What Keeps CEOs Up at Night?

Post 3 – What keeps CEOs up at night?

As a CEO, getting a good night’s sleep is harder and harder these days.  We used to worry about competition, labor problems, regulatory issues, financing issues, sales and, if our company was public, our stock price.  In the 21st century there is a new worry – cyber threat.  Cyber attacks are real and they can be devastating.  Cyber threats come in all shapes, sizes, types, and intentions.  And they are, for the most part, completely automated.

Every business depends on its networks, and we have every indication that dependency is increasing at a dramatic pace.  These networks and the technology that makes them run are constantly changing.  They evolve to suit the needs of business, and they are improved in performance and security by new products.  Unfortunately, they are often built without a big view architecture in mind: “just make it work” is often the order of the day.

As CEO, knowing that these networks run more and more of your business, you should be asking your team – is it better today than yesterday?  Is it more secure today than yesterday?  What happened on our network yesterday?

Getting this data in a standard, understandable form is no small task.  Further, because things change often, the CEO needs to know the answer to this question often.  The geeks still build and operate the networks though the business people use them – kind of like cars and roads.  You don’t need to know how they are built, but you do need to know they are safe and reliable.  As CEO, you must care whether your network is safe and reliable and that you have a team in place that can do make it so.