Board Director & Former Global Operations and Tech Executive
Video Transcript
On the more traditional CIO front, whether you own security or not, you know, I think for years we've been really talking about how you have to be a business leader, just like any other part of the business. But you have this unique advantage, because you see everything, right?
And not every executive in an organization truly sees everything right, because when you're responsible for all the infrastructure systems, and digital that is being used for that end-to-end business, you get a whole deeper level of appreciation for what's working, what's not working, and really being in a better position to identify root cause and real solutions that can help propel the company from a growth perspective or whatever the priorities are.
And, and I think, more and more, the CISO role is evolving to that. For a long time, security was very technical, and I also think it was very much from a corporate compliance kind of perspective. And I think, over time, the lines are really blurred between where security starts and stops, and who's ultimately responsible for things and so as a CISO, whether you're sitting within a CIO organization, or whether you're standalone, the criticality of the relationships with the rest of the organization are so important.
It is, again, about being able to have a business conversation. It is about really understanding the products, the solutions, the customers, as well as the rest of the organization and then, yes, you have to have a team of you know, deep -- whether they be data and compliance people, whether they be experts on security engineering, whether it's about the operational side of managing, monitoring, understanding what's going on in the environment, and you bring those people in but, as the CISO, it’s almost more important you understand how the organization works, how the product works, and what customers’ expectations are.