Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a weeklong ISACA Now blog series looking ahead to top priorities in 2022 for practitioners in digital trust fields. See earlier posts looking ahead to 2022 for audit practitioners, cybersecurity practitioners, privacy practitioners and risk practitioners.
“It is not the strongest of the species survives, not the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”- Charles Darwin
The accelerating technological advancements and digital transformation did not reduce its pace in 2021 and it does not figure to in 2022, nor for the foreseeable future. The globally raging pandemic, even though it paralyzed economic activities and reduced the associated economic growth across the nations, did not impede technological growth, but rather it pushed the digitalization trends to newer frontiers. -
Some of the prominent factors emerging from this phenomenon are increased usage of cloud computing, paving the way for hybrid and connected work environments, as well as the key role of automation, self-service client utilities, agile application development methodologies, autonomous database management environments and the ever evolving and growing monstrous cyberthreats.
As we look toward 2022, governance professionals may struggle to have a firm grasp on all the challenges happening around them. Governance professionals will do well to take a hard look at their current approach and skillset and consider these key priorities for success in the new year.
Priority #1: Aggressive and Persuasive Cybersecurity Leadership
Governance professionals should modify their cybersecurity leadership styles to match the current cybersecurity threat scenarios and understand that cybercrime is a very lucrative business that is going to become much more lucrative in the near future, potentially costing the world US$10.5 trillion by 2025. Cybercriminals work very hard as the cost-benefit ratio disproportionately rewards them. The initial expenses to conduct an attack are not much, while the benefits of a successful attack are plenty.
Governance professionals have a key role to play in ensuring a strong connection between enterprise objectives and the security team. Governance professionals should ensure a clear message is reflected from executive management to motivate the cybersecurity team to be at their best and reward and retain the appropriate skillsets.
Priority #2: Pursue Knowledge in Cloud Security and Data Science
The future of work will be built on connected, hybrid experiences. Digital-first and connected experiences will be the hallmark of driving productivity and retaining talent. McKinsey estimates that more than 20 percent of the global workforce in highly skilled roles in finance, insurance and IT verticals could work most of the time away from the office without any impact on productivity. These factors and others will enhance the utility of cloud computing, and with the added advantage of cost-effectiveness, it is here to stay. But as the cloud introduces new security threats, effective countermeasures need to be put in place. Therefore, governance professionals will need expert knowledge surrounding cloud security and best practices for cloud implementations.
Additionally, a data explosion is happening at a breathtaking pace. Data-driven organizations experience annual growth of over 30 percent, according to an Accenture study, and 81 percent of organizations still don’t have a solid data strategy to maximize the full potential of their data. This is all beckoning governance professionals to lead from the front and find ways to help their organizations be data-driven and to leverage data resources using an effective data analytics strategy.
Priority #3: Strategic Alignment and Value Realization
Governance professionals have a daunting task in aligning the strategy of the enterprise to the ever-changing market and technological environment to stay relevant and successful. Aligning business goals to the technology landscape was never easy, but in this fast-paced current environment, it has become a very complex task. Considering strategies are typically evolved over a long time, the likelihood of successful enterprises falling into strategic myopia is high. Governance professionals play a vital role in preventing this from happening and being adept in helping their organizations’ value realization.
Helping their organizations benefit from Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities is one important opportunity. A McKinsey study points out that the potential economic value that the IoT could unlock by 2030 could be anywhere between US$5.5 trillion to $12.6 trillion globally, yet many enterprises are struggling to reap the benefits of IoT.
A Changing Environment
These are some of the most important tasks awaiting the governance community in 2022, but other challenges inevitably will arise in these changing times. Despite the degree of difficulty in some of this work, the journey for governance professionals will be exciting and equally rewarding.