In this presentation, Matthew Rosenquist argues that leading companies are transforming cybersecurity from a pure risk‑mitigation function into a strategic lever for market share, pricing power, new revenue streams, and brand strength. He outlines how rising consumer expectations for digital security create a market opportunity, and explains four concrete ways cybersecurity can boost profitability: (1) gaining competitive advantage and market share when rivals suffer breaches; (2) raising average selling prices by bundling security features and using tiered pricing models; (3) creating entirely new products or services that capitalize on security expertise; and (4) enhancing brand reputation, customer trust, and employee pride, which in turn supports talent retention and loyalty. The talk concludes that forward‑looking leadership should evaluate cybersecurity investments not only for loss avoidance but also for their potential to expand revenue and strengthen the organization’s market position.
Chapters
The best companies are pivoting cybersecurity to contribute to market position and profitability. The traditional role of cybersecurity has been to avoid impacts to the bottom line from cyber threats, but this is changing. Business leaders want cybersecurity to add to growth and earnings. Now the time is right Consumer expectations for digital security, privacy, and safety are at an all-time high and are continuing to grow fast. Public concern is driving relevance and the value proposition for cybersecurity. The industry, well, it's familiar with the risk mitigation side of the equation, and that normally encompasses cost avoidance of breaches, hacks, and other incidents. Losses of assets, downtime, and disruption of services, even the expense of cleanup, right, and releasing patches and support and so forth, not to mention the impacts of follow-on product schedules or negative brand impacts, customer supply issues. And, you know, the public events that emerge out of these tends to put downward pressure against the valuation of an organization. Everybody's familiar with these risk aspects, but these same structures can open several doors of opportunity. Forward-thinking businesses are maneuvering in ways to capitalize on customers' desires for security, privacy, and safety. And cybersecurity can contribute to the bottom line by increasing share of market, by raising the average selling prices of products and services, and even generating new streams of revenue. So let's break this down a little bit. Let's talk about the competitive advantage of applying cybersecurity to the products and the services that companies offer or rely upon. First off, right, market share, share of market, right? When competitors fail and they get hacked and they suffer from attacks, well, it's an opportunity for their competitors to step up and highlight their investment in security and how they differentiate and how they're better positioned. And I know this is a little bit of ambulance chasing, but it actually shows true differentiation, and it's a moment in time to be able to highlight the fact that Hey, your supplier, your vendor that you signed up with, you know, this is the third time they've had a data breach, or this is the third time that their website or services have been down, yet ours haven't. We haven't had data breaches. Our services haven't been down. Why? Because we've got a more advanced cybersecurity investment. We've got the right people and the technology and the processes to protect you, your assets, your experience. That's a powerful message, especially when the competitors are potentially dropping the ball. A second aspect is really again around that differentiation because if you do invest, regardless of if your competitors are dropping the ball, you can still use that in your marketing. And again, every day, that those aspects of cybersecurity are becoming more important. So those messages, as they're woven into marketing, can support that and can support your position in the market. The second area is around average selling prices, and this ASP, this ASP uplift, it's really about adding security features, value-added features, so you can drive a higher price point. If you could charge $12 a customer yesterday, and yet add in a whole bunch of valuable security and protection, and everything else, added benefits of the customers, just it, that delight them, you might be able to add a higher price point to that, okay. For larger organizations, this also creates an opportunity for segmentation. Now think about it this way, If you have an offering and you have a freemium model where, okay, I'm going to offer these services for free. If you start adding on security, you might be able to move people to a premium model. Add the security in your premium for additional, right? Not just basic, but additional security features and experiences to your premium. You might be able to pull people along again. Raising that, that overall revenue through price point. And some organizations, larger ones typically, can follow that 3-5-7 model, giving choices, and that was made famous by BMW, really where you've got a low-end, a mid-choice, and a high-end choice for your customers. Again, using cybersecurity as part of that can be very, very powerful. And now lastly, you can actually generate new revenue streams, and this is really around innovation. Many times companies are seeing where there are challenges in the industry, and they're in a good position based on their skills, their experience with other products and services, maybe even products, to come out with a new service, a new product, a new offering, right, that allows for security or enhances security or provides security. And in doing this, um, again, it can create an entirely new product and a new revenue stream. So again, there's lots of different areas. Now, above and beyond that, simply investing in security and being able to market it and talk about it and amplify it does a couple of different things. It increases your brand, your reputation. It shows thought leadership. It can be woven very closely into your cyber ethics. To reinvigorate and reinforce trustworthiness of your customers, of your business partners. And at a high level, doing those ethics and that cybersecurity, it's a social good. It helps your customers, it helps your business partners, and your suppliers, and your vendors. It helps the world. And this is a benefit that customers can see, but also a benefit that employees can be proud of. So you can enhance the rapport with your customers and your employees, and that's worthwhile, especially in times where it's tough to hire and we have to retain people, and we want those quality environments and employees to be proud of the company they're working for. So cybersecurity and investments in it, can build loyalty both internally and externally. And this is where forward-looking leadership is evaluating how to maximize the overall cybersecurity benefits in our rapidly shifting digital world. More than ever, we will see companies positioning their strategic cybersecurity investments to extend beyond protecting from the risk of losses and also be employed to enhance the organization's market position and profitability. Now, this should be good news for everyone, but especially for the customers of the companies showing leadership and advancing cybersecurity capabilities.
