Council on Competitiveness
Security Is Considered Good for Business
Companies are beginning to see security as an investment rather
than a sunk cost. In last year’s survey, just 24 percent of companies
believed that changes in security could improve their longterm
productivity versus 69 percent that did not. In the
2003 survey, by contrast, opinions have completely flip-flopped;
71 percent of companies now believe that increased security
spending will improve long-term productivity—with security
costs offset by gains in business continuity, productivity or competitiveness—
versus only 26 percent that disagree.
Companies that believe security is a top or high priority
(83 percent and 69 percent, respectively) and companies that
have conducted security assessments in the past 6 months
(78 percent) hold this belief most strongly.
Companies with less awareness of or attention to security are less
likely to believe there is a positive return from security investment.
For instance, just 62 percent of companies that have conducted
security assessments in the last 12 months and 50 percent
that have done so in the last 2 years believe security initiatives
will create positive returns. These findings indicate that companies
that have studied security more closely and recently have
discovered it is a good investment.
