Khwaja's Take: IBM's Think2023, DOMINO 23, John Dalton At The Helm and much more!!

Want to stay up to date on Board and C-suite effectiveness from me? Subscribe to my?newsletter ?for free and get insight on Digitally-savvy Board Effectiveness, Technology, Cybersecurity, and ESG delivered to your inbox every two weeks.

1. SEC Commissioner Lizarraga's Comments At DOMINO 23

I greatly admire Bob Zukis 's efforts and his commitment to make all directors?better digital and cybersecurity directors to shape and secure the digital future.

On May 16th and 17th DOMINO ‘23 convened the leading boardroom network focused on advancing the practice and profession of digital and systemic cyber risk oversight. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission 's Commissioner Jaime Lizarraga gave his keynote. Here are few highlights:

• Cyberattacks and data breaches can have devastating impacts on companies and their customers and undermine investor and market confidence, often resulting in hundreds of millions of records stolen and billions in damages to victims.
• One of key aims is to protect the investing public against potentially significant financial and reputational costs from cyberattacks and data breaches.
• The SEC is taking action to require market participants to strengthen their cybersecurity practices to protect the investing public against potentially significant financial and reputational costs from cyberattacks and data breaches.
• The Commission has proposed several rules that aim to protect investors by requiring covered market entities to implement more robust cybersecurity practices and mitigate risks to themselves, their customers, and markets.
• The Commission is updating some of its outdated rules to keep pace with emerging risks driven by technological change and other factors. The?financial firms covered by the rule must notify individuals if their sensitive information is compromised in a data breach.

Data privacy, digital trust, global technology tensions, and counterterrorism are pressing challenges that the board must fully understand. -Khwaja Shaik, Board Advisor

• The Commission has proposed five rule proposals that would require issuers, funds, intermediaries, self-regulatory organizations (SROs), and other registrants to adopt and implement effective cybersecurity policies and procedures, including disclosures to the Commission and the public about significant cybersecurity incidents and risks, notification to customers if their personal information is compromised, and more robust cybersecurity practices for certain significant market infrastructures and key market participants.

In addition to public disclosure of material cybersecurity incidents on Form 8-K, updated disclosures on Forms 10-Q and 10-K, and disclosure regarding policies and procedures, the proposal would require disclosure of management’s role in governing those risks. -Jaime Lizarraga, Security Exchange Commission Commisioner

• Board-level management and oversight are critical parts of a company’s overall cyber risk management. Improved disclosures will provide investors with critical information that will enable them to better assess whether and how companies are managing their cybersecurity risks.?

?The SEC's New rule requires disclosure of cybersecurity expertise on public company's board of directors.

• Artificial intelligence as an emerging technology raises important questions about its possible risks to our financial markets.

If you are not asking the right questions, and measuring risks consistently, you have no mitigation plans if you ever get attacked. Cybersecurity expertise is so essential to modern boards. -Khwaja Shaik, Board Advisor

2. What Boards can learn from Think 2023

IBM had a big announcement at Think 2023 with watsonx . Here are some takeaways from the Board Oversight standpoint.

• Technology is the answer for the current business challenges: supply chain disruptions, tight labor markets, sustainability requirements?and an ever-growing variety of security threats.

With the development of foundation models, AI for business is more powerful than ever. - Arvind Krishna , IBM Chairman and CEO

• I have seen most Boards struggle with decision-making in balancing short-term and long-term needs for value creation. Hybrid Cloud achieves both CAPEX and OPEX savings, including greater productivity, faster insights, better decision-making, and enhanced employee and customer experiences.

Hybrid Cloud is the architecture of choice for both short-term and long-term value creation. - Khwaja Shaik , Board Advisor

Watch the replay

IBM 's Rob Thomas highlighted AI for everyone. The transition from +AI to “AI-First” and how businesses can best utilize AI to transform how work gets done has arrived.

Watch the replay

• Infuse AI into Security to keep up with threat actors.

Digital labor, customer care, IT Operations, ESG and cybersecurity are the high value use cases that no board should ignore. -Khwaja Shaik, Board Advisor

• AI and Data are the building blocks to close the ESG gap.

There won't be "one AI model to rule them all." Targeting the right model for the right task is key. - Dario Gil , SVP, IBM Research

• If you are not using AI in your contact centers then the time to act is NOW.

IBM 's collaboration with Hugging Face is the true differentiator in the marketplace. It is so essential for businesses to infuse digital trust through open-source AI models as data belongs to the creator. -Khwaja Shaik, Board Advisor

3. My conversation with John H. Dalton, 70th Secretary of the Navy.

John Dalton rose from humble beginnings and his life was filled with successes and failures in both public and private sectors. Dalton navigated through these challenges with determination and resilience. His story serves as an inspiration for all.

Spending time with him taught me valuable life lessons. Secretary of the Navy John Dalton led the Navy and the Marine Corps through one of the most challenging periods of modern times.

If you want to lead with values and need inspiration, look no further than John's leadership successes and failures -compassion, discipline, toughness, and concern for others. -Khwaja Shaik, Board Advisor

John's life serves as an inspiration to anyone who want to make the world a better place.

Always cherish family and friends; find ways to serve your country, state, or community; treat everyone you meet with dignity and respect; strive for self-improvement; remain humble and trust in God. -John H. Dalton, 70th Secretary of the Navy

Get more insights from John's book -John H. Dalton At The Helm .

Like what you see or want to share this with a friend??Subscribe?here ?and?browse my previous?newsletters and articles ?here.

ABOUT KHWAJA SHAIK

KHWAJA SHAIK?is the award-winning C-level Global IT Executive with 25+ years of technology, industry, and board leadership with?IBM ,?Bank of America ?&?PwC . He was recognized globally for turning visionary thinking into breakthrough growth.?As one of?IBM’s CTOs, Khwaja counsels CEOs, Boards, and Startups on corporate strategy, digital transformation, AI, Cybersecurity, ESG, and culture shifts to unlock performance.

Using his innovative mindset, he saved $1.1 billion per year for Bank of America by transforming the Global IT Operating model and future-proofed business by mitigating risk and infusing new?fintech. Khwaja has 20 years of experience in the highly?regulated banking and financial services?industry.?

In addition, as a Big5 thought leader at?PwC , he incubated new businesses, reshaped business and?platform operating models— digitized end-to-end business processes to capture value, and protected firms from?cyberattacks?through AI & the cloud.

Khwaja has a history of leading over $10B digital business transformations by scaling Agile practices for cost optimization, revenue-generation, and societal transformation imperatives. It includes digital business optimization and using digital business models to capture profitable growth, customer lifetime value & competitive advantage to Fortune 500 firms.

Khwaja transformed the Omnichannel customer experience by delivering world's largest next-gen Contact Center platform as part of BAC's M&A (CFC, MBNA, Fleet etc.) by replacing aging telephony system with VoIP. Contact Center platform serves 1 billion calls, 500K interactions annually and 300 million outbound calls annually to support multichannel strategy

In 2016, Khwaja was among the most exceptional IBMers appointed with the rare distinction of IBM Academy of Technology member. In 2020, Khwaja was recognized as IBM’s senior inventor and top 100 technical leaders driving technology ethics and data stewardship, providing the direction of IBM on societal transformation with responsible innovation that matters.

Service to others has been a part of Khwaja’s purpose. Khwaja promotes economic equity, social responsibility, diversity, and inclusion for the prosperity of all -the reinvention of education through innovative programs such as Open P-TECH. Due to his holistic stakeholder engagement in the industry, partner ecosystem, and?community, Khwaja received several service awards from IBM, Bank of America, University of North Florida, Indo US Chamber of Commerce of Northeast Florida, and 2022 ORBIE Awards FloridaCIO Finalist.

Khwaja serves on the boards of directors of the?Museum of Science & History , UNF School of?Computing Advisory Board ,?TECt, ?MIT ?CIO Forum,?and McKinsey Executive Panel. Khwaja regularly writes on?LinkedIn ,?Twitter ?and regularly?interviewed ?for?industry insights ?or cited in the?news ,?Thought Leadership POVs . He is a frequent international speaker at elite universities, including IIT Hyderabad, CIO IT & Security Forum, MHI Supply Chain Conference, and JAX Chamber IT Council.

Khwaja is a Fellow of?Herndon Directors Institute , sponsored by?Nasdaq ?and?Atlanta Life Insurance Company . Khwaja holds an MBA and a bachelor’s degree in Engineering. Khwaja lived on three continents, experienced three different cultures, reads too much, doesn’t do enough gardening, married for over 22 years, and has two boys.

?More details on Khwaja’s career and thought leadership activities could be found via?Linkedin, ?Khwajashaik.com ?or follow him on Twitter @Khwaja_Shaik

"The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies, or opinions."