TRUST THRUST
Rajashree Das Expert in Residence
THE PRINCIPLE
Power up the entire trust ecosystem – from the organization’s core to its edges – securing your existing business and pushing forward to its next permutation.
"Technology Businesses must be trusted by customers, clients, shareholders, employees, partners, networks, and authorities alike – or there is no business. Period. Simply put, trust is an imperative. It must permeate business and technology operations alike. And trust us on this one: when applied well and pro-actively, it becomes an innovative business accelerator too."
THE ANTIPRINCIPLE
Trust your ability to fix issues only as they arise, kicked around by security, privacy, and ethical circumstances; or alternatively, hide behind an impenetrable wall of distrust.
THE CONTEXT
All for trust, and trust for all. With hybrid work models and their reliance on digital, trust is a critical corporate asset, affecting the entire business ecosystem. It pertains to cybersecurity, guaranteeing users uninterrupted access to secure and trusted data. It also pertains to data privacy, where the proper, transparent use of personal data is always under scrutiny. And don’t forget the ethics of AI is a serious part of the Trust equation as well, ensuring it is human-centered and serving positive futures. It is tempting to delegate the enforcement of trust to technology (such as Zero-trust platforms, AI and even quantum computing), but in the end, trust only creates a differentiating thrust if it is entwined with all aspects of Business Technology change, humans included.
LIVE THE PRINCIPLE
- All business strategies and initiatives fully embed and address technology-supported trust, as well as the human-centered dimensions of it.
- Trust is an integrated part of the solutions lifecycle, architected, designed, and deployed throughout – rather than check-listed at the very end of a lifecycle iteration.
- All solutions development “A-teams” contain cybersecurity/privacy and ethics experts, ensuring the other team members appreciate and embrace trust topics as well.
- Establish a continuously evolving trust model with principles, guidelines, training, and communication to all levels, using impactful narrative.
- Use the organization’s built-up trust as a differentiating quality towards the wider business ecosystem, clients, consumers, and potential new employees.
THE OPENINGS
- Expand the solutions development teams to include experts around cybersecurity, data privacy and ethics, promoting a cross-fertilization of skills.
- Bust your biggest distrust generator, whether it is in cybersecurity, data privacy, or ethics – and ensure its resolution is widely communicated.
- Find an organizational system that can safely pilot zero-trust technologies, to try a radically different approach to trust and learn from it