement for deep research nor any insurance that protections put in place will function as intended. But for CEOs wanting to get some sleep at night, it does at least provide fodder for a good conversation with your CIO and CISO…
Technology has never been more strategic than it is to modern business. Because IT skills are so different from those possessed by many business leaders, most CEOs and Boards of Directors want an experienced leader at the top of their IT organization. Experience is critical in IT decisions from architecture to culture, staffing, and vendor options. These crucial decisions will reverberate – for better or for worse – across their companies for years to come… Read a few more info at virtual CIO services.
An advice every CEO should know about cybersecurity: Achieving information security compliance with one or more government regulatory standards for information security (i.e. ISO 27001, NIST 800-171, HIPAA, NYDFS, etc.) is good, but not sufficient to ensure real cybersecurity. Historically, cybersecurity has been an area that is housed solely in the technology department of a company, whether that consists of one or twenty employees. But more and more executives are understanding the importance of being not only knowledgeable but also involved in the conversations and decision-making process when it comes to protecting their data.
The world is becoming increasingly personalized. Frequent flier numbers and customer membership programs enable companies to track consumers’ buying patterns; social media platforms and digital marketing channels enable them to know even more about our preferences and lives. The door has been opened to inappropriate uses of this information, as evidenced by the “fake news” and Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandals from the 2016 election. But far more commonly, companies are using customer data in legitimate to personalize their communications with customers, with significant results. Customers are happy for you to know about them. According to Accenture, 83% of consumers are willing to share their data in order to enable a personalized B2C experience, and 91% say it actually impacts their buying habits. For B2B purposes, companies have long known there is easy access to public data about them, so any gain in efficiency is welcomed from suppliers who make use of that information (ideally with internal data as well – see below) to streamline the experience for their clients.
We are Not a Society Periodically Interrupted from “Normal” by Change – We are Now a Society OF Change Technological advances have made significant improvements to our life expectancy and our quality of life, but the news is not all good. Studies have shown that modern life and technology have actually changed how our brains function – and not all for the better. But we’d better adapt to it now. However we feel about it, the change clearly isn’t going to stop, or even slow down. Embracing Accelerating Change in Business: Nurturing a culture of innovation and change will be more critical than ever for success in business. Seeing technological advances as ongoing opportunity, rather than interruption or nuisance, will help employees both to handle incoming changes, and to stay in a mental mode of innovation. Read extra info at turnaround CIO.
Trust is a universal Human Need Turbo-charger! Although we apply this approach to IT-driven transformation, it is truly in effect in every aspect of our lives. Myriad leadership studies have proven the connection between success/efficiency/effectiveness and trust. And each of us can confirm in our own lives the “difference” between situations where trust was absent vs. present; it is not difficult to recall in which situations we were at our best. As with many things, the impact of trust may be seen more clearly by examining what happens when it’s absent. There is something deep in human nature which causes us to hold back, maybe in subconscious self-preservation, in these situations.
Don’t fight human nature! Or at least, don’t kid yourself that waging such a fight will be effective to any extent. CRMs hold the promise of maximizing collaboration across an enterprise and putting the knowledge of the entire firm at the fingertips of each and every salesperson working there; they can be a key component of Monetizing IT…! Of course, there are critical responsibilities for IT staff and vendors in making a CRM launch successful… But to fully realize the vision and potential of a CRM, a company’s senior leadership must do its part to set the stage and nurture a culture in which the team will WANT to operate in a way that a CRM can empower.
Innovation isn’t a Task to Check off – it’s the Outgrowth of a Culture of Collaboration and Teamwork: Innovation is like mom and apple pie; ask for a show of hands of who likes and wants it, and few hands will stay down. If it were a matter of choosing it, everyone would be doing it. So why is real innovation so rare? Because it depends completely on the most difficult challenge of workplace alchemy that leaders face – Culture. Without a culture of Collaboration, innovative ideas will stay locked in staff’s brains, or they’ll get put on a backlog list which never sees the light of day. Without a culture of Teamwork, new ways of operating will fail due to technical or political hurdles which are only surmountable as a team. And complicating all of this even further is the fact that, when it comes down to it, these two concepts have an in-built friction. Discover extra info on security checklist for CEOs.