Business Resilience

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Business Resilience

Q&A

Q&A with Robert Herjavec Mediaplanet spoke with cybersecurity expert and CEO of Herjavec Group, Robert Herjavec, to discuss the importance of cyber resilience and how the cybersecurity landscape has changed over the past year.

What business priorities have the unprecedented disruptions caused by the pandemic brought to the forefront?

Today, cybersecurity must be a leading business priority for companies of any size.

Whether you’re selling custom T-shirts on Shopify, or you’re the largest online retailer in the world, all businesses are vulnerable to data breaches and malware.

I went on the record this past January saying that this will be the year we look back on in terms of the heightened impacts of nation-state attacks and emerging threats — and boy was I right! Targeted attacks like those against the SolarWinds supply chain and the Colonial Pipeline were only the beginning. The cybersecurity challenges we continue to face in 2021 have been varied, frequent, and demanding.

With the increased digitization of business operations, and so much of the workforce now working remotely, how has the role of cybersecurity changed?

The traditional cybersecurity perimeter has disappeared. The new edge of the network is the individual, and protecting that identity is critical to your cybersecurity infrastructure.

Now, as companies have transitioned to more of a digital business model, data is being generated and shared both internally and externally at a rapid pace without the traditional defences in place.

Excessive employee access is one of the fastest-growing unmanaged risks to the protection of critical enterprise data.

Identity and access management (IAM) has become a top priority for cybersecurity.

It helps enterprises proactively reduce the risk of security breaches and protect corporate data in order to safeguard their business’ reputation, legal responsibilities, and financial well-being.

How can organizations ensure that the right people are accessing the right data at the right time as their digital footprint becomes more complex?

IAM is key! We’ve seen this need increase across our client base at Herjavec Group.

Cloud-based work and online accessibility are now essential, and it’s not just internal teams that are accessing your network.

Clients, vendors, and partners require it, too, which is why establishing a strong identity governance program is crucial.

Identity Governance is one of the pillars of IAM that allows your cybersecurity team to decide who has access to what and when — a critical capability when you have internal and external parties requiring access to different parts of your enterprise network.

Creating a common and mutually understandable process and language of access between your IT team and other business departments will reduce risks and improve your security posture to handle a growing digital footprint.

What can organizations do to prepare against cyber threats and protect their data before they find themselves under attack?

The absolute worst time to decide how to handle an incident is AFTER it occurs — you have to plan ahead. The pandemic drastically affected the way cybersecurity professionals detect, manage, respond, and secure.

Prioritizing cybersecurity isn't optional.

It's your obligation as a business leader to secure your mission-critical assets, your employee data, and your customer data — full stop. In order to do this, you have to balance your security environment with preventative and defensive security measures, which include gaining visibility across endpoints, regularly scanning your network, and leveraging third-party support in the form of managed security services: both managed detection and response and incident response services.

Ransomware has been a hot topic recently. Why has it been so prevalent and what can organizations do to protect themselves?

Cybercrime and cybersecurity are in a constant battle — both sides are always working to outwit the other! Unfortunately, one way cybercriminals have attempted to find success is by taking advantage of vulnerable situations like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Simple but sophisticated tactics like phishing emails that prey on the anxiety surrounding the coronavirus and remote work environments connected to unsecured networks have caused the frequency and cost of ransomware attacks to skyrocket.

Herjavec Group’s Threat Hunting Services team recently analyzed the most active ransomware operations and reported on the highest-impact adversaries in the State of Ransomware in 2021 Report. According to the report, the best way to defend your enterprise from a breach is to start with implementing proper IAM protocols, leveraging privileged access management best practices, and educating your team on how to identify spam and phishing emails and what to do when they receive them.

Publisher: Michael Taylor Business Development Manager: Julia Colavecchia Country Manager: Nina Theodorlis Content and Production Manager: Raymond Fan Designer: Filip Jansky Web Editor: Karthik Talwar All images are from Getty Images unless otherwise credited. This section was created by Mediaplanet and did not involve National Post or its editorial departments. Send all inquiries to ca.editorial@mediaplanet.com.

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INSIGHT

Staying Agile and Innovative Post-COVID: Critical Insights for Business Leaders What’s in store post-pandemic? No one knows for sure, but the KPMG CEO Outlook report offers a unique lens on evolving attitudes.

Tania Amardeil

C

anadian business leaders and decision-makers have faced myriad challenges throughout the pandemic, from building financial and operational resilience to digitizing their businesses and processes to managing employee engagement and customer interactions. Every industry has been impacted differently by the pandemic — for example, an airline’s challenges are vastly different from the challenges that a financial institution has faced over the past 15 months — but most Canadian companies have something in common: they’ve navigated business resilience, risk management, and unprecedented disruption in an entirely new way.

issues also need to be addressed. In the same March 2021 poll, 54 percent said their mental health has suffered during the pandemic. Leaders must consider their role in terms of helping their team deal with stress and burnout.

Supported by the right technology tools and digital processes, a hybrid work environment will allow teams to collaborate efficiently when needed, while also accommodating flexibility and independence.

54% of surveyed Canadians say their mental health has suffered during the pandemic

Improving resilience and business continuity

According to global CEOs, the top five risks are climate/ environmental risk, disruptive tech risk, supply chain risk, cyber risk, and regulatory risk

A fine balance: responding to uncertainty and unique risks

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought extraordinary unpredictability to the world’s business landscape. Business leaders have had to learn how to maintain agility while responding to uncertainty and unique risks across the enterprise.

In its 2021 CEO Outlook Pulse report, KPMG in Canada — a leader in delivering audit, tax, and business advisory services — found that according to global CEOs, the top five risks are climate/environmental risk, disruptive tech risk, supply chain risk, cyber risk, and regulatory risk.

The report also found that despite these challenges, Canadian leaders are moving forward with a sense of confidence and persistence.

“In our report, 84 percent of Canadian CEOs said they’re confident in the growth of their company over the next three years,” says Stephanie Terrill, Business Unit Leader of Management Consulting at KPMG in Canada. “This confidence is a sign of resilience and optimism. Wherever there’s disruption, there’s always opportunity.

Having a growth mindset and an agile mindset is critical.”

Real-life scenario testing can go a long way toward improving operational resilience and business continuity — whether it’s a “what if” simulation around supply chain disruption or war-gaming for cybersecurity.

“Operational resilience scenario testing has become much more sophisticated now that organizations have seen a ‘black swan’ event,” says Telem. “Using stress testing and simulation technology, we run different scenarios and look at how they would affect a business’ various departments. Often, there’s a solution and a company can pivot.”

It’s important for organizations to define and adopt a risk appetite level, too. “Have a framework where you define the areas where you absolutely won’t accept risk,” advises Telem. “Then, you can focus more on protecting your most critical systems and information.”

43% of Canadian CEOs say the pandemic "forever changed" their business

Evaluating the future of work and embracing a hybrid model Canadian business leaders’ resilience has also come to the forefront when evaluating the future of work.

Will knowledge workers return to the office? A KPMG poll released in March 2021 showed a trend of virtual fatigue and declining satisfaction with work-from-home scenarios, and its team expects to see more hybrid workplaces in the future. In fact, 77 percent of Canadians believe a hybrid workplace, or hybrid office, should be the standard model for all organizations.

“When it comes to remote working and virtual transactions, flexibility is the number one benefit,” says Doron Telem, National Leader of Risk Consulting at KPMG in Canada. Access to specialists and talent from around the world is another benefit. But there are risks to virtual work environments, too.

“We see many employers working to foster greater resilience among their people: maintaining culture in a digital world, onboarding new talent, retention, and loyalty,” says Terrill. Cybersecurity is another key concern, with ransomware, identity theft, payment fraud, and other cyber incursions on the rise as a result of more employees working remotely. Employee mental health

84% of Canadian CEOs say they’re confident in the growth of their company over the next three years

Stephanie Terrill Business Unit Leader of Management Consulting in Canada, KPMG

The importance of optimizing costs and driving innovation

Despite their overall confidence and optimism, 43 percent of Canadian CEOs say the pandemic "forever changed" their business. It’s never been more vital for business leaders to optimize costs, stay agile, and innovate.

“Financial resilience is about keeping your eye on the balance sheet and your cash flow, and ensuring that you’re maintaining adequate liquidity,” says Terrill.

“It’s also about becoming hyper-flexible,” adds Telem. “Organizations with the ability to pivot and rapidly scale their expenses up or down as required can build stronger resilience.”

Operational and performance improvement, such as automating workflows to create efficiency, is also vital to optimize costs and efficiency. Encouragingly, KPMG’s study found that 84 percent of Canadian CEOs are placing more capital investment in buying new technology.

Investing in innovation and disruptive technologies

Doron Telem National Leader of Risk Consulting in Canada, KPMG

84% of Canadian CEOs are placing more capital investment in buying new technology

“We’ve seen organizations looking for new online revenue sources, so the disruption has also really driven a focus on innovation, which has been great to see,” says Terrill. “Our data indicates CEOs are planning to continue to invest in innovation and disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, digital communications platforms, and data and analytics. We’re hoping that this will remain post-pandemic, and put Canada in a good place on the global economic stage.”

With 91 percent of CEOs wanting corporate Canada to think bigger by making significant investments in technology and people, and with Canadian organizations embracing digitization and agile operating models, it's clear that many business leaders are rising to the challenge of our new reality.

To learn more, visit home.kpmg/ca/ advisory.

This article was sponsored by KPMG.

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INSIGHT

How Businesses Can Keep Customers at the Centre — Even When Disaster Strikes Businesses need to provide excellent customer service and engagement even during times of crisis. Avaya OneCloud CPaaS helps businesses build that resiliency.

Anne Papmehl

T

he COVID-19 crisis has accentuated the link between customer engagement and business success. “The pandemic basically disconnected this common pattern where customers can physically see you and engage in your business,” says Davide Petramala, Director of Avaya OneCloud CPaas, at Avaya, an international technology company specializing in cloud communications and workstream collaboration solutions.

“Suddenly businesses found themselves competing with thousands of other online options with staff all

working from home.”

Despite the disruption, many businesses not only survived, but thrived during the pandemic. “Stats showed that the ones that thrived were focused on the business of customer engagement, where customers are the centre of their business,” says Petramala.

“Those businesses are seeing higher profits and faster growth because each customer represents not only more revenue, but also more commitment and loyalty.”

Why great customer service and a great customer experience are essential for success Even in non-crisis times, great customer service and customer experience are essential to business success. Recognizing this, businesses are increasingly putting customers at the centre of their business model, instead of at the end of the supply chain. “Customer engagement and experience are no longer side pieces, but the focus of your business if you want to succeed,” says Petramala.

A happy customer is more likely to become a long-term customer and to share the good experience with others.

Conversely, the negative impact on a brand from a bad experience can be exponential.

“They say that for every positive experience, that customer will organically go and tell six other people, but for every negative one, they will tell 14,” says Petramala.

Shaping the business and its services around customer expectations is challenging. “What customers are asking

for is dynamically changing,” says Petramala.

To meet the challenge, today’s businesses need technology that's flexible and responsive to constant change.

Technology as a service allows for flexibility and adaptation The Avaya OneCloud ecosystem and its solutions are designed to do just that. The Avaya CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) is a composable platform that lets businesses take pre-built frameworks and modify them for their unique customer experience and engagement requirements.

Unlike in the past where companies invested in costly technology infrastructure only to see it soon become obsolete, a service like CPaaS enables them to adapt quickly to a customer’s ever-changing requirements without added expenses. “By purchasing a service instead of a product, companies are relieved from taking on any technical debt, and they can pick and choose the tools, customize them, and then modify them on demand based on their needs,” says Petramala.

Whether it’s compliance, health care, finance, or curbside pick-up, the business simply takes up the framework, embeds digital challenges, adds in AI, and can be up and running within weeks or even days.

“Because it’s all based on AI, one can deploy the service, see the customer engagement in real time, get feedback, and improve over each iteration,” says Petramala. “Having a composable system, with no technical infrastructure tied to any physical investment, means businesses can get a return on investment (ROI) on the technology while actually using it.

That allows businesses to exceed customer expectations, so they don’t just survive but thrive in chaotic times.”

Davide Petramala Director of Avaya OneCloud CPaaS, Avaya

To help businesses identify their customer engagement pain points, Avaya runs free workshops. To sign up for a workshop with one of Avaya’s experience builder teams, visit avaya. com/freeworkshop.

This article was sponsored by Avaya.