Posted on Tue, Jul 20, 2010
For its July issue, Security Magazine interviewed two individuals who head the security operations of very large corporations as well as their supervisors on the executive management team. These two security leaders were Mike Howard, General Manager of Microsoft Global Security and Brad Brekke, Target’s Vice President of Assets Protection.
The gist of the article, titled “Leading Up,” was to find out how a close relationship with the executive management team affects the success of these security leaders and how that type of relationship can be developed by others. One of the interesting things they found during the interview is that the executive level qualification for leadership in security has shifted from a security industry background to a business background. From the article:
Both the supervisors we spoke to view security as one of many business functions, noting that while it is a unique discipline, its leaders should be held to the same standards as all other business leaders.
“I look for the same leadership skills in all of my senior managers or leaders,” says [Frank Brod, Corporate Vice President of Finance and Administration for Microsoft]. “I look for the ability to articulate a clear strategy, to provide motivational leadership, mentoring and coaching of employees, to drive towards impeccable execution of their work tasks and to motivate their group and provide the right rewards, recognition and feedback to help them grow in those roles.”
Tim Baer [Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Target Corporation] ties the work of all Target’s leaders, including security, to corporate goals and strategy. “At Target, we expect our executives to be creative in their respective disciplines, connect their strategies to the broader organization, and to be confident and self-reliant,” he says. …
These executives expect all their direct reports to be leaders first, then experts in their fields. They view security leaders as business leaders. One of the reasons the security leaders in these two organizations have been successful is that they have viewed themselves the same way.
This isn’t a new trend in the security industry. In fact, this exact topic was brought up during the panel at our ASG Security Summit & Expo in March this year. According to our panel experts, organizations are shifting focus from the traditional approach of filling security leadership positions with those individuals who have the most industry experience to focusing on business leadership experience first and industry experience second. Organizations are realizing that security must be managed like any other critical business unit and that requires a specific subset of experience and knowledge.
As these priorities shift, it means that the next generation of security leaders will be business leaders first and security experts second. This leads to the question: if you plan to remain in or obtain a leadership position in security in the future, how will you compete with those individuals who better align to this vision? Can you speak the language of the executive management team? Are you familiar with running a business unit? Or will you need help or training to bridge that gap between security and executive management?
Tell us your experience by commenting. Have you seen your organization shifting focus toward business leadership over security industry experience? If so, what have you done to ensure you keep up with this shifting focus?