The Cost of Inaction and why GRC is Essential for Business Growth

Data breaches hit an all-time high in 2024, with global costs surging to $4.88 million—a staggering 10% increase from the previous year. For U.S. organizations, the stakes are even higher, with average breach costs soaring to $9.36 million per occurrence (Secureframe, 2024).

Beyond these direct financial losses, non-compliance can stall business expansion. Organizations without robust compliance frameworks face increased regulatory scrutiny, lost business opportunities, and declining customer trust. Research shows that:

Businesses with strong third-party risk management frameworks expand into new markets 30% faster (Deloitte, 2024).

Firms that integrate compliance into their business strategy experience 25% higher innovation success rates (Harvard Business Review, 2023).

A strategic approach to GRC is no longer just about protection—it’s about unlocking business growth.

Defining Excellence in GRC

Think of your GRC framework as your business GPS—guiding you through the complex landscape of regulations, risks, and organizational goals. However, GRC excellence isn’t about a one-time compliance exercise or simply passing assessments; it’s about building an efficient, evolving program that grows with your organization.

A well-structured GRC program enables:

Visibility into your risk landscape while ensuring compliance processes scale with business growth.

Proactive security measures that safeguard both your data and reputation.

Operational efficiency—firms that leverage automated GRC tools reduce compliance costs by 40%, allowing teams to focus on growth initiatives (Forrester, 2023).

Customer trust and loyalty—73% of consumers prefer businesses with strong data protection policies (Cisco, 2024).

Organizations that invest in GRC automation and integration not only reduce compliance bottlenecks but also enhance their ability to innovate and expand.

Starting Your Journey: The GRC Assessment

Before you can chart your course to excellence, you need an honest evaluation of where your GRC program stands today. This isn't about pointing out failures but instead seeks to identify tangible opportunities for future growth and improvement. A comprehensive GRC assessment looks at your current governance structures, identifies gaps in risk management processes, and reviews existing compliance documentation. It brings together insights from key stakeholders across IT, security, and business leadership to create a complete picture of your current state.

This assessment phase is essential as it provides a comprehensive understanding of your organization's past, present, and future in terms of compliance and security. It reveals the gaps between your current practices and your desired state, helping you prioritize your efforts and resources effectively.

Setting Strategic Goals

Your GRC program needs clear, measurable objectives that align with both your risk appetite and business strategy. Effective goal setting in GRC requires one to define specific targets across multiple areas:

Risk Management Goals

Establish clear thresholds for risk acceptance across financial, operational, compliance, and strategic categories

Define measurable criteria for impact, likelihood, and velocity of risks

Set specific timelines for risk assessment and mitigation activities

Create achievable milestones for program maturity

Operational Objectives

Define clear roles and responsibilities for risk ownership

Define key current markets or new market or product targets and associated compliance requirements to maintain and grow revenue and market share

Establish reporting cadences and accountability structures

Create realistic timelines for implementation and review cycles

Business Alignment Targets

Map compliance requirements to business growth objectives

Set velocity targets for achieving necessary certifications

Define compliance success metrics that demonstrate business value

Establish clear linkages between risk management and strategic initiatives

The key is creating goals that enable rather than restrict growth. Well-structured GRC objectives should help your organization move faster by providing clear guidelines for decision-making, reducing uncertainty, and creating repeatable processes for managing new opportunities and challenges.

The Three Phases of GRC Transformation

Foundation Building

The first phase is all about creating the infrastructure that will support your entire GRC program. This means developing clear, comprehensive policies that guide your organization's approach to risk and compliance. But it's not enough to just write policies - you need to create accountability mechanisms and make sure your organizational structure aligns with your GRC objectives. Along with policies, you’ll need to define governance and oversight structures and necessary monitoring/reporting activities to guide the efforts.

Risk Management Optimization

Once your foundation is in place, you can focus on optimizing your approach to risk management. This phase is about moving from reactive responses to proactive risk mitigation and management. It involves implementing continuous monitoring systems and developing predictive risk assessment tools that help you identify and address potential issues before they become problems.

Compliance Transformation

The final phase transforms compliance from a checkbox exercise into a strategic advantage. This means automating compliance tracking and reporting where possible, integrating compliance requirements into your core business processes, and creating a culture where ongoing compliance awareness is just part of how you do business.

Leveraging Process Accelerators

Building a GRC program doesn't require starting from scratch or spending countless hours on unnecessary overhead and manual processes. Whether you need to evolve fast, validate your approach, or mature your GRC program, Asureti's Process Accelerators remove the headache of program development. These proven, ready-to-use materials eliminate the initial heavy lifting and help organizations get it right the first time:

Enterprise Risk Management Program (ERM)

A complete toolkit for establishing and operating your ERM program, including:

Risk Council Charter with detailed governance structures, responsibilities, and membership guidelines

Risk rating criteria matrix with assessment scales for impact, likelihood, and velocity across multiple business dimensions

Implementation timeline templates spanning core build, operations, and reporting phases

Program rollout materials including kickoff messaging and stakeholder communications

Standing agenda templates for recurring Risk Council meetings

Example risk appetite statements covering strategic, financial, operational, reputational, and market risk considerations

Over 100 example key business risks across all major risk categories to jumpstart your risk register

Third Party Risk Management Program

A focused set of templates and processes to rapidly establish or enhance your third-party risk management capabilities:

Vendor risk assessment frameworks and scoring templates

Third-party monitoring procedures and schedules

Due diligence questionnaires and evaluation criteria

Risk-based vendor categorization models

Ongoing monitoring and reporting templates

Contract review guidelines and checklists

Policy Templates – Security Baseline

Essential security policy templates that establish a strong foundation for your compliance program:

Policy development and review procedures

Role-based policy templates for different stakeholder groups

Policy exception handling procedures

What sets these Process Accelerators apart is their practicality - these are not theoretical frameworks but actual working templates and examples that can be implemented immediately. These Process Accelerators provide a substantial foundation for your GRC program, eliminating much of the initial 'figure it out' time and letting teams concentrate on tailoring the solutions to their specific needs.

Each template is designed to be easily customizable while maintaining alignment with industry best practices and regulatory requirements. This means you can move quickly while ensuring your program has the right foundation for long-term success.

Managed Assurance: Your New GRC Team

Many organizations face a common challenge: they need robust GRC capabilities but lack the time, team size, or budget to build everything internally. Some are racing to meet new compliance requirements from major clients. Others face the daunting task of implementing frameworks like SOC2 or HITRUST for the first time, noting the struggle of the reality that achieving certification is just the beginning - continuous monitoring and program maintenance require ongoing expertise and resources.

This is where Managed Assurance, often called compliance-as-a-service, becomes transformative. Rather than hiring and maintaining an extensive internal team, organizations can quickly leverage experienced GRC professionals for:

Program operations and continuous monitoring

Annual risk assessments and framework adoption

Third-party risk management

Privacy requirements and compliance maintenance

Instead of building and maintaining your own dedicated and expensive in-house team, organizations can access comprehensive GRC expertise on-demand to their specific requirements. Managed Assurance eliminates the burden of building these capabilities from scratch, allowing internal teams to focus on strategic priorities while ensuring compliance obligations are met consistently, accurately, and efficiently.

A recent survey by Secureframe found that 70% of small to medium-sized businesses reduced their compliance costs by at least 25% after implementing Compliance-as-a-Service. Even more compelling, 33% of those businesses were able to move upmarket or attract enterprise clients, showing that a strong compliance posture doesn’t just reduce risk—it opens the door to new revenue opportunities. (Secureframe, 2025).

Fostering a Culture of Ongoing Excellence

Success in GRC isn't just about frameworks and controls - it's about people and processes. Creating a culture of excellence means breaking down silos between risk management, IT, and business strategy. It means helping every team member understand their role in managing risk and maintaining compliance. This isn't about creating a culture of fear or restriction - it's about fostering an environment where security and compliance are seen as enablers of business success.

Excellence in GRC isn't a destination - it's an ongoing journey. The regulatory landscape constantly shifts, technologies evolve, and new risks emerge. Your approach must be equally dynamic, involving:

Regular assessments of current processes

Analysis of emerging regulatory requirements

Gathering feedback from team members and stakeholders

Adapting to new business objectives and challenges

Moving Forward

Every risk you identify proactively and every compliance requirement you manage effectively becomes an opportunity to strengthen your business. The path to excellence in GRC isn't about achieving perfect security but instead thrives on the intentions to build a mature, efficient program that grows with your organization and enables its success.

Whether you're just starting your GRC journey or looking to take your program to the next level, the key is to approach it strategically. Focus on building a scalable foundation, leveraging proven tools and expertise when possible, and always keeping your broader business objectives in mind. With the right approach and support, GRC can evolve from a protective measure to a rich catalyst of ongoing success for your organization.