No Result
View All Result
SUBSCRIBE | NO FEES, NO PAYWALLS
MANAGE MY SUBSCRIPTION
NEWSLETTER
Corporate Compliance Insights
  • Home
  • About
    • About CCI
    • CCI Magazine
    • Writing for CCI
    • Career Connection
    • NEW: CCI Press – Book Publishing
    • Advertise With Us
  • Explore Topics
    • See All Articles
    • Compliance
    • Ethics
    • Risk
    • FCPA
    • Governance
    • Fraud
    • Internal Audit
    • HR Compliance
    • Cybersecurity
    • Data Privacy
    • Financial Services
    • Well-Being at Work
    • Leadership and Career
    • Opinion
  • Vendor News
  • Library
    • Download Whitepapers & Reports
    • Download eBooks
    • New: Living Your Best Compliance Life by Mary Shirley
    • New: Ethics and Compliance for Humans by Adam Balfour
    • 2021: Raise Your Game, Not Your Voice by Lentini-Walker & Tschida
    • CCI Press & Compliance Bookshelf
  • Podcasts
    • Great Women in Compliance
    • Unless: The Podcast (Hemma Lomax)
  • Research
  • Webinars
  • Events
  • Subscribe
Jump to a Section
  • At the Office
    • Ethics
    • HR Compliance
    • Leadership & Career
    • Well-Being at Work
  • Compliance & Risk
    • Compliance
    • FCPA
    • Fraud
    • Risk
  • Finserv & Audit
    • Financial Services
    • Internal Audit
  • Governance
    • ESG
    • Getting Governance Right
  • Infosec
    • Cybersecurity
    • Data Privacy
  • Opinion
    • Adam Balfour
    • Jim DeLoach
    • Mary Shirley
    • Yan Tougas
No Result
View All Result
Corporate Compliance Insights
Home Compliance

Stop Dragging Your Feet: GDPR Compliance Can Make You More Competitive

by Heidi Maher
December 15, 2017
in Compliance, Featured
superhero pushing legs

A GDPR-Readiness Program With a Unified Governance Foundation Can Increase Productivity While Reducing Costs and Risk

The May 2018 deadline for the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) should have organizations scrambling to roll out GDPR-readiness programs. After all, the regulation applies to most organizations doing business in the EU, non-compliance can result in severe fines, and getting ready for compliance will likely take significant time and effort.

According to a recent global CGOC survey of compliance officers only 6 percent of respondents felt their organizations were ready to comply with the regulation. The survey also reveals that these organizations face many other data protection and management challenges. This article discusses the findings of the survey.

One possible explanation for the lack of progress – as suggested in the survey data – is that many executives are too focused on day-to-day operations to worry about preventing a potential compliance problem down the road. But whether the lack of progress is caused by a mandate to increase earnings, a focus on improving the customer experience, or some other time-sensitive initiative, executives must understand that GDPR compliance isn’t just about risk reduction and cost avoidance. The very same capabilities, strategies and technologies that enable GDPR compliance will help companies meet all their other business goals, including becoming a more efficient, more competitive organization.

And it all starts with a Unified Governance program that provides a single, centralized view of all information across the enterprise and that automates critical information management processes.

Most Organizations Are Missing the Boat

The GDPR harmonizes the various data protection laws in the EU that arose following the adoption of the European Data Protection Directive in 1995, which created only minimum standards around protecting the personal information of citizens and residents. Unlike the Directive, the new regulation also applies to all companies processing personal data of anyone residing in the EU, regardless of the company’s location.

This means companies around the world must comply if they want to do business in the EU. Additionally, the consistency of the GDPR across the EU will likely lead to more consistent enforcement and penalties.

To successfully comply with the GDPR, organizations must know the type, value and location of the information they store, and they must be able to delete, change or provide information as required by the regulation. Yet Top Data Protection Challenges, a survey conducted by the CGOC, indicates that most organizations are not ready. The survey of 132 compliance officers from organizations around the world and across multiple industries revealed the following:

  • Only 6 percent of respondents feel their organizations are compliant with GDPR requirements. Most organizations are also concerned about an inability to demonstrate compliance and revealing their poor data disposal practices.
  • More than a third of executives, 34 percent, will sometimes let operational and cost concerns override compliance with data protection regulations.
  • Only 57 percent of organizations train staff on data protection compliance, with only 25 percent doing regular training and
  • Despite all the data breach headlines, 50 percent of respondents identify internal staff and practices as the biggest security threat vs. just 38 percent who choose external hackers. Notably poorly classified content is the third highest concern.
  • One of the biggest surprises is that although 85 percent of respondents say fine-tuning a defensible disposal program will benefit data protection initiatives, 40 percent have not even started one.

GDPR, Unified Governance, and Increased Competitiveness

Why are organizations so ill-prepared when it comes to GDPR-readiness and other data protection and management challenges? Most likely because the frame of reference for these challenges is around the “potential” for breaches and fines. And it’s difficult to deal with potentials when the realities of increasing revenue and improving customer service are so pressing.

But by solving the GDPR-readiness challenge, by arriving at a full understanding of the value and location of information and improving the ability to manage data deletion, organizations can provide new opportunities for every other information stakeholder:

  • Executives can make better decisions based on the analysis of only the most relevant, high-quality information.
  • Sales, marketing and customer service teams can increase their effectiveness and strategies by accessing consistent, up-to-date customer information.
  • Product design and production teams can increase efficiency and accuracy by accessing reliable, up-to-date supplier and logistics data.
  • Security teams can more quickly and easily identify the high-value and sensitive information they actually need to protect.
  • Legal teams can more efficiently respond to retention requests while eliminating the risk of turning over more information than necessary during e-discovery.

Once businesses recognize the tremendous value across the enterprise of GDPR-readiness, the obvious question is how to get there. The answer is a comprehensive, Unified Governance program.

The key principles of a Unified Governance program include:

  • Participation by representatives from all information stakeholders, including Legal, Records, Compliance, Security, HR, lines of business and IT, along with strong executive management support to ensure universal participation and long-term funding.
  • Comprehensive and inclusive information policy management across the entire enterprise using a Master Datamap.
  • Elimination of information silos to increase accessibility and facilitate management through a single automated and auditable process.
  • Differentiation of high-value actively used data from redundant, outdated or trivial data.

The last bullet, which cannot occur without accomplishing the first three, is particularly important to GDPR readiness and increasing competitiveness. Only through this differentiation can the compliance team and business users gain ready access to high-value data without spending time sifting through “data debris.”

Differentiation also enables the creation and maturing of a defensible data disposal program that automates the elimination of this debris, that is, all information with no legal, compliance or business value. The CGOC estimates that 69 percent or more of enterprise data is debris, so a defensible disposal program not only significantly reduces the burden on the GDPR compliance team, but also directly contributes to all the other hoped-for business benefits.

GDPR compliance is the headline, but a more competitive business that increases sales, reduces costs and minimizes risks is always the aim. By understanding that the underpinning of GDPR-readiness is a Unified Governance program that helps accomplish all these goals, organizations can more easily justify the required investment. For more information about how to launch and mature a Unified Governance program at your organization, visit www.cgoc.com.


Previous Post

QuantaVerse Debuts ‘CAE Checkup’ to Help Corporations and Financial Institutions Evaluate the Effectiveness of an Artificial Intelligence Approach to Internal Risk Audits

Next Post

A High Court Ruling That Could Reverberate Around the World

Heidi Maher

Heidi Maher

Heidi Maher is an attorney and a legal technology specialist who has advised hundreds of organizations on information governance around data security, compliance and eDiscovery. She is the Executive Director of the Compliance, Governance and Oversight Council (CGOC), a forum of over 3,800 legal, IT, records and information management professionals from corporations and government agencies. For over a decade, CGOC has been advancing governance practices and driving thought leadership across the industry. Previously, Heidi was a legal subject matter expert for a fortune 150 technology company, a felony prosecutor, a litigator, and an assistant state attorney general. She is Certified Information Privacy Manager.

Related Posts

risk reporting concepts

The ‘So What?’ Problem With Board Risk Reporting

by Jim DeLoach
June 24, 2025

10 modern principles for transforming risk communication from compliance exercise to strategic dialogue in uncertain times

board of directors meeting table

Before You Say Yes to That Board Seat: A Director’s Due Diligence Checklist

by Chase Cole and Sidney Edgar
June 24, 2025

Public company directors face scrutiny from Wall Street, Congress, the SEC and beyond — comprehensive preparation is essential for business...

slippery slope ice mountain

The Slippery Slope & Your Culture of Integrity

by Mary Shirley
June 23, 2025

Small transgressions and unanswered questions create pathways to major misconduct — and compliance teams need strategies beyond punishment

low battery on iphone warning

Ethics Fatigue: The Burnout That’s Putting Your Organization at Risk

by Nick Gallo
June 20, 2025

The psychology behind why ethics professionals are exhausted and what companies risk when they let it go unchecked

Next Post
U.K. and EU flags

A High Court Ruling That Could Reverberate Around the World

No Result
View All Result

Privacy Policy | AI Policy

Founded in 2010, CCI is the web’s premier global independent news source for compliance, ethics, risk and information security. 

Got a news tip? Get in touch. Want a weekly round-up in your inbox? Sign up for free. No subscription fees, no paywalls. 

Follow Us

Browse Topics:

  • CCI Press
  • Compliance
  • Compliance Podcasts
  • Cybersecurity
  • Data Privacy
  • eBooks Published by CCI
  • Ethics
  • FCPA
  • Featured
  • Financial Services
  • Fraud
  • Governance
  • GRC Vendor News
  • HR Compliance
  • Internal Audit
  • Leadership and Career
  • On Demand Webinars
  • Opinion
  • Research
  • Resource Library
  • Risk
  • Uncategorized
  • Videos
  • Webinars
  • Well-Being
  • Whitepapers

© 2025 Corporate Compliance Insights

Welcome to CCI. This site uses cookies. Please click OK to accept. Privacy Policy
Cookie settingsACCEPT
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
    • About CCI
    • CCI Magazine
    • Writing for CCI
    • Career Connection
    • NEW: CCI Press – Book Publishing
    • Advertise With Us
  • Explore Topics
    • See All Articles
    • Compliance
    • Ethics
    • Risk
    • FCPA
    • Governance
    • Fraud
    • Internal Audit
    • HR Compliance
    • Cybersecurity
    • Data Privacy
    • Financial Services
    • Well-Being at Work
    • Leadership and Career
    • Opinion
  • Vendor News
  • Library
    • Download Whitepapers & Reports
    • Download eBooks
    • New: Living Your Best Compliance Life by Mary Shirley
    • New: Ethics and Compliance for Humans by Adam Balfour
    • 2021: Raise Your Game, Not Your Voice by Lentini-Walker & Tschida
    • CCI Press & Compliance Bookshelf
  • Podcasts
    • Great Women in Compliance
    • Unless: The Podcast (Hemma Lomax)
  • Research
  • Webinars
  • Events
  • Subscribe

© 2025 Corporate Compliance Insights