The Challenges before Cyber Era CEO of an organization

?THE INDUSTRIAL CEO’S PLAN FOR THE DIGITAL RECOVERY

WHAT DOES TODAY’S CEO NEED TO DO TO ACCELERATE AN ORGANISATION’S DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY

INTRODUCTION

?Digital transformation?journeys are not similar in every sector but on a case-to-case basis. There is no singular way to embrace a new trend of technology that will be ubiquitous in operations by the end of the century, digitalization has had an increasingly prominent area with an influential impact on the way CEOs make decisions. Today’s world is full of disruption and enhance potential risk. And with technology growing in complexity, it can be challenging to lead such a revolution against a backdrop of economic upheaval.

Embracing digital

According to?KPMG 2022 CEO Outlook, which draws on the perspectives of 1,325 global CEOs across 11 markets, 72% of CEOs agree they have an aggressive digital investment strategy intended to secure first-mover or fast-follower status. Increasing digitalization and connectivity across the business is secured along with appealing and retaining talent as the main operational priority to accomplish growth over the next three years. This digital transformation focus could be driven as a result of progressing elastic working conditions and a greater focus on cybersecurity intimidations.?

However, the prospect of a recession in near future is not seen on the horizon and will cause to stop digital transformation in the short term.?KPMG?research found that four out of five CEOs note their businesses are watching very seriously whether pause or reduce their?digital transformation?strategies to formulate for the projected recession. This is strengthened further when 70% say they need to be swifter to change investment to digital breaks and divest in those areas where they face digital desuetude. If a company’s digital transformation determination is uneven to its readiness, it is the CEO’s obligation to close the gap. According to Deloitte, in order to do this fruitfully, the CEO must assess the current level of organizational eagerness for change. This covers four key pillars that are assorted together to work out an organization’s overall preparedness: leadership, culture, structure, and capabilities.

Leadership:?

CEOs need to ensure their c-suite and other key executives are motivated and equipped to execute the vision. CEOs interviewed by Deloitte in a recent study emphasized the importance of the leadership team supporting the transformation vision and having a positive attitude and willingness to transform.

As the World Shifts, So Should Leaders

Research shows that different eras call for different approaches. Two decades ago, extensive research was done by the former dean of Harvard Business School, to finish that the hallmark of great leadership is the ability to adapt to the times. This is now the name of agility. We’re in a period of significant change that emerged due to global events, governmental responses, technological changes, and swings in demographics, social mores, and labor relationships. That progress and the skills that CEOs will need to effectively steer through them. Great leaders were defined less by enduring traits and more by their ability to recognize and adapt to the occasions brought by a particular moment. They could sense the zeitgeist—the spirit, mood, ideas, and beliefs that define a period—and seize it. Effective leadership, in other words, is largely context-specific: The same person who succeeds in one era might fail badly in another. The zeitgeist, according to?research?that was first published in HBR in 2005, is designed by six factors: global events, government intervention, labor relations, demographics, social mores, and the technology landscape. Individuals who can recognize shifts in those factors and exploit them have what we call “contextual intelligence.” The most recent leadership transition at Apple illustrates how contextual intelligence matters. During the 2000s, Steve Jobs helped the company prosper by stringing together a series of breakthrough innovations, including the iPod and the iPhone. Since Jobs’s untimely death, in 2011, Tim Cook has led Apple in an era of increased smartphone competition. Cook, an MBA who built his career managing Apple’s supply chain, fits these times perfectly, emphasizing not new products but services that create a vibrant and profitable iOS ecosystem. Recognizing that product innovation was likely to be incremental, Cook found a different vector for Apple’s success. And in an age when employees expect their leaders to be more vocal on societal concerns, Cook has become a visible advocate for LGBTQ issues. He’s not the same kind of leader as Jobs, but his contextual intelligence has helped him respond to the changing zeitgeist. And the results have been spectacular: On his watch, Apple’s market capitalization has grown eightfold. Because as the Covid-19 pandemic becomes endemic and as the war in Ukraine reprises the Cold War, it’s clear that we’re experiencing a zeitgeist (spirit of the age) change.

CULTURE

Even before Russia invaded Ukraine, both Russia and China had signaled their waning tolerance for America’s dominance of the world order. The war in Ukraine, however, has radically altered the geopolitical situation—with great implications for business leaders. Many have had to decide whether to stop doing business in Russia—a choice that involves moral, economic, and political considerations that some CEOs feel ill-prepared to weigh. The blend of geopolitical strife and the pandemic has caused leaders to reassess their geographic footprints and supply chains. In the US, a polarized electorate and the resulting gridlock in Washington create uncertainty about how much legislation we can expect over the next decade. Yet consider the size of the government’s fiscal and monetary response to the pandemic, and its efforts now to curb the sharp rise in inflation. As we emerge from the pandemic, workers are rethinking their careers—and their relationship with work itself. Amazon this is illustrated by employees’ first-ever vote to unionize. At other companies, employees are demanding autonomy and the right to live and work where they choose. More people are electing to work in the gig economy. At the same time, advances in AI threaten to keep eating up existing jobs. All those developments may require business leaders to reimagine the future of work. Around the world, fertility rates are falling. In the US, the working-age population is shrinking, and as the Boomers and Gen X combine to create a gigantic class of retirees, the workforce will soon be dominated by Millennials and Gen Z. These demographic changes present challenges and opportunities. Digitally native Gen Zs may ardently embrace the metaverse, while older people may seek more face-to-face connection. Thus, businesses may become more sharply segmented by age. Generational changes and social media have joined to make an era of dissolute discussion about anything—and a hope that leaders and employers will be ready to take stands on controversial matters. The speed at which DEI has become a priority for companies highlights this shift. Other social issues, especially economic, health, and educational inequality; climate change; and the stagnation of economic mobility will also demand attention. As social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter approach their 20th birthdays, their impact on society keeps growing. At the same time, newer shifts are happening in the technology arena. Fintech and crypto are creating alternatives to the traditional banking system. Web3 and the metaverse portend a new digital arena for work, commerce, and leisure. Like just a century ago the automobile and breakfast cereal industries had hundreds of players; now we have the Big Three in each—General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler in autos, and Kellogg’s, General Mills, and Post in cereal. History shows that navigating periods of consolidation requires different leadership qualities than navigating periods of creation does. The new zeitgeist will require executives with the instincts to deal with shifting external forces, the ability to sense fresh economic opportunities, and the skills to lead and manage in a different age. We can expect the creation of new tools to support activities that blossomed during the pandemic, such as work from anywhere, entertainment streaming, and telehealth. For managers who excel at leveraging economies of scale and scope and consolidating industries with too many players, there may be breaks in maturing fields such as cloud computing, software as a service, and cybersecurity. A large potential barrier to readiness in the organization is culture. Low cultural readiness takes the form of bureaucratic, reactive, and risk-averse ways of working that are against the collaborative, proactive learning mindset needed for ambitious transformation. The concept of cyber security culture refers to?the attitudes, knowledge, assumptions, norms, and values of the workforce of an organization with respect to cyber security. These are shaped by the goals, structure, policies, processes, and leadership of the organization.

ROBUST STRUCTURE TO PROTECT FROM THREAT

If a company hopes to operate differently, it could mean the need for organizing in an alternative way. CEOs will often need to lead the reorganization of teams, assignment of new roles, revision of incentives, and strategies to collapse organizational hierarchies or layers to increase agility. An analysis of the international security environment reveals that there is an upward linear trend in the efforts and tools to achieve cybersecurity. All actors, including states, institutions, companies, and individuals, seek to find the best ways to achieve the desired goals and objectives in the field of cybersecurity. With the acceleration of technological progress and increased global interdependence in the context of the 4th Industrial Revolution, the world is experiencing a continuous increase in cyber threats of all kinds, including cybercrime, terrorism, cyber espionage, and cyber wars. Unparalleled systemic security risks and threats are discouraging growth at the national and global levels. The world of cybersecurity is constantly facing more penetration attempts and threats that require being prepared to address them. We explore the most important cyber shifts and threats that the world may witness during 2023, based on the monitoring and tracking of main developments in the field of cybersecurity during previous years. It also seeks to explore ways and requirements to combat escalating cyber threats.

Cyber system landscape in 2022 and before

One of the most important areas of cyber transformation in 2022 was the realization by many countries and institutions that cyber capabilities have become an integral tool for exercising influence and achieving superiority and competitiveness. In this context, many countries have developed national policies and strategies to keep pace with the strides of development in the 4th IR, especially after the escalation of international skirmishes in cyberspace. Such skirmishes have become an integral part of international interactions considering the remarkable increase in rates of cyberattacks and cyber threats. As an expected result of this international cyber scramble, the global defense cybersecurity market was valued at USD 16.22 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach USD 28.53 billion by 2026, registering a compound annual growth rate of approximately 10.51% during the forecast period (2021-2026). At the regional level, Asia-Pacific is the fastest-growing cybersecurity market, while North America is the largest. The Middle East cybersecurity market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17.1%, from USD 20.3 billion in 2022 to USD 44.7 billion in 2027. Currently amounting to nearly 4.7 million people, the cybersecurity workforce in 2022 grew by 11.1% over the previous year. However, the sector still suffers from a gap between the size of the actual workforce and that of the required workforce, estimated at 3.4 million people. With an annual increase in the workforce gap of 26.2%, cybersecurity is one of the economic sectors facing an acute scarcity of talented workers. In 2022, cyberattacks increased considerably. As far as the defense sector is concerned, with the increasing dependence of military organizations on the internet, the frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks are on the rise. Cyber threats seek to damage or disrupt information systems and hack critical information using various means, such as spyware, malware, phishing, and malicious attachments. Efforts were also made to hack prominent companies such as Microsoft, Nvidia, and Grand Theft Auto maker Rockstar Games, usual corporations, hospitals, schools, and government agencies in countries like Costa Rica, Montenegro, and Albania all suffered damaging ransomware attacks. In Costa Rica, for example, the government declared a national emergency for the first time after a ransomware attack on its institutions. In Albania, the government expelled Iranian diplomats from the country, also a first in the history of cybersecurity, following a destructive cyberattack by Iranian actors. ?Trend Micro, a leading company in cybersecurity solutions, recorded an increase in the number of cyberattacks in the first six months of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021. Ransomware-as-a-service methods brought significant profits to ransomware developers and subsidiaries. Trend Micro blocked 63 billion threats in the first half of 2022, which is 52% more in the first half of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021. Government, manufacturing, and healthcare were the top three sectors targeted by ransomware. A rise was also recorded in the number of cryptocurrency hacks in 2022, as hackers stole at least USD 3 billion in crypto during 2022. This prompted major countries to invest more in cybersecurity and conduct a lot of R &D activities in the field of AI in order to obtain new low-cost, versatile applications across civil and military contexts.

The UAE the most important effort is the formation of a federal electronic network (FedNet) that allows interconnection and data exchange between all local and federal entities in the country while enhancing communication channels between them using a unified and secure technological structure. The UAE also established the National Computer Emergency Response Team (aeCERT), which aims to improve information security standards and practices and protect the infrastructure of the communications and information technology sector from Internet risks and intrusions. Several initiatives have been taken in electronic safety, such as the Salim Awareness Initiative, the Emirates Cyber Ambassadors, the Cyber Extortion Initiative, the Cyber C3 Initiative, the Digital Citizenship Certificate, and the Cyber Pulse initiative. The latter seeks to combine the efforts initiated by the UAE in the field of cyber safety. The Cyber Security Council has carried out a continuous series of training programs for different sectors and segments of society in the UAE to enhance the culture of social responsibility and secure the country’s cyberspace, which would contribute to promoting the concept of cyber national loyalty. The efforts made by the UAE also include the enactment of the Law on Countering Rumors and Cybercrimes, which is one of the first laws in the region to criminalize acts or crimes that take place through the use of information technology, given their gravity and the consequent harm to the interests of the state and its agencies. The UAE also issued the National Cybersecurity Strategy with the aim of creating a safe and solid cyber environment for individuals and businesses while supporting cyber security standards. ?According to the “We the UAE 2031” vision, the UAE aims to be among the first three countries in the field of cybersecurity. UAE efforts in the field of cybersecurity have won global recognition. Indeed, the UAE Cybersecurity Council was awarded the Global Achievement Award 2022 in the “Government Professionalism Award” category for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa by (ISC), an international cybersecurity organization. The Council has also joined the Gartner Research Board, which reflects the advanced position of the UAE globally and its pioneering role in the field of cybersecurity.

?CAPABILITIES

CEOs need to equip their organization with four key capabilities to harness digital for a superior capacity for change. These are nimbleness, scalability, stability, and optionality which are often enabled or supercharged by digital technologies and are critical factors for competing in an increasingly disrupted world.

In 2021, the WEF and its partners, with the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), Internet Security Alliance (ISA), and PwC, published the?Principles for Board Governance of Cyber Risk?(the Forum’s Cyber Risk Principles), critical to driving resilience across industries. This guidance (initially developed for corporate boards of directors) is summarized in six principles: Recognize that cybersecurity is a strategic business enabler, Understand the economic drivers and impact of cyber risk, Align cyber risk management with business needs, Ensure organizational design supports cybersecurity, Incorporate cybersecurity expertise into board governance, and Encourage systemic resilience and collaboration. For now, one of the CEO's most important roles when steering the ship through disruption is to be ahead of the latest trends and tackle change head-on. By embracing a new digital future that will provide the company with long-lasting benefits, it will help create a brighter and future-proofed firm for years to come even after the CEO is gone. We look into the supply chain production process of Easter Eggs and the journey to their final destinations in supermarkets. Here are five of the biggest procurement events happening during 2023 that chief procurement officers won’t want to miss. Companies' cybersecurity and resilience are increasingly scrutinized by investors and regulators. The WEF's Cyber Risk Principles help drive cyber resilience across industries. Simulation-aided research from MIT CAMS shows that commitment to and adoption of the WEF's Cyber Risk Principles significantly improves cyber resilience. Results also show that, contrary to expectations, commitment to these cyber risk principles does not raise costs. Record digitalization in our society has pushed many business leaders and executives to understand how they can adequately assess and govern cyber risk. Governing cyber risk is a holistic process aiming to improve organizational cyber resilience. In this context, governments define?cyber resilience obligations, designate?critical infrastructure?that requires mandatory protection and help investors?better compare?their companies’ cyber efforts.

Effectively managing cyber resilience is necessary as organizations and executives face fines and other serious consequences. Potential repercussions mean board members must understand cyber risks and the best ways to mitigate them. This is a tough task. easier said than done. 93% of companies are confident in their best practices mitigating cyber risks, while 57% expect to be?hit by a cyber-attack. Sadly, only half of these organizations have implemented suitable cyber measures. The principle represents a significantly different approach to resilience compared to?how organizations?delegate cyber security to IT, have a misplaced perception of the strategic nature of cyber risk, and keep breaches under wrap. A misplaced perception of the strategic nature of cyber risks can have enormous consequences. For instance, software company Kasaye?experienced?a ransomware attack in July 2021, which caused the postponement of their planned initial public offering (IPO) until further notice, leading them to?fail to raise?an estimated $875 million. Moreover, SolarWinds, breached in 2019, had specific advertising techniques to display their commercial success stories of?high-profile customers, ultimately providing a “shopping list” for the adversary. With cyber risk a vital issue on leaders’ agendas, MIT CAMS has?developed?a method to improve leaders’ abilities to foresee and manage cyber risks. This technology, referred to as a cyber risk dashboard, is grounded in control theory and system dynamics and is built on significant research in the field, including interviews with chief information security officers (CISOs). It has been validated over the years at a Fortune 500 company by analyzing a wide range of strategic cyber risk challenges. The dashboard closely mimics the cyber risk decision-making ecosystem. It considers current defense posture and development of attack tactics, emerging cyber incidents, and changing organizations in terms of people, processes, and technology. The cyber risk dashboard provides the means to make projections according to the performance indicators of an organization’s cybersecurity strategy. This work can be easily adapted for other strategic analyses. MIT CAMs used a simulation-added approach to understand organizational behavior when adapting the Forum’s Cyber Risk Principles. The use of?personas?– artificial decision-makers profiles with specific characteristics that drive their cyber risk management strategy – is a scientifically grounded approach to exploring the behavioral side of cyber risk management. Using the personas of different organizations to drive strategic decision-making, this simulation technology can foresee the future impact of their strategy. In this analysis, we also reuse data from our anonymized case study at a Fortune-500 company called Smart Wealth Management Inc.

The cyber-conscious CEO(CC-CEO)/ The WEF-resilient CEO (WEF-CEO)

This CEO might be aware of the principles but has yet to adopt them (yet). This CEO focuses on reasonable compliance with security standards and controls security costs. Increasing workload and lack of security resources drive a more reactive approach to cyber risk. Another ?CEO is cyber-conscious but has gone further by adopting the Forum’s Cyber Risk Principles to foster resilience. He or she may be a signatory to the Forum's?Cyber Resilience Pledge. This CEO has a proactive and anticipatory approach to threats, knows how their technology drives their business, and focuses on maintaining business performance and cyber risk cost predictions.

The WEF-CEO likely has lower costs than the CC-CEO. The major difference between these two scenarios is in the allocation of task priorities and cyber risk efforts of the security staff. The CC-CEO has ongoing efforts that require additional staff resources to support response and recovery processes, execute post-mortem research, and adjust and improve security capabilities accordingly. The WEF-CEO-implemented security by design has an ongoing proactive capability adjustment and improvement (including continuous automation) and has implemented regular board-level cyber risk dashboarding and reporting. Adopting the Forum’s Cyber Risk Principles demonstrates that individual organizations can significantly improve their cyber resilience without raising costs. In these simulations, adopting the principles proved valuable. In practice, interconnectedness and connectivity between organizations introduce new interdependencies, which will be explored through further research and simulations. The current findings in themselves, however, make a strong case for organizations to adopt the Forum’s Cyber Risk Principles.

Conclusion

The 4th IR is based on fusing technologies across the physical, digital, and biological worlds, and on cyber-physical systems, which merge the real and virtual worlds. The Fourth Industrial Revolution constitutes a fundamental change in the environment in which we live, the way we work, and the ways in which we relate to each other. Among the most important features of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which are inseparable from the promotion of cybersecurity, are artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, the Internet of Services, robots, big data, virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, metaverse technology, blockchain technology, and 3D printing technology. As we progress through 2023, CEOs' agenda will be shaped by five major factors: performance, digital, organization, supply chain, and sustainability. Business leaders have been driving their organizations forward in the wake of post-pandemic disruptions in the last three years. Reviving closed operations, keeping up with a volatile economy, and transforming existing ways of doing business to suit the changing workforce are just a few challenges that have been on top of the agenda for CEOs. As we step into 2023 the top priorities for the CEOs will be protecting profits, driving digital transformation, organizing for the future, securing supply chains, and striving for sustainability. By working closely with our customers at every step of the way we ensure that we capture the dedication, enthusiasm, and passion which has driven change within their organizations and inspire others with motivational real-life stories. These five areas will be a priority area for cyber-era CEO which are protecting profits, driving Digital Transformation, organizing for the future, securing supply chains, and striving for sustainability.

The complexity of modern cybersecurity requires rapid cooperation between various stakeholders in order to combat electronic threats to sectors, individuals, and even entire countries. International collective action is the only way to reach the desired results to confront the dangers and threats of cybersecurity. In other words, a strong cybersecurity alliance must be built in which all countries and multilateral organizations participate. The human element is still the weakest link in this field; research has shown that 88% of security breaches occur as a result of human errors. Therefore, priority must be given to investing in raising cybersecurity awareness, strengthening educational and training programs for users and professionals, and improving the culture of security within organizations and companies. Emphasis should also be placed on enhancing youth capabilities in cybersecurity as one of the basic ingredients for business development in light of increasing reliance on digital technologies. 2023 will see many digital battles and cyber threats. Therefore, countries must develop their technologies and raise their readiness to avoid the risks and consequences of those cyber battles, which will not end in any way. It also requires establishing international task forces to combat cyberattacks, actively sharing information between the public and private sectors, and taking joint steps to stop malicious cybersecurity actors.