“Many CIOs are unfamiliar with growth environments after having achieved managerial maturity in slow-growth or no-growth environments where cutting costs was paramount. As a result, they often lack conceptual frameworks for dealing with growth.”
– Thornton May, SearchCIO,
Small companies and big companies are different in a number of ways. The things small companies do quickly – like make decisions and pivot to whole new business models – big companies do slowly. And the things big companies do quickly – like enter new markets and scale operations – small companies struggle with.
But there’s an awkward gap in the middle – when your company is growing fast. Here, you’re leaving the world of the small company, on your way to the world of the big company. The rules of the game are a strange mix of both worlds. The pace is fast and exciting, but so are the worries.
You still have the IT operation of the small company you were, even though everyone expects you to act like the big company you’re going to be. This tension reveals itself in a number of different ways, but for now we’ll focus on one crucial area:
Security
When only a handful of people work in your company, you might be able to get away with an unstructured approach to the security of your data and your documents. But when companies start to grow, customers and suppliers expect their documents to be secure. There’s a lot more scrutiny and a lot more sensitivity should something go wrong.
Which is an issue. Because growing companies with weak defenses are an unnervingly popular target for attacks – 60 percent of all targeted cyber attacks in 2014 struck small and medium sized organizations.
Even worse, the per capita cost of a breach is nearly four times higher for smaller businesses than it is for the biggest firms ($1,601 vs. $437).
The thing is, when a small company loses sensitive information, you may be able to limit the damage and keep the breach private. But when a growing company loses sensitive information, not only do people know about it, they’re outraged that it was allowed to happen – the expectations are different. And the reputational damage is non-trivial.
Security in a large organization is often a lot more complex than most IT leaders realize. For instance, 90 percent of enterprise businesses have suffered security breaches because of documents left in the printer tray.
Which begs the question: do you even know how many of the unused documents in your printer trays are sensitive? Setting up printers to require a PIN code to release their jobs is a simple fix, that’s often overlooked. More importantly, will you be able to scale your device, information and network security fast enough to meet the business’ growth needs?
Because growing businesses need credibility and you can’t expect to keep the trust of a larger customer base if you aren’t really sure where your documents are and who’s touching them.
Making growth secure
When you’re ramping up your IT operation for growth, it’s hard enough just keeping track of the processes in front of you, let alone trying to rethink and fix them.
But like operational growth, expectations don’t change overnight. They change silently – and before you even know it, you’re playing a new game, with new rules while you’re still wearing yesterday’s uniform.
The key is to stay on top of your document processes and understand the inherent risk in business critical workflows. Which is why we always recommend starting with an audit of your current print security environment.
So that if sensitive documents must be printed, you can make sure your multi-function printers only allow access to the right people. And if sensitive documents need to be scanned, you can make sure they’re only stored in secure repositories.
The most successful, fastest growing companies in every market treat their document processes like strategic assets rather than ad hoc accidents. It’s another part of the exciting journey to growth
To learn more about the perils of growth and related security risks:
Security solutions magazine – A journal studying business related security issues
Subscribe to the Small Business Solutions Blog and receive updates when we publish a new article. [wysija_form id=”1″]
Share with your followers, in 1 click
Tweet: How to securely manage that awkward stage as your company grows.
Tweet: Your SMB growth is exciting – but has your #security strategy grown with you?
Tweet: How SMB growth changes expectations for IT planning.
