Welcome to the Stage of Organized Security

Like with most parts of your business, the time has come to get organized. You are probably already familiar with the benefits of increasing organization as you scale, but in case you need a recap:

• Spot mistakes and issues faster. The more consistent and organized you are, the easier it is to spot when things are going wrong and adapt quickly—minimizing the impact.

• Work as a team. Moving things from ad-hoc to managed processes enables you to engage the wider team and share the load—freeing you up to be the leader you need to be at this stage (or to take a holiday or a sick day).

• Simplify communication. Managed processes make communicating your practices to stakeholders such as customers, compliance regimes, and shareholders easier and more consistent, saving both time and ambiguity.

At this stage, this process of formalization is probably happening throughout your organization. Other areas of your business that often require a more strategic and considered approach as you grow include hiring and team management, health and safety, and sales and marketing. Security is no different.

​Definition​ Before you panic and think this means jumping straight into the realms of compliance regimes, audit programs, and the mother of all spreadsheets—take a breath. Organization just means having a system and a plan, not necessarily having the same system or plan as many enterprise organizations would need. We call defining and implementing this process security management. The trick here, like most parts of this book, is to find the right amount and right kinds of security management for your company and iterate on this as you continue to grow.