Afternoon session at #NZCIO - Governance, the Board and the CIO
Elizabeth Valentine talked about the skills shortage around tech savvy professionals at governance and board levels.
Most professions have some sort of regular competency assessment - airline pilots through to rubbish truck drivers - however that doesn’t exist for technology competences at Board level. There is no shortage of large scale project failures that have been attributed to ‘governance issues’. CEO and CIO can find themselves in the cross-fire quickly if governance failures occur.
This is something the Institute of Directors if actively looking at here in New Zealand and will hopefully change in the coming months. I’ve also had some limited contact with the work in South Africa to strength enterprise governance from a technology perspective - some good work happening there.
Elizabeth talked about the security breaches Target experienced in recent years and how a breakdown of governance contributed to those events; resulting in law suits and large drops in revenue.
Many Boards still try govern technology by exception but lack the capability to as the right questions to ensure appropriate oversight and risk management. Increased technology governance competence is required at Board levels to close the gap.
Boards can no longer afford to ignore technology governance at the top table. It’s about robust risk management and enabling future business growth.