Cybersecurity As The Portal To Business Value

As an investor, your first (and second...) contact with a new acquisition is not about cybersecurity. But cybersecurity, particularly using a "red-team" approach, is the function that delivers value in every organization. 

How are you leveraging it when you evaluate possible investments?

As our PE friend Matt Wilhelmi says, "The difference between diagnostics and delivered outcomes often comes down to clarity, focus, and leadership follow-through." Your client's or portco's (portfolio company's) cybersecurity function should anticipate the diagnostics that deliver value. 

The best cybersecurity functions are not gate-keepers, they are business partners. That may sound obvious or maybe even counterintuitive. But our review of the cybersecurity landscape shows it to be true always everywhere. When we see that functional positioning, it means staff know what the organization's strategy is, know what markets they're in, and provide cybersecurity as a value proposition. When we don't see it, the cybersecurity function is a line item that reports up every now and then and manages annual training.

Ask yourself this: does your cybersecurity function manage a process, or does it provide actionable intelligence about the organization that creates a value-oriented partnership with you?

Ask us how you can refashion your cybersecurity process to deliver the value you and your own investors expect.