I’m sure you’ve probably heard the fable of the lion and the camera crew, where the moral of the story is that to survive it’s not necessary to outrun the lion, just the other people. Which is all very profound and wise (and quotable).
Over the years, I have helped hundreds of organisations with their security, and a question I am asked repeatedly is, “how do we compare?” Now, that’s not actually an illogical or unreasonable question to ask, especially by a board member. They are of course used to having their trading results made public, and compared to competitors. And in this regard, their survival as an organisation (and as a leader) indeed depends on them being ahead of their peers.
However, security isn’t like trading figures, and being ahead of their peers probably isn’t going to save them from suffering an incident.
Because the important thing to remember is that in the context of security, the lion isn’t restricted to eating one person at a time, and there are in fact an almost unlimited number of lions.
Cheer up. It’ll all be ok. Probably. ;)