August 26, 2024 | Case Study, Change Management
The Challenge
This global, retail food organization had experienced a great deal of growth-driven change within its Cyber Security organization. The Cyber team was responsible for the configuration, deployment and monitoring of commercial cyber security solutions in order to protect the company’s and end-consumers’ information. These solutions provided support and security for its broad network of global markets.
While the acceleration of digital transformation and the proliferation of new cyber services added complexity to the work of this team, two other significant factors further complicated the team’s journey. One related to the growing speed of innovation by cyber criminals in their mission to keep up with or exceed the current pace of cyber-security services. This trajectory placed added pressure on the team to develop the measures and counter-measures to sustain a protective barrier against cyber threats. The other factor related to the importance of marketing these services to a confederation of markets and restaurants that were not obligated to purchase and/or adopt them. The Cyber Security team was having difficulty delivering clear messages to their customers as to the value their services provided.
Newly emerging service offerings required a standard platform for communicating the Cyber Security team’s value proposition and influencing prospective users. The Cyber Security team was looking to leverage templates and protocols already created while ensuring that the content was relevant to the Cyber Security suite of services, compelling to the markets and other stakeholders served, and simple to understand and utilize. The leadership of the Cyber Security team was keen to invest in the messaging that would differentiate their solution set and accelerate their stakeholder management efforts.
The Solution
Critical to this business solution would be the ability to absorb the complexities of the cyber landscape, and the role of this team within that landscape, and to present the company’s cyber service information in a simple and convincing way. As LSA engaged with Cyber Security leadership, the team exercised caution to ensure that the communication strategy was aligned with the service offerings’ current level of maturity. Rather than getting ahead of themselves with regard to what various markets needed to receive, the team focused first on internal documentation that crystallized the value proposition of each service and then built a framework for longer-term, external communications to the markets themselves. The team proceeded along the following there workstreams:
| 1.) |
Cyber Security Service Documents: The team assessed current documentation, noted deficiencies in completeness, and propose format/content modifications to improve effectiveness. The team worked directly with defined service managers to build out service documents for each of the Cyber services. |
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| 2.) |
Service Management Maturity Model: The team introduced a maturity model framework, facilitated workshops with the Cyber Security management team, and provided team coaching to operationalize that model. |
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| 3.) |
Cyber Security Communication: The team prepared an overarching communication framework and a Cyber Security presentation to ground key audiences on the Cyber Security suite of services, recent and upcoming Cyber Security enhancements, Cyber Security use cases and other relevant content. |
The contribution of the LSA team in building out service documentation and establishing a sound framework for ongoing communication was well-received and became the focal point of the client’s presentation at an industry-wide, security conference held weeks following the conclusion of the project. The maturity model served to baseline the team and became an ongoing reference point for the team’s continued growth. Much like a calm duck swimming comfortably above the water with little legs churning wildly below, the cyber team itself began to develop a calming sense of clarity about their services’ value propositions and how best to relate such value to its internal customers.
