Strategically Thinking Senior Executives Need to Take a New View of the Digital World

Stephanie Jones, Sam Curry

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Many companies and their leadership teams are intimidated by the digital world and the dark, mysterious risks from cyber threats. Many Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) do not understand the implications of increasing digital transformation and their increasing exposure to cybercrime-but they must. So, from both an academic and practical perspective, the authors of this paper have interviewed several Chief Security Officers (CSOs) and analyzed their remarks from a leadership perspective-it is only human to not understand the digital world, and to see the security function as a technical niche, but business leaders have an enormous and scary gap to bridge, and mounting pressures to do so. Arguably, the skills/abilities required for engaging in responsible leadership include the appreciation of risk-even risks such as digital issues and cyber security challenges which the typical business leader barely understands. Some companies are more responsive to global problems such as cybercrime than others-and much of this response depends on how seriously they take their digital transformation and if they listen to their cyber security experts.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages8
JournalThe Effective Executive
Volume24
Issue number4
Publication statusPublished - 2021
Externally publishedYes

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