The Fundamentals Never Went Out of Style: 5 Essentials Every Loudoun Business Should Have in Place
By Laura Sawka, Guest Author and Founder & GRC Executive at Sawka Advisory Group, LLC
Many organizations are moving quickly. They are innovating and adapting to meet their customers’ needs. They are challenging the way that business gets done and rethinking how AI can accelerate outcomes. But amongst all of this excitement at the top, security and compliance leaders are still often focused on governance and risk fundamentals. The fundamentals control and process the foundation for stakeholder trust and secure innovation.
The fundamentals are not headline-worthy. But it’s the fundamentals that underlie how an organization governs its operations and makes risk-based decisions. Without these in place, an organization’s ambitious goals will quickly stall as technical debt and security weaknesses hold it back.
That’s why these five governance and risk fundamentals never go out of style and are critical across organizations of all sizes and all industries.
- Tone from the top – Employees look to executives for clear guidance and direction on what’s important. And that’s exactly where a security and compliance minded tone from the top needs to originate. Executives should weave into their messaging the criticality of stakeholder trust and how secure and compliant products or services enable this. Growth is built on trust. And that trust must originate from within the organization with a risk-aware culture that actively prioritizes security and compliance in support of business objectives.
- Clear security roles and responsibilities – Too often the CISO is seen as responsible for everything related to security. Whereas in reality, security responsibilities are spread across the organization, sitting with control owners and with risk owners distributed among the business who own a particular process. For this reason, clarity is needed on how security responsibilities and risk decisions are operationalized. Clear roles and responsibilities regarding security risk treatment and acceptance are key to an organization’s ability to make risk-informed decisions.
- Risk register providing insights into security risks facing the organization – Working in security can often feel like you are a firefighter, putting out one fire after another. And this is why a security risk register is so important. It grounds an organization in key risks and allows security leaders to develop risk treatment plans to mitigate risk intentionally or, in some cases, accept risk. Risk treatments form an organization’s roadmap. It sets a strategic plan for where investments need to occur and where work should be prioritized to help teams move beyond the tactical firefighting.
- Clear and actionable security policies – Security policies describe what an organization needs to do to address risk and meet external compliance obligations. It’s the rules governing the organization. But policies don’t exist only on paper. They must then be operationalized into processes and technology to enforce the controls. And they must adapt as risks change and controls need to shift in response.
- Metrics to drive accountability – When nothing happens, it’s a successful day in security. But it’s hard to communicate business impact based on that. That’s where metrics come in as a key part of the program to communicate and measure progress and success. Metrics should be designed around measuring the most important outcomes for an organization. They can communicate key controls that are in place and whether investments are reducing risk and operating on time. Metrics also serve as a mechanism to hold cross-functional leaders accountable for the outcomes they are responsible for. Without metrics, the organization is operating with limited insight into how programs are progressing and their impact.
These five governance and risk fundamentals are critical for an organization to scale and grow. The fundamentals can be further operationalized by utilizing a security governing forum to communicate security strategy, drive accountability, and create visibility into program successes tied to business objectives.
As organizations continue to evolve, technology will change, regulations will shift, and the business will continue to demand more. Organizations that succeed don’t react to every trend. They focus on executing the fundamentals well. Because the fundamentals never go out of style.