Key issues facing today's CXO suite.

• Author: Rood, Clair A., Jr
• Position: UB Voices

Corporations today are experiencing unprecedented change, creating both opportunities and challenges. Numerous reports and surveys examine key issues that C-level executives are charged with resolving as the business environment continues to progress. Here are four issues consistently appearing at or near the top of most lists.

Business Intelligence: Data & Analytics

Data and analytics technology is now the driving force in business growth, transforming how companies look at and interact with customers. It's changing the approach to product development, operations, and even human resources. Data is telling everything about everybody, providing deep insight into consumers' research, purchasing and usage habits.

The volume of available data is immense. The challenge is determining what insights can be derived from it, and how to drill down on those insights to help companies make the best decisions and develop winning strategies. CX0s who embrace this intelligence technology, and figure how best to implement it to fulfill their needs and add value, will lead the pack in corporate growth. Leader's who resist will ultimately lose out to their competition.

Data and analytics are no longer a responsibility delegated to CIOs. All C-suite executives have a stake in analyzing and interpreting the data that's crucial to their area of business growth. Yet most executives are struggling to understand and apply it to business action plans. The technology is advancing at warp speed--what's new today will be outdated before you realize it. Get in the game now if you want to lead the pack!

IT security

Traditionally delegated to the tech staff; increased security breaches mean all C-level executives must take ownership of IT security. The stakes are high. The consequences of security failure and the compromise of sensitive data can destroy a business.

Because of increased capabilities, companies are collecting more data from customers, including financial, transactional, and even personal information. Companies are also increasing outbound information through cloud computing, drop boxes and social media. Both internal and external data flows are necessary for companies to operate.

Security technologies long relied on are the host-based anti-virus and appliance-based URL filtering. Though important technologies used to prevent attacks, neither will capture many of today's advanced threats capable of evading those defenses. IT security must constantly update...