Tag: ceobytes

Sales Technology Improves Results and Leads to Better Processes

Learn how sales tools that use some of the latest technologies, including automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence, deliver better outcomes.

To remain competitive today, your salespeople need all the advantages they can leverage for prospecting, business intelligence, leads and customer service. Here’s a look at some of the technology leads that will give your sales team a competitive edge.

How Can Technology Help with Prospecting?

Customer relationship management (CRM) software is one of the most important sales tools available. With a CRM, you can track important data about prospects and customers, and use the functionality to find sales opportunities. Sales and marketing teams can use the CRM to track response to marketing campaigns, outreach attempts and contact reports.

The CRM solution you deploy also helps sales managers track progress throughout the sales pipeline. Monitoring helps managers review the stage, probability and velocity of the pipeline for better forecasting.

How Does Technology Help Follow Up with Leads?

Automation tools help to create a persistent sales cadence that leads to more meetings and better outcomes. Automation can generate personalized and customized follow-up letters, emails and texts. One example is Boomerang, a Gmail plug-in that schedules follow-up emails and automates reminders to reconnect with prospects. Hubspot Sales also allows for personalization of emails and other follow-up communication.

For inbound sales, where customers contact your company via an email, phone call or web form, automation, machine learning and bots are a big help. These tools can help with routine inquiries and route leads to the right information while alerting a salesperson to reach out for contact.

Can I Integrate Sales Tech with Other Software?

Your CRM and other sales technologies are effective independently. But when these tools are integrated with finance/operations programs, your entire organization benefits. Having a single source of data, access to integrated reporting and solutions, data transparency and interrelationships, your sales team will be more effective and more collaborative.

Integrated tools also help leverage emerging technologies such as machine learning, big data and data analytics. These tools can collect, analyze, codify and find patterns in your sales data that drive deeper, actionable insights. Unified data also leads to less data re-entry and gives managers greater visibility into the sales information.

What Role Does the Cloud Play?

Cloud technologies provide data security and accessibility to apps, including CRMs and business productivity apps such as Microsoft Office 365, which offers mobile versions of the popular app suite, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. Agility and access lead to more productive outbound sales reps.

Cloud technologies also help your team with videoconferencing tools that allow for web-based communication that helps communication with remotely deployed sales reps, leads and customers. Video has advantages over sales calls, allowing staff to notice body language, visual cues, energy level and facial expressions that can help inform the progression of the call and follow-up.

Your CRM and other tools also provide for a richer understanding of your customer. A 360-degree view of customer order history, payments, credit, maintenance needs and customer service inquiries gives your sales force real-time insights into the customer experience.

What Can Help With Effective Sales Calls?

There are many apps available to help make sales calls more effective. For example, Conference Pad is an app that lets you control multiple iPads simultaneously, ensuring that everyone seeing a presentation is on the same page or slide.

Can Technology Improve Sales Training?

Pages upon pages of manuals, in-person conferences and classroom training sessions are no longer the most effective or efficient ways to teach new skills and hone others. Two technology types — learning management systems (LMS) and virtual learning platforms (VLP) — provide flexible, trackable and accessible training tools. Managers can monitor progress and offer assistance in areas where reps struggle.

How Can Sales Technology Help Our Brand?

The right tools when used effectively will improve first impressions and boost your reputation. That helps not only with landing new business but also with attracting talented sales professionals. Investment in the latest and best technology solutions is a compelling option for salespeople seeking a new opportunity.

Sales technologies can be a boost to all areas of your sales program. The right investments result in better training, more actionable leads, higher response rates and more closed business.

Six Essential Steps For CEOs To Take For Microsoft EOS 2020

What steps should I take if my Microsoft operating system support is ending in January 2020? Windows 7 support is ending January 2020 essential steps to take.

Microsoft is ending support for a number of operating systems and software packages starting January 2020. What does end of support (EOS) mean? Your computers and network will no longer receive software patches or security updates. You won’t be able to access paid telephone or online support for bugs or problems. The biggest threat with Microsoft EOS is security. Without security updates, your system will be much more vulnerable to hackers.

What Microsoft programs are ending support in January 2020?

You can access a complete list of programs on Microsoft’s EOS site. A partial list of programs ending support in January 2020 include:

• Windows 7
• Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2
• Windows 10, version 1709 and 1809
• Windows 10, version 1803
• System Center (5 programs), version 1807
• Exchange Server 2010 (all editions)

Will EOS just affect these programs or can it affect others?

Microsoft’s January 2020 EOS will affect operating systems and server programs as well as programs that use the operating system. Your business could be using essential programs that run on the operating system. These are LOB (Line of Business) programs.

Your LOB programs could include:

• Business databases
• Customer relationship management (CRM) software
• Invoicing and billing software
• Accounting programs
• Programs for your industry: CAD, ERP, graphic design, word processing

Could your LOB programs stop working if you don’t upgrade your Microsoft OS or server suite of programs? Yes: you could experience significant downtime due to bugs, glitches, and security problems.

What steps should we take to make sure we’re covered for Microsoft’s January 2020 EOS?

• Start planning as soon as possible — don’t wait until December 2019
• Assess your inventory of essential LOB programs and apps.
• Identify who uses the programs and how essential they are
• Find out if the programs will run on upgraded Microsoft operating systems
• Select the appropriate Microsoft OS or Server suite for an upgrade
• Update and/or upgrade your essential LOB programs to run on the new Microsoft OS or Server programs

What can a managed services provider (MSP) do to help with Microsoft’s EOS in January 2020?

If you already have an MSP and they haven’t talked to you about Microsoft’s EOS in January 2020, you might have a newer OS or server that won’t be part of this EOS. Microsoft is currently providing five years of standard support and 10 years of extended support for its products.

If you don’t have an MSP, Microsoft’s EOS offers you an opportunity to contact one. MSP’s have already handled many upgrades and migrations based on Microsoft’s EOS process. You should interview several MSP’s to find out which one is most qualified to help your business. Look for an MSP who’s got experience with your business’s software needs. Look for an MSP who can communicate clearly. Another plus? A provider with good people skills who’s experienced in working with people who’ll need to start using upgraded software. The security risks involved with failing to upgrade older Microsoft operating and server systems are too great to put off upgrades or allow people to continue to use old, outdated software that’s out of support.

Once you’ve selected the MSP that’s right for you, sit down with them and establish a plan for your options for upgrading your OS and essential LOB software and apps. More Microsoft programs are set for EOS later in 2020. Begin the process now to ensure a smooth transition.

Daily Routine Offers Benefits that Lead to Better Outcomes

Discover the benefits of creating a daily routine, including improved productivity, reduced stress and better prioritization, and tips for structuring your day.

Apple CEO Tim Cook starts his day by waking at about 4 a.m. He spends the first hour of his day reading emails from Apple users and external people.

Next, it’s a stress-reducing trip to the gym.

The day is likely to involve Cook reading the majority of the 700 to 800 emails he receives.

When the day is done, he aims to get 7 hours of sleep at night.

The insights into how Cook plans and spends his day is just one example of the importance of having a daily routine.

Why Is A Daily Routine Important?

A daily routine provides more than structure to our busy, hurried lives. Among its myriad benefits:

• Efficiency. A daily routine reduces the number of decisions that need to be made. It gives u structure as to what tasks will be completed and when.
• Less Planning. Planned time takes some of the guesswork of what to do when. You can focus on “do” from the beginning of the day, instead of “plan.”
• Help With Habits. A routine allows you to build new or fine-tune your old habits and break bad ones. Repetition of productive habits that replace bad habits provides better skills and a new source of confidence.
• Productivity. A daily routine requires blocking out time when specific tasks will be done. Doing so, with scheduled focus on different work lets you check more off of your to-do list.
• Improved Mental Health. Days that are chaotic and disorganized can derail not only your productivity but also your mental wellness. The human brain likes order and structure. Providing it will ease anxiety and give you a more positive outlook.
• Prioritization. One significant advantage of a daily routine is the opportunity to prioritize what is most important to us. Set your goals and priorities and incorporate the time you need to work towards them into your routine.
• Momentum. Repetitive routines have a benefit. With practice comes better skills, progress and momentum. Push that ball up the hill a little each day, get better at it and soon you’ll have reached the summit, no matter how steep the climb.
• Less Procrastination. When a set of tasks and activities becomes truly routine, it makes it more difficult for procrastination to seep in. When you stick to your routine, you are able to eliminate the “maybe later” thinking that can disrupt progress, slow down projects and practice avoidance.
• Reduced Stress. Our lives are hectic and that means more stress. Certainty and predictability can help lower your stress level and allow you to relax, especially if part of your routine is a regular sleep pattern. Consistency in when you go to sleep and wake up is better for maintaining a regulated internal clock.
• Mastery. A daily routine allows you to become faster and more skilled at what you work on consistently.
• Money Saved. A daily routine at the office and home can lead to cost savings. For your business, work is less likely to pile up and projects less likely to fall behind. On a personal level, routines help us not to plan our meals, organize our shopping an not have to make more expensive, last-minute or unnecessary purchases.
• Found Time. Imagine the opportunity to give yourself more time by building into your daily routine opportunities for leisure, recreation, planned meals and breaks. It’s likely that by doing so, you’ll be able to have more time. That doesn’t mean that time needs to be scheduled immediately as part of your daily routine. It’s an opportunity to discover how you want to best use the new-found minutes or hours.

These benefits collectively give you the structure you need for further business success. According to a recent article in CEO Magazine, there are 7 elements to consider in building your routine:

1. Set a regular schedule for when you wake up and go to bed
2. Create routines for the start and end of your workday, such as doing a walkthrough of the office first thing in the morning or using the last 10 minutes of the day to plan the next
3. Factor in family routines such as school schedules and activities
4. Create blocks in your work schedule for tasks such as meetings, emails, project work or phone calls
5. Know your best time of day and use it for “focus time,” when you turn off and block out distractions and get your most important work done
6. Leave some wiggle room in your schedule to deal with the unexpected
7. Limit low-value task time like emails and returning calls that often are driven by others’ agendas

With an appreciation for the value of daily routines and a commitment to a structured day, your business and personal goals are closer to being met.

While some might assume that fear of an economic recession would be at the top of the list of key issues CEOs concern themselves with, a recent survey found that another issue is of much greater concern: Cybersecurity.

This is no surprise.

For the past several years, cybercrimes and data breaches among companies large and small, governments, and even individual citizens have risen drastically. While it’s true that many CEOs still assume a data breach at their own company is highly unlikely, with the ultimate price tag of such attacks ramping up to the millions of dollars (and recovery being hardly successful), it makes sense that CEOs are taking notice.

What Does a More Concentrated Focus on Cybersecurity Mean for Companies?

Corporate chiefs and C-suites who are most concerned with cybersecurity are naturally becoming more involved in their companies’ defense strategies. After all, a breach of data isn’t just about the loss of money. It can also mean the loss of a job for a CEO or C-suite member and a permanent label as someone who can’t secure their company.

Furthermore, even if a breach doesn’t cost a corporate leader their job, customers, clients, and investors are sure to drop their interest in a company that’s lost data, money, and trustworthiness after a cyberattack. Large companies like Yahoo, Target, Equifax, and others have all felt the blow of such fallout.

How Do Most Cyber Attacks Originate?

When most people think of a cyberattack, images of an ultra-sophisticated Russian hacker sitting in a darkened basement with glowing green and blue lights comes to mind. However, cyberattacks can come from anywhere and from anyone. They may be performed on public computers, from office buildings, at public Wi-Fi cafes, from residential homes, or even in airports.

Your own cyber attacker could be coming from across the world … or down the street. Once you find out that your company’s data’s been compromised … it may not really matter anyway.

Because of their cloak and dagger way of operating, cyber attackers and criminals are rarely located and seldom caught or prosecuted. Part of being a cybercriminal, after all, means knowing how to confuse and reroute IP addresses through a multitude of countries. This makes retracing the invader’s steps a serious challenge — even for the most advanced IT specialists.

Therefore, the key to avoiding such attacks is, of course, to prevent them in the first place. This is the goal of an increasing number of savvy CEOs. It means putting cybersecurity first and foremost on their priority list and recruiting the help of highly-educated and trained information technology specialists.

How Can CEOs Prevent Cyberattacks in Their Companies?

The key to preventing cyberattacks is knowing how they start in the first place — and remember, it’s not where most people would think.

Again, many people assume that cybercriminals work by being absolutely amazing at breaking into super-advanced and complicated security systems. But nearly all mid- and large-sized companies have advanced security systems, and they still get hacked. Assuming that cybercriminals can simply break into these systems is giving them too much credit. Instead, most cybercriminals gain access much in the way vampires are said to gain access to their victims: Essentially, by being invited.

While lore claims that vampires must be invited into a home before they can step foot inside, cybercriminals also work their magic by essentially being given access to sensitive data by unknowing company employees — or even CEOs and other upper management members themselves.

It’s called phishing, and it’s the number one way cyber attackers gain security access to companies’, organizations’, governments’, and individuals’ data.

What Is Phishing and How Can You Prevent It?

Phishing generally takes place via email. The target receives a fraudulent email that claims to be from someone the target trusts, like the institution they bank at, human resources at their company, or upper management.

Somewhere in the email, the target is asked to send sensitive information for a “security check” or similar. Alternatively, they may be asked to “click here” for more information or to receive a coupon special, for example.

This is all with the goal of getting the target to do something that will allow malware onto their computer. Once this happens, the hacker who sent the phishing email will be able to steal, ransom, or corrupt sensitive company data.

The best — and in some ways, the only — way to combat phishing is to adequately train your employees and entire staff. You’ll need to teach them to:

• Be suspicious of any unanticipated or surprising emails — especially those that ask the recipient to take certain steps
• Double check email addresses for authenticity
• Double check web addresses for authenticity
• Be wary of threatening or enticing language
• Never click on unsolicited links or attachments sent to them

If you are a CEO or C-suite member who’s concerned about the cybersecurity of your company in 2019, you’re on the right track. While the growth of your business and the frightening possibility of a recession are surely important to you as well, everything can be lost in an instant if your company is attacked by a cybercriminal. Taking steps now to better train your employees and enlist the right cybersecurity professionals to protect your business is wise and responsible.

In its look at the top 10 strategic technology trends for 2019, Gartner notes that businesses need to address an astounding number of technologies that will change the way companies run, their business models and their internal processes.

From the rise of artificial intelligence and autonomous objects to augmented analytics programs and immersive technologies, companies must consider what technologies they, their customers and their competitors expect and adopt.

Today, that means that c-suite leaders need to reconsider the roles of and the relationships between the CEO and CIO.

What Are the Traditional Relationships Between CEOs and CIOs?

Consider the paths to leadership for both roles. CEOs today, especially in non-tech companies, typically rise due to their acumen on the business side of a company. They demonstrate leadership and mastery of product or service areas, delivering consistently impactful results (particularly in revenue). The CEO has a public-facing role and commands authority, shaping the marketing messages, interpreting financial results and assessing sales past and future.

The CIO has likely grown up on the technology side. At many businesses, the CIO’s role traditionally has been to “keep the lights on,” focusing on keeping networks operational, overseeing system installations, upgrades and maintenance, and keeping users, endpoints, websites and networks protected.

In many companies, the CIO has not even been a direct report to the CEO and their relationship has been relatively distant.

The different backgrounds and, in some cases, language used in the two roles has made it difficult for the two leaders to have productive relationships.

Today, that paradigm no longer makes sense.

What Is Different Today Regarding the CEO/CIO Relationship?

Digital transformation is at the heart of growth and progress. There are few if any industries that not being shaped, influenced and changed by the increasing reliance on digital technologies. That makes the role the CIO plays very different than it was just a few years ago.

The prevalence of technology as a key driver of business strategy, structure and outcomes means that IT can no longer be considered a cost center. It needs to be at the table when key decisions are made about a company’s future direction, investments, hiring, and prioritization.

“As CEOs increasingly turn their attention to digital innovation as a top priority, they are counting on CIOs to drive it,” noted a recent article. “The IT leaders they used to frown at in budget meetings are now considered strategic business partners.”

This shift can be unsettling, especially among other executives who have not stayed abreast of their technical skills and knowledge.

What Needs to Change in the CEO/CIO Relationship?

Communication is one of the most essential skills to develop in a new relationship. The CEO needs to understand the technologies, the scope, the potential impact and the risk of not moving forward with opportunities. CIOs also need to be fully conversant with the business’ priorities, goals, objectives and present state of technology adoption and use.

One important aspect of the changing relationship is inviting the CIO to the table. Recent versions of the annual Harvey Nash/KPMG survey show the evolution of role and influence has begun but is still not where it needs to be.

The 2017 survey notes that “the CIO has progressively become more influential.” The number of CIOs at the table has grown, from 38 percent reporting being a part of an executive committee in 2005 to 62 percent in 2017. Three-quarters reported attending board meetings in the past year to discuss IT strategy, digital transformation, technology investments and cybersecurity.

The 2018 edition notes that CIOs among companies considered digital leaders are likely to have more of a strategic role. The most effective are able to frame for the CEO the advantages of digital transformation around revenue growth.

“They work with the executive team to influence and guide the enterprise on the effective use of digital technologies,” the article notes. “They help create a vision on how to use digital to transform the enterprise and grow.”

The changes represent a shift in how the CEO and CIO relationships are changing. Access to board members, involvement in critical decisions and influence in the c-suite are all reflections of how CEOs perceive and value the CIO role.

However, there is still room for improvement. Even the CIOs among the top 25 percent of companies demonstrating digital leadership only rate 59 percent on a scale of strategic influence.

There are shared responsibilities in order to change to a high-impact CEO/CIO relationship. The CEO needs to lead by example, signaling the importance of digital transformation and the CIO’s lead role in achieving it. CIOs need to bring ideas to the table that relate to the business outcomes and opportunities available, not just “shiny new gadgets.”

What If My Business Is Too Small to Have a CIO?

Digital transformation is not just for enterprises. Small- and medium-sized businesses also need to leverage the technical opportunities to differentiate and grow. For many SMBs, that means turning to a “virtual CIO” relationship with a managed IT service provider that can deliver IT consulting, assessments, strategy, solutions and budgeting. Working closely with a CEO and other business leaders, the virtual CIO can provide the insights and vision necessary to leverage the changing digital landscape.

A powerful relationship between the CEO and the CIO, whether internal or through a managed services provider, is essential for transformation to be successful.

IT consultants provide valuable insights to businesses looking for guidance on technologies that lead to better business outcomes.

Having a strong relationship with your IT consultant leads to more productive collaboration and discussions that are more fruitful. It begins with making the right choice to be your IT partner and requires commitment, communication and trust to remain effective. The scope can be vast or project-specific.

As noted in a recent ITBusinessEdge article, “Consultancy firms can help with everything from one-off projects for companies that don’t have enough time to pull together a team, to long-term projects that require a team with deep experience in an emerging or cutting-edge technology.”

Here are a few tips for making and keeping a great relationship with your IT consultant.

What Should I Look for in an IT Consultant?

The relationship begins during the selection process for an IT consultant. It starts with being clear about what your company needs from the consulting engagement. Define your desired outcomes, whether for a specific project or a longer-term, ongoing relationship. These scope documents should include your expected timeframe, internal resources, reporting expectations and success factors.

You should be clear about your immediate and future needs, whether they’re an improvement in network performance, better IT security, compliance mandates or better efficiency.

There are several things to consider during the selection, including

• Who will be working on your account (ask to meet them before signing)
• How much experience the consultant has with your business
• Performance, success stories and references
• An understanding of your business, its needs and your industry

Think as granularly about the project as possible so you aren’t surprised by anything down the road. Do you need a very hands-on team? Can your working structure or schedule be flexible? What development methodologies are a must-have? While it may take a little more time and effort, making sure you’re selecting the right firm from the start will result in a smoother ramp-up and integration process.

What Communication Should I Have with an IT Consultant?

Regular status meetings are an important part of the consultant-client relationship. Updates should happen on a mutually agreed schedule that’s included in your contract. The meetings should have a clear purpose, agenda and outcome. In most cases, these meetings should review progress on projects and data on the performance of deployed technologies. There should be a discussion of business needs and potential solutions using emerging technologies, too.

Communication with your IT consultant needs to be a two-way street. You should provide regular feedback on the consultant’s work, including what’s working well and what needs to be improved.

How Do We Prepare for Working With an IT Consultant?

Your internal IT team may feel intimidated by having an outside IT consultant become more involved in the decision-making and strategy for your business. The reality is that most internal IT staffs are stretched thin and cannot manage the day-to-day tasks, the strategic IT discussions and project management you need.

It’s important to be clear about how the IT consultant and your internal IT staff will work together. It’s important to think of the consultants as part of your IT team, a valued extension. Internal and external teams need to work together to achieve your goals. That means broad information sharing, progress updates, shared work and a true partnership.

Your IT consultant needs a candid assessment of the IT team and other relevant staff members. They also need to understand your products or services, your market and your existing technology solution. Many IT consultant relationships begin with an assessment of your current IT systems, hardware, software and business processes.

There’s another component to prep work with an IT consultant. If they’re going to be deployed internally, be sure they have the resources necessary from the start. That means a clean workspace, equipment, passwords and system access, an email account and phone number. You should communicate to your teams who the consultant is, why they are being hired and the scope of their work.

Provide the consultant with the procedures, policies, company overview, safety protocols and a sense of the company culture before they walk in the door.

How Should We Monitor the IT Consultant’s Work?

It begins and ends with trust. You need to trust that your consultant is doing what you’ve contracted for. Consultants usually have ample experience, extensive technical knowledge and experience with assessments and project management. Communication should be regular and consistent, knowing that you shouldn’t micromanage and that urgent issues will be brought to your attention.

You also need to trust that your IT consultant will be fully informed of technical options for your company. As the client, you are the ultimate decision-maker, but you need to be comfortable with taking a leap of faith. Your consultant’s recommendations may be very different from what you expected, but if believe that their guidance will give your business a competitive edge, it’s important to take their recommendations seriously.

You should also appoint an internal contact who will be the consultant’s primary liaison within the organization, solving day-to-day problems and answering questions. This contact also needs access to the CEO or other senior leadership and have a seat at the table when making decisions about projects and the consultant’s work.

An IT consultant brings with them knowledge, experience and solutions focused on boosting your business. Having a clear sense of how to work with them effectively means a greater return on your investment and better outcomes.

Understanding the threat landscape is a crucial part of a CEOs job as you attempt to protect your organization now and in the future. The cybersecurity and compliance landscape is changing rapidly, and it can be difficult to keep up with the various challenges your business is facing — from ransomware to phishing schemes, not to mention global and domestic privacy act compliance. While compliance and cybersecurity may not feel like exactly the same topic, understanding how all the moving pieces work together can help you synthesize strategies that will protect your business. See how these fast-moving fields continue to morph and how you can manage the risk inherent in today’s digital businesses.

The Digital Landscape is Rapidly Changing

Just a few years ago, CEOs were vision-casting how all these great new technologies would work together: customer data driving targeted marketing, operations becoming more efficient due to the use of connected devices and augmented reality forming the basis for your selling strategies for physical goods. As these advanced technologies become more mature, CEOs are finding that each interconnected system provides yet another point for failure. Each mobile phone that is tied into your network infrastructure could be the cause of a data breach. Cybercriminals are becoming more crafty with their messaging to your teams by mimicking vendor email addresses in requests for funds. Augmented reality and next-level marketing techniques are causing consumers to become more concerned than ever before with how much data is being tracked by companies — and how that information is being used.

Intense Focus on Privacy Requires Unified Compliance Strategy

CEOs are no longer able to assume that individual business units understand the full implications of privacy policies and are acting upon them. Instead, a unified compliance strategy is a crucial step that businesses must take in order to stay within the aggressive privacy policies that are being put into place in Europe and now in the US. California is the first state to create consumer data privacy laws that are very similar to those already enacted in May 2018 by the European Union’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) takes compliance a step further and mandates strict consequences for organizations that refuse to comply or cannot show that they are moving towards compliance. The complexity of these laws is such that attempting to manage data at a business unit level is no longer feasible, requiring what may be expensive consolidation of disparate databases, IT infrastructure and reporting.

Determining Acceptable Risk

When it comes to cybersecurity and compliance, it’s important to determine the acceptable risk for your organization. There are no guarantees that your systems cannot be infiltrated even if you invest in the most sophisticated system in the world. The unfortunate fact is that a significant percentage of data breaches are caused by users by poor password habits, inadvertent interactions with malware or even improper access levels to sensitive data. Mitigating each of these risks is not a reasonable ask to your IT department, making it vital that you work with your executive team to identify the most likely risks and how they can be discovered so remediation can begin quickly. Cybersecurity is a key consideration simply because it’s rarely a matter of “if” your organization will be affected — but “when” and to what extent the incident will occur. If you are able to achieve true resiliency for your organization, the combination of disaster recovery and business continuity plans that combine monitoring, detection and response services may help you reduce the overall costs of an attack or breach.

Elevating the Conversation

When CEOs step into the battlefield of cybersecurity, it raises the importance of the conversation and helps ensure that there is a continued focus on protecting the organization from these digital perils. Everything from convincing business units to work together to gather and store data to approving additional spending on security and monitoring software becomes easier, as the CEO is able to lend their global view to the conversation. Cyberattacks can cause losses in unexpected places, such as the loss of consumer confidence or vendor relationships. Quantifying these risks can be a challenge, but organizations are now estimating that a single attack may cost their business as much as $1.67 million. Cybersecurity aside, non-compliance with state and federal data privacy regulations can also be a pricey proposition, with new legislation in place in California that has severe civil penalties and even includes the potential for statutory damages.

Cybersecurity Isn’t a One-Time Resolution to a Problem

As technical and troubling a problem such as cybersecurity is, there is no one-time resolution to this thorny problem. While hackers are the cause of a significant portion of the cyberattacks, it’s every bit as likely — if not a bit more so — that your cyber risk is accidentally caused by employees or contractors who simply made a bad decision. That means ongoing education and continual system monitoring will need to become part of the landscape of your organization if you hope to reduce your overall cybersecurity risk. Active monitoring solutions can help identify any immediate threats, but continued diligence on the part of the executive team will help ensure that cybersecurity and compliance remain top-of-mind for the organization.

All organizations are vulnerable to risk in different ways, but it’s crucial that the organization’s top executive is part of the conversation and solution to the problem. Without this top-down focus on digital risk, businesses are much less likely to put the infrastructure, processes and procedures in place that will protect their data and business operations.

For far too long, CEOs have seen information technology as a sunken cost that needs to be absorbed and reluctantly accepted. New platforms, upgrades, platform conversions, hardware, software and other technologies are a financial pain point that needs to be endured.

However, for success today, company leaders need to take a completely different approach. Information technology should be viewed as essential for companies wanting to achieve their strategic goals. The premise that technology teams should just “keep the lights on,” upgrade the software and support the other business units is an outdated approach.

Who Is Responsible for Changing the CEO Mindset?

Some companies may have a CEO who profoundly understands the nuanced approach to technology that is imperative to achieve digital transformation. However, such leadership is rare today despite the growing reliance on disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning data analytics, automation and the Internet of Things.

That’s why the chief information officer’s role is increasingly critical. The CIO needs to be included in high-level strategic conversations to help shape the needs (for financial resources, technologies, systems and people), opportunities and desired outcomes. It’s also incumbent on the CIO to play an important role in educating, influencing and empowering the CEO.

According to a recent CIO.com article, CIOs need to help CEOs and other senior leaders in the following ways:

• Having a keen understanding of new technologies, innovation trends and strategic opportunities
• Working with leadership in tandem with vendors to co-create innovative solutions
• Educating C-suite executives and board members about disruptive industry trends and possibilities
• Introducing collaborative tools and self-service portals to reduce human capital costs.
• Building innovation hubs that benefit the business
• Championing digital business strategies at the industrial and organizational levels
• Promoting a lean approach a la a start-up for fostering new products, services and ideas

What Work Should the CIOs Focus On To Change a CEO’s Mindset about Technology?

One of the most important tasks the CIO should focus on is understanding customers. Learning more about their needs, challenges, interactions and preferences will inform the CIO’s insights shared with the CEO. The CIO has to spend more time with customer-facing units, such as sales and marketing, learning about their needs and how the most effective salespeople and campaigns are built.

The key is getting out of the office. Yes, a CIO, especially of a small company, may be pulled into the weeds more often than they want, but time needs to be made for this outreach,

Why is it so important? The next time the CIO is in a strategy meeting or 1:1 with the CEO, they can provide insights on what directly impacts customers, backed up by data and IT knowledge.

CIOs should champion teams focused on innovation, development of new products and services and leveraging collected data.

CEOs are paying attention too.

“The proliferation of digital technology has given IT the ability to directly impact an organization’s bottom line,” said GE Digital CEO Bill Ruh.

“Smart CEOs now see IT not as a cost center but as a differentiator, a source of innovation, and an enabler of revenue growth and market differentiation,” notes a recent article. “As CEOs increasingly turn their attention to digital innovation as a top priority, they are counting on CIOs to drive it.”

What Are CEOs Asking of their CIOs?

“CEOs need CIOs to be more than service-oriented order takers. They expect IT leaders to work with business leaders to co-develop technology-related capabilities that will enable the business to innovate and grow,” notes Gartner in its 2019 CEO survey. A look at key data from that report shows just how much CEOs are starting to recognize the importance of IT. Consider:

• A third of CEOs ranked IT-related priorities in their top 3
• 49 percent of CEOs believe the business and technology sides of the business are equally responsible for the performance and quality of digital products and services
• 47 percent of CEOs saw technology enablement as one of the top two ways to improve productivity

A Korn Ferry survey of corporate technology offices illustrates the shift of roles and how CEOs value CIOs differently today. Among the findings:

• 83 percent say their role is perceived as more strategic than it was 4 years ago
• 81 percent say they have more exposure and play a more significant role with customers, products, and services
• 55 percent believe the CEO and board see the lead technology officer’s role as a revenue generator and not a cost center

The data are clear about the changing role. In a 2017 Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO survey, 62 percent of CIOs said they are a part of the executive team, compared to 38 percent in 2005. The likelihood that a CIO reports to the CEO rather than the CFO or someone else is increasing 10 percent annually.

CEOs today have an incredible opportunity to use ever-evolving technologies to change business models, introduce new products and services and deliver what customers crave. How? By understanding these technologies, elevating the CIO’s role and seeing IT as a revenue-generating part of the business.

Human capital is one of the most important business assets and also one of the most elusive. Today’s employees are staying only an average of around 4 years, far different than years past when people regularly stayed with the same company for over a decade. Job stability is a serious concern for organizations, who often find that they are losing their highly qualified staff members when a better offer comes along or when opportunities dry up. This can happen because organizations do not have a stable and structured human resources staff that is able to continuously create opportunities for training and advancement within the organization — staying tuned to the needs of the highest-performing staff members while supporting a positive culture throughout the organization. With the focus on swift moves and organizational change, it’s a strategic imperative that you have a top executive focused on the human resources needs of the business.

“Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast”

Anyone who has been through business school has heard this old adage from management guru Peter Drucker, as related by Mark Fields in 2006. While it may be a bit trite, this statement has never been more applicable as the corporate culture can quickly fester due to poor decisions by business leaders who are not keeping personnel needs in mind. People want to work somewhere that provides personal as well as financial fulfillment and that often means finding a flexible working situation or the ability to advance their careers with hard work and dedication. If the culture of your organization is toxic with poor leadership in place, it may not even be obvious until you begin losing high-potential staff members.

With a Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) in place, there is likely to be a greater focus on gathering employee feedback as well as looking into breaches in rules and etiquette by staff. It doesn’t take long for a positive corporate culture to turn into a negative without a continuous focus on employee satisfaction. The perception that “leadership doesn’t care” or a lack of accountability can poison even the most positive working relationships. A CHRO helps actively listen around the organization and has the ability to raise concerns to the highest level while adequately explaining the challenges and offering strategic solutions.

Encouraging Meaningful Diversity and Mutual Respect

Diversity of thought and cultural fit are every bit as important as ethnic diversity in your workforce. It’s easy enough for managers to hire someone who not only looks like them but also thinks like them — something that a CHRO can help guard against. There’s more to a hostile workplace than a single person or small group of individuals who are behaving badly. It starts with the idea that staff members can get away with atrocious behavior and that the perpetrators are being enabled due to their high-performance standards or position within the organization. It can be challenging to discipline individuals who are perceived to be exceptional, but having C-suite representation for all personnel can help lead to accountability and mutual respect. Meaningful diversity occurs when managers and supervisors are encouraged to step outside their comfort zone and work with people who may be a great cultural fit, even if they may not have exactly the right pedigree or high levels of experience. A dedicated and involved CHRO helps hiring managers to see beyond the surface to find the exceptional staff members that will help the organization grow and evolve in the future. It’s never too early to begin encouraging managers to celebrate diversity and inclusion through a variety of different initiatives that can ultimately result in a more balanced workforce.

Attract and Retain the Best

Creating a positive culture also means finding what motivates employees and being able to illustrate the real business benefits of reducing turnover and providing the perks that employees truly want. HR is moving far beyond simply being the “complaint department” or a way to ensure compliance with a variety of rules and regulations. Having a CHRO provides the business with a higher degree of strategy in the hiring and managing of talented staff members. Millennials and Generation X alike appreciate being able to work from home or remote locations when the work permits it, but a CHRO is able to help quantify the savings that can be expected for the business as well as the softer side of employee engagement. Proactive human resources support is quickly becoming a differentiator for businesses that view these roles as more of a strategic position instead of the tactical role that HR has played in the past.

Finding benefits that employees will appreciate is only a portion of what goes into attracting and retaining the best staff members for your organization. A proactive CHRO regularly reviews the competitive landscape to ensure that health and wellness benefits are commensurate with the marketplace. Creating wellness initiatives also falls to HR, with the long-term benefits of these programs helping bring a new focus to the value of encouraging positive health choices throughout the life of each staff member. Having a CHRO included as a deliberate part of corporate strategic decisions creates a more equitable focus on the individual needs of employees as well as the organization’s requirements for long-term growth.

Experience and Training Key for Successful CHROs

Not every CHRO comes up through human resources. It’s not unusual for someone more on the business, marketing, or legal side to see the value in making the leap in this direction. It is crucial that any CHRO candidate has a deep understanding of the privacy and liability issues that can arise from this sensitive position and department. These individuals thrive when they have a full understanding of people management, legal considerations as well as business operations in order to help managers and leadership identify staff challenges and how to move toward resolution. Few of these issues will be solved overnight, meaning your CHRO must have the ability to stay the course and navigate difficult relationships over time. The role of CHRO even has some aspects of a Chief Security Officer, as they will need to understand and be able to manage in-depth data privacy policies which can be quite complex depending on your business model. Measuring the success of various initiatives is also a data-driven operation that requires analysis and interpretation of diverse datasets.

Organizations may survive without someone from human resources at the executive table, but it is becoming more unlikely that they will thrive without this representation in the C-suite. Chief Human Resource Officers provide a needed counterpoint to the business-focused mantra that you may hear from other executives, providing a different perspective on reaching organizational goals through the introduction of positive culture change, accountability, and diversity in hiring practices. This strategic role not only provides organizations with qualified candidates but also helps ensure that high performers stay and continue providing their brain trust to the business.

For CEOs, digital transformation has changed the game. CEOs today need new approaches to leadership, planning and vision. Otherwise, they risk leaving themselves and their companies falling behind in the wake of rapidly changing technologies.

The last decade has seen a remarkable rise in digitally disruptive technologies that have forever changed business models, business processes and the nature of work.

Consider the impact the Internet of Things, Big Data, analytics, automation, artificial intelligence and cloud computing have had on the way businesses operate. One only needs to look at what impact companies like Airbnb and Uber have had on the lodging and transportation verticals to realize that a new leadership approach is an absolute mandate for CEOs today.

How Is the Modern CEO Role Changing?

“Technology isn’t changing only corporations—it’s also changing the job of the CEO, bringing with it the challenge of keeping up with technological development,” notes a recent McKinsey & Co. article.

There are plenty of resources out there to help CEOs stay in touch with and understand emerging technologies, according to one anonymous business leader in the McKinsey piece. “What’s much harder for a leader is deciding what’s relevant and what’s not,” he said.

That means today’s CEOs need to be clear about priorities and be able to make fast decisions about to pursue.

What Leadership Structure Does a Tech-Savvy CEO Need?

The c-suite looks very different today than it did a decade ago. New titles reflect the importance of technologies in the modern enterprise: Chief automation officer, chief data officer, chief digital officer and chief information security officer are just a few of the roles that companies realize are critical for success.

Board members and senior executives alike need to be adept at and capable of adapting to the technical revolution, providing leadership and guidance to the CEO. These leaders may have experience and demonstrated success, but today they need to be agile. And the CEO needs to be aware of what they need and make changes accordingly.

How Can CEOs Plan for Digital Transformation?

“I very rarely get pulled into the today,” Amazon founder Jeff Bezos told Forbes in a 2018 interview. “I get to work two or three years into the future, and most of my leadership team has the same setup.”

That’s the right approach for CEOs wanting to lead digital transformation.

With so much disruption, Greg Crandall of Query Consulting Group suggests CEOs need planning processes that focus on customers and employees first. Customer expectations are evolving; they expect easy access to brands and that those brands know who they are, how they have interacted and can deliver immediate answers.

“Today’s organizations must compete within themselves to meet the needs of current and targeted customers. … This means internal teams, departments and other groups must compete … and cooperate with each other to transform the customers’ experiences by empowering employees to think and act in ways that, ultimately, transform the organization itself,” Crandall writes. “And to do this, those teams need leadership from the top that promotes thinking critically, communicating transparently, and acting with agility.”

The focus on the customer is paramount to Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. In a January 2019 interview, he said, “What I focus on is the customer. The customers speak every quarter. They speak every year. They speak every day. And the most important thing for us is that they’re satisfied.”

The cycles are changing too. Gone are the days when 3- to 5-year planning cycles suffice. Today’s CEO needs to lead a process of continuous planning and assessment.

How Do Today’s CEOs Have To Communicate?

Transparency and humility are the order of the day for the modern CEO. Customers, partners, employees and stakeholders expect open and clear messaging. They cannot think of digital strategy as somehow separate from other strategic planning.

Instead, CEOs need a holistic approach that embraces and incorporates technology, listens carefully to customers, and applies that learning and perspective into changes to business models, business processes, markets, structure and culture. The CEO needs to project that the organization is one that is adaptive, learning and nimble.

How Big a Role Should the CEO Play in Digital Transformation?

Traditionally, Research and Development and IT divisions have been responsible for product development and innovation. That’s changing, notes Thomas Siebel, chairman and CEO of C3 IoT.

“With the 21st-century digital transformation, the adoption cycle has inverted. What I’m seeing now is that, almost invariably, global corporate transformations are initiated and propelled by the CEO,” Siebel writes. “Visionary CEOs, individually, are the engines of massive change that is unprecedented in the history of information technology—possibly unprecedented in the history of commerce.”

As technology transforms companies, industries and how we live, work and play, it’s only natural that the CEO’s role also needs to change. CEOs who recognize and embrace the digital revolution are most likely to see their organizations thrive and grow.