Strategy, Policy, and Planning
System 1 supports our clients in charting a strategic course of action and then provides efficient and cost-effective tactical implementation. We have developed strategies and requisite approaches to improve performance in a wide variety of areas including operations, risk, cybersecurity, privacy, finances, legal, and data.
System 1 engages leadership and stakeholders to develop the strategy. We work through a structured process to implement the best solution more fully. This includes:
- Define the challenge to be mastered and determine the end state and constraints. Develop a solution set and embed this in a strategy with a tactical implementation plan. Vet, approve, and Internalize the approach with the leadership and the stakeholders
- Perform policy analysis to identify possible policy options determine how these will be implemented.
- Plan how to develop, draft, and enact your policy and embed this in a plan.
- Enact and implement the strategy to achieve your desired outcomes. Establish metrics and monitor continues policy implementation and results on an ongoing basis This ensures that strategy is agile and continues to meet the organizational needs in a continually changing environment.
System 1 also mentors’ organizational leadership and provide CXO as a service (in a variety of areas including operations, risk, cybersecurity, privacy, finances, legal, and data). We provide senior expertise on a full or as a part-time service to advise leadership or the Board of Directors. This is a significant value add for mid-sized organizations where System 1 can provide critical knowledge and approaches on a part time basis.
Corporate, Organizational, and IT Risk Management/Mitigation
Many business decisions, whether at the CXO level, in operations or administration are risk-based decisions. Some of these are obvious but most are not. Strategic corporate decisions as well as tactical organizational decisions frequently have a risk-based decision aspect. Risk is typically defied as the probability (likelihood) of something happening and the impact (consequences) if it does. Risk isn’t necessarily good or bad. It is inherently a key component is starting/running/managing a successful business.
System 1 – helps corporations and mid-sized businesses to identify their risks, analyze the impacts, and develop risk management and mitigation plans. Through the execution of a business impact assessment, we can objectively assist an organization in prioritizing the opportunities for positive risk-based decision outcomes and avoid the potential for negative ones. Managing risk is not always obvious and mitigating risk is not always simple. System 1 is a cadre of experienced, seasoned security and risk professionals who can leverage their competencies, capabilities, and expertise to assist organizations in identifying, analyzing, managing and mitigating risks to promote positive results.
CRO/CISO/CPO (Risk, Cybersecurity, Privacy) as a Service and Leadership Mentoring
Most information technology executives rise through the ranks of their chosen field as accomplished technical and later managerial professionals. However, being an effective CXO is not just about the technology, operational risks, technical solutions, or even management of teams. It is about applying knowledge of those items to an executive-focused mindset, making your organization’s function (IT, data science, cybersecurity, risk management) a competitive advantage for the business or agency.
Successful firms require an executive to oversee risk and security functions across the organization. However, an organization may not have a full-time requirement, require immediate but temporary support, or possess limited financial resources. In such cases, System 1’ can provide experienced risk and security executives with the strategic skills to design, develop, and manage your risk/cyber/privacy program, at a level customized to your organization’s needs. Our veteran leaders acclimate, assess, and act quickly; providing strategic direction and focus at a fraction of a full-time CRO’s, CISO’s, or CPO’s cost.
In cases where a CXO has recently risen from senior management ranks to executive status, the shift in role and responsibility can be daunting. System 1’s team of seasoned risk/security leaders advise and assist new CXO’s in developing their unique executive style while also balancing leadership of their function with the overall goals of the business. Utilizing an approach that focuses on the needs of both the individual and the business, our leadership development team provides training and mentorship designed to quickly augment the individual’s current skills and capabilities. Our approach is intended to shorten the risk executive skills shortage by teaching others the strategies and approaches that have proven successful at firms and agencies across the country.
Program Management, Enterprise Policy, and Process Optimization
Budget and scope. Schedule and quality. Coordination and communication plans. And ultimately team and customer satisfaction. These are all key components and capabilities for running a successful business which is driven by effective program management. System 1 follows the trusted and reliable processes established by the Project Management Institute (PMI) and the standards defined in the PMBOK® but also understands the importance of being agile and adaptive in these uncertain times and in dynamic environments. By being committing to the established program management processes and procedures allows us to build on our past experiences and successes to ensure that our current and future clients can leverage our effective program management competencies.
Mid-sized businesses, large corporations, as well as Federal/State/Local Governments should be managed from the top down when it comes to creating and implementing effective organizational policies. An enterprise policy helps ensure that an entire organization has a documented standard to adhere to. System 1 can create assurances that entities within the organization are following required policies by implementing communication plans and procedures for managing and monitoring adherence. Policies associated with protecting your business and customers such as cybersecurity, privacy, health (HIPAA), and enterprise risk management must be written well, implementable, communicated well, and monitored to ensure they are being effective. System 1 works with executive management and leadership to develop enterprise policies that they have consistent expectations with respect to the practicality and execution of those policies.
Having effective processes and procedures is essential to an organization’s sustainability. But optimizing those established processes helps ensure the efficiency associated with the desired effect of those processes. Processes optimization improves performance and quality while often reducing direct and indirect costs. System 1 has worked with many of our clients to assess their current processes and procedures to determine if and how to introduce new and more efficient, cost effective processes. Some of these improvements are obvious but often it takes the creativeness and innovation of the System 1 Team to really understand the needs and intricacies of an organization to identify valuable new methods of process optimization.
Compliance with Legal and Industry Requirements
Compliance is defined as following set of rules, procedures, and requirements. There are many different compliance and regulatory concerns that affects businesses and organizations across industries. These are at the federal, state, and local levels. In cybersecurity, for example, compliance means creating a program that establishes risk-based controls, tools, and measures to protect the integrity, confidentiality and accessibility of information that is collected, stored, processed, transferred or disseminated. Cybersecurity compliance is not based on a stand-alone legal standard, requirement, or regulation. Rather, it is a patchwork of differing standards that overlap which can create confusion for businesses and organization. Our team leverages our deep legal and industry experience that demystifies compliance by tailoring a program that minimizes risk.
System 1 helped create some of the standards and guidance used in cybersecurity and privacy. We have experience in the private in public sector performing assessments of the requirements and charting a cost-efficient path for improvement. Our experience reflects both federated organizations where there is often difficulty assessing compliance in diverse elements of the organization and within more monomythic organizations.
Information Governance and Privacy Assessments
In today’s information age it is has become a mantra that ‘data is king’. And more data is better. Data is invaluable, but it is the information that is derived from the gathering, organizing, and processing the data that is critical to success. Managing, or the governance of that information by implementing processes, developing controls, and instituting metrics is what makes it truly valuable. This information governance is a core competency that System 1 brings to many of its corporate and mid-sized customers. By recommending processes and procedures specific to your business needs and industry, and based on best practices, System 1 can ensure appropriate controls are in place to support your information’s confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Privacy information is becoming one of the most valuable assets in today’s economy. System 1 is expert at performing security and privacy assessments to determine what manner of governance is recommended based on the sensitivity of the privacy information. Many times what may appear to be simple personal information is not that valuable on its own but the aggregation of that information, and the loss of it can be devastating to an organization.
As information security and privacy become key drivers for many corporate and mid-sized businesses, System 1 is able to define and develop an information governance strategy which is critical in maintaining and leveraging that information.
