Translating the model to private sector applications
Since leaving government, I’ve seen teams across multiple industries who face similar challenges, and I believe the principles that made our digital C-suite effective can translate directly to private sector environments.
For enterprise CIOs leading digital transformation initiatives, I would recommend several actionable steps. First, bring your CISO and CDO into early-stage strategic planning, not just operational reviews. This ensures security and data governance influence architecture decisions rather than constraining them after the fact. Second, define shared success metrics across your digital leadership roles. Third, recognize that cyber risk, data governance, and innovation are interconnected facets of the same enterprise challenge.
The most successful implementations I’ve observed focus on building this collaboration around a galvanizing challenge that demonstrates clear value to the teams working on the project and the broader organization that will benefit from its success. Today, I would center this model around enterprise AI adoption, a challenge that inherently requires seamless integration of IT infrastructure, data governance, and cybersecurity.
