This week, how cybersecurity experts can meet the new challenges generated by the pandemic. Plus, a snapshot of consumer sentiment around the globe, and McKinsey senior partner Aaron De Smet on leading through a crisis. |
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As the coronavirus pandemic spreads, corporate leaders are doing all they can to keep their people safe, stay on top of their businesses, and deal with uncertainty as conditions constantly shift. |
There’s no question that it has become harder to maintain standards in one key area: cybersecurity. As millions have transitioned to working from home, the strain on computer networks has soared, presenting vulnerabilities to hacking. And ransomware attacks and other cybercrimes are on the rise during the pandemic, Europol says. |
Prioritizing is key. Chief information security officers (CISOs) and their teams have two immediate priorities: securing work-from-home arrangements on a massive scale and maintaining the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of consumer-facing network traffic as volumes spike. Recent discussions with cybersecurity leaders suggest that teams can take several actions to get there. |
Even with stronger technology controls, employees working from home must still exercise good judgment to maintain information security. The added stress many people feel can make them more prone to social-engineering attacks. Building a “human firewall” will help ensure that employees who work from home do their part to keep the enterprise secure. |
New research reveals concerns. A recent joint survey on cyber resilience by the Institute of International Finance and McKinsey found significant concerns about third-party security. Nearly a third of financial-services firms do not have proper vendor remote-access management with multifactor-authentication controls. Firms said they are active in platforms to share threat intelligence and participate frequently in sector-wide cyber exercises. |
In the wake of the pandemic, CISOs must balance protecting against new cyberthreats with maintaining business continuity. Here are four strategic principles that can help. |
The COVID-19 crisis is a human challenge above all else. Everyone is juggling professional responsibilities with important personal ones. The coming weeks and months are likely to bring more uncertainty. By applying strategic principles, CISOs can fulfill their responsibilities to fortify their institutions’ security and keep the business running smoothly during unusual circumstances. |
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OFF THE CHARTS |
Plastics recycling: The next steps |
Plastics waste is a global problem, but the waste is generated locally, and dealing with the problem will require local-level solutions. The research behind our Plastics Recovery and Reuse model is based on detailed analysis and modeling of plastic usage and waste flows, and of their economics across four dimensions. Each of the dimensions is built up from its detailed components. |
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SPOTLIGHT ON |
Global consumer sentiment |
As governments and organizations continue to work to contain the coronavirus and stem its growing humanitarian toll, we are tracking consumer sentiment to gauge how people’s expectations, incomes, spending, and behaviors change throughout the crisis across multiple countries. We’ve found early signs of optimism among Chinese consumers as new cases of COVID-19 appear to stall. In Italy and the United States, on the other hand, consumers are adjusting to dramatic changes in the economy. |
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Enterprise agility: Buzz or business impact? | New research suggests that agile transformation can have a powerful impact on the bottom line. |
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THREE QUESTIONS FOR
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Aaron De Smet |
Aaron De Smet, a senior partner in Houston, counsels leadership teams as they transform their organizations to improve performance, organizational health, speed, and agility. He is also an expert on organizational design, corporate culture, and leadership development.
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The massive scale of the coronavirus outbreak makes it challenging for even seasoned executives. How can they frame their responses? |
Leaders can’t rely on a predefined plan, because it’s likely to be inadequate. What they need instead are behaviors and mindsets that will prevent them from overreacting to yesterday’s developments and help them look ahead. |
They also have to relinquish the belief that a top-down response will mean stability. In routine emergencies, the typical organization can rely on its command-and-control structure to manage operations well by carrying out a scripted response. But in crises characterized by uncertainty, leaders face problems that are unfamiliar and poorly understood. |
A small group of executives at an organization’s highest level cannot collect information or make decisions quickly enough to respond effectively. Leaders can better mobilize their organizations by setting clear priorities for the response and empowering others to discover and implement solutions, through a network of teams, that serve those priorities. |
What characteristics should these newly empowered folks have? |
In routine emergencies, experience is perhaps the most valuable quality that leaders bring. But in a novel, landscape-scale crisis like the pandemic, character is of the utmost importance. Crisis-response leaders must be able to unify teams behind a single purpose and frame questions for them to investigate. The best will display several qualities. One is “deliberate calm,” the ability to detach from a fraught situation and think clearly about how one will navigate it. Deliberate calm is most often found in well-grounded individuals who possess humility but not helplessness. |
It’s important to empower leaders with judgment and character: during business as usual, some people who get ahead are of a certain type. They say the right things, don’t ruffle feathers, know how to navigate the system, and manage messages so that people hear what they want to hear. Many of these usual suspects are ill-suited to lead in a landscape crisis of uncertainty. |
In a crisis, you want people who stay curious and flexible but can still make the tough calls, even if that makes them unpopular. They gather differing perspectives and then make the decisions, with the best interests of the organization (not their careers) in mind, without needing a full consensus. For decisions within their delegated authority, they escalate only the trickiest problems for input or approval. In wartime, you want a Winston Churchill, not a Neville Chamberlain. |
Decision making is always difficult, but now decisions have to be made quickly. How can executives shift that tempo? |
Best practices on decision making are situational. For some types of decisions, those best practices work brilliantly, and for other types they’re terrible. It’s not enough to say, “I have experience, and I know what makes a good decision.” You have to say, “What am I optimizing for?” |
Two cognitive behaviors can aid leaders as they assess and anticipate. One, called updating, involves revising ideas based on new information teams collect and knowledge they develop. The second, doubting, helps leaders consider ongoing and potential actions critically and decide whether they need to be modified, adopted, or discarded. Updating and doubting help leaders mediate their dueling impulses to conceive solutions based on what they’ve done previously and to make up new solutions without drawing on past lessons. Instead, leaders bring their experiences to bear while accepting new insights as they emerge. |
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BACKTALK |
Have feedback or other ideas? We’d love to hear from you. |
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