A CEO, CIO And CISO Walk Into A Bar...

The CEO of the Amazing Company says to the bartender, “I’ll have a glass of tequila.” The CIO steps up and says, “Hit me with a glass of ice.” Finally, the CISO adds, “You know what, I’ll have a glass of lime juice.” 

The bartender looks at them curiously as he sets their orders down on the bar. The CEO then looks at the three glasses and says, “You know what, it’s awfully hot out. Hottest it’s been in a long time. It sure would be nice to have a cold drink.” “Yeah it would indeed,” adds the CISO. 

The CIO, being a woman of action, then immediately grabs all three glasses. “Wait, use the pitcher,” says the CISO instinctively knowing what she’s up to, “so you don’t spill any.” The CIO then proceeds to pour all three glasses together in the pitcher, and then re-fills each glass.

“Wow, you guys sure know how to get things done,” says the CEO as he takes a drink. “Hey, that’s really good!” 

The CISO grabs his glass and takes a big gulp, “Wow, amazing.” The CIO then takes a drink and adds a satisfying “Ahhhhhhhh...delicious.” “Combining our three drinks really made one amazing drink,” exclaims the CEO. 

“Well you had the vision, I made it happen and our CISO made sure we didn’t have any problems along the way,” exclaims the CIO. “Who would have thought a CEO, CIO and CISO could make something so amazing. The combined drink is a hundred times better than what we each ordered. This has to be the best drink in the world,” she declares.

“Hey, has anybody seen our Chairman — I bet he’d like this,” she asks. 

Just then the Amazing Company Chairman of the Board bursts through the door, dripping in sweat. “Wow, what happened to you,” asks the CEO.

Huffing and puffing the Chairman says, “My Uber driver had a flat tire. I had to walk the last two miles.” “Flat tire? Didn’t he have a spare?” asks the perplexed CISO. “No, not sure why he didn’t. But when that tire went flat, it sure did turn that entire car into a 4,000 pound brick.” 

The CEO, CIO and CISO all give each other a quick and knowing glance. 

“Actually, it was kind of a flashback to our last board meeting,” the out of breath Chairman recalls. “Remember when you guys came into the boardroom talking about systemic risk in our digital environment. You know, the risk of a component failure contaminating the entire digital and business system?”  

“Yeah exactly,” declare the CIO and CISO in unison. They laugh and high five each other. “We learned that lesson from the financial crisis in 2008 when we saw how risk spread across the entire financial system,” says the CISO.

“We took that lesson about systemic risk and recognized that we were running a complicated business driven by a very complex digital system with a ton of systemic risk inherent in the system. You know, if one of our cloud providers went down, can we transact, those kind of issues. Also, what about our connections to third-parties? If they get breached, what data is impacted and how could that spill over into our systems and business? Is there a regulatory issue across our 30 global markets, what about our risk communications? Who do we need to talk to and who does the talking?” says the CISO.

The CIO then adds in, “So we started to look at and understand component and systemic risk across our entire digital environment and how it enabled our business. Wow, did it open our eyes. We had to rethink our risk management approach and understand how the parts of our digital world work together to try to identify if we had potential digital ‘flat tires’ of our own. We knew if we didn’t figure it out, the upside of revenue growth and profitability and the downside of cybersecurity risk could all be impacted.”

“That’s why I love you guys,” declares the Chairman. “You figured it out and you get it, like others don’t. And you also helped the board understand these issues. Now our technology and cybersecurity committee and the digital directors we now have on that focused committee really comprehend these issues. I don’t think the directors on our audit committee had the time or ever understood this stuff. The board and you guys now speak the same language. With 85% of enterprise value being driven by intangible assets these days, we absolutely have to understand digital risk in this way to do our jobs as corporate directors.” 

“Hey, by the way what are you drinking, that looks good,” he asks. “We don’t know what to call it,” says the CEO, “but here we’ll get you a glass.” The CISO then chimes in, “You know, I heard Uber’s audit committee oversees their cybersecurity risk.” 

“Hah, no wonder. It must still be like 2010 over there for them, what an antiquated approach,” says the Chairman. “Well, I’m just glad we’ve got such a great team from the board on down that understands this new complex digital world we live in. And on top of that we’re now taking a meaningful approach to the complexity of these issues. There are never guarantees on risk and the digital world is constantly changing, but I know we’re positioned for long-term success with this approach. Being on top of systemic digital risk throughout our business sure is a value driver and that’s what our stakeholders want and expect, it’s table stakes.” He pauses, raises his glass and says, “To the best team in the world, thank you guys.” 

And so it was, that hot and sweltering day. The Chairman, CEO, CIO and CISO of the Amazing Company laughed that afternoon like they hadn’t laughed in a long time as they enjoyed their delicious, albeit nameless beverages. They were safe and secure in a rapidly changing digital world rife with risks and peril, but also opportunity — glorious value creating digital opportunity. 

The blistering and frightening digital world outside soon started to fade away. From the board on down, an amazing approach to understanding systemic risk in complex digital systems had come together with an amazing team who were now enjoying an amazing drink — becoming something better together, than they ever could have become on their own.   

The Chairman let out a big smile as he proudly looked at his team. He knew the digital future was safe and secure at the Amazing Company.  

And so they lived, happily ever after.

The End.