For years, Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) has been viewed as a necessary expense, an insurance policy for when things go wrong. But a new generation of CISOs is proving that when managed strategically, GRC can do far more than protect. It can unlock growth, accelerate deals, and strengthen customer trust.
In the latest Strategic CISOs conversation, TrustCloud CEO Sravish Sridhar sat down with Dave, CISO and CIO of Andesite, to unpack how forward-thinking leaders are transforming GRC programs from reactive checklists into measurable business drivers.
Here are five takeaways that stood out.
Start by measuring trust like a KPI
Sravish Sridhar
CEO, TrustCloud
“CISOs are being asked the wrong question!
Not ‘are we compliant,’
but ‘can I trust the data that says we are?’”
Both speakers emphasized that before you can turn GRC into a profit center, you need to measure trust. Dave described how his team treats assurance metrics the same way the business tracks revenue or customer satisfaction, using dashboards to quantify confidence in their security posture.
This shift allows security to become part of the value story for customers, not just a behind-the-scenes cost.
“When you can prove your controls are continuously tested,” said Sravish, “you’re not just compliant, you’re credible.”
Automate the audit loop
A key theme was breaking free from the annual audit cycle. Traditional, point-in-time assessments can’t keep up with hybrid environments, cloud adoption, and AI-related risks.
“Without continuous control monitoring,” Sravish explained, “it’s like locking your doors once a year and assuming you’re safe all year long.”
Dave shared how Andesite automated control testing using TrustCloud’s continuous assurance workflows. “We used to spend months preparing for an audit,” he said. “Now we’re audit-ready all the time, and that gives our team back hundreds of hours to focus on higher-value initiatives.”
Audience Q&A echoed this challenge:
Q: Where should CISOs start if their organization still relies on spreadsheets?
A: Both speakers agreed – start with automation in areas with repeatable evidence, such as access reviews, vendor risk, and change management. “Even automating 20% of your manual tasks can create massive time savings,” Dave noted.
Tie security to business outcomes
One of the most powerful ways to make GRC a business enabler is to connect risk management to revenue enablement.
Dave described how Andesite uses its assurance program to accelerate enterprise sales.
Dave Brown
CISO and CIO, Andesite
“When a customer asks about our security posture, we don’t send them a 200-question spreadsheet. We give them a real-time view of our compliance and controls.
That transparency shortens deal cycles.”
Sravish underscored the same point:
“If you can show the board that your security investments directly support growth, whether it’s faster onboarding of new clients or reduced sales friction, you move from being a cost center to a growth partner.”
Use AI to prioritize the right risks
Risk prioritization was another topic that struck a chord. Security leaders are drowning in signals, but not every alert deserves attention.
“You’ve bought the smoke alarms,” said Sravish. “Now you need a system that tells you which fire matters most.”
By integrating AI-driven analysis, CISOs can focus on issues that pose the greatest business impact.
Dave explained how Andesite uses AI to correlate control failures with business objectives, ensuring the most critical risks rise to the top.
“That’s what allows our team to optimize budget, not just spend more, but spend smarter,”
Dave Brown
Redefine GRC as a business growth enabler
Perhaps the most forward-looking idea from the session was the redefinition of GRC itself. Both leaders argued that GRC is no longer about compliance checklists; it’s a continuous trust engine that fuels business expansion.
Sravish put it best:
“Continuous assurance builds confidence – not just for auditors, but for customers and partners. It’s how modern CISOs enable the business to move faster and take calculated risks safely.”
In other words, security assurance has become a brand differentiator. When done right, it’s not just about avoiding breaches, it’s about earning trust at scale.
Questions from the audience
Q1: Do you track metrics that show how trust reduces deal-closing friction – for example, when a customer due diligence process is completed faster? Do customers ever skip assessments because of your Trust Center?
A: Dave shared that Andesite tracks “trust-to-close” metrics by measuring how quickly contracts progress once customers access their Trust Center. In several cases, prospects have waived additional assessments because the evidence was already verified and mapped in real time.
Q2: Do you map frameworks to customers to understand the demand ratio – Framework → Customers → Revenue?
A: Sravish confirmed that TrustCloud enables this mapping. “You can directly connect frameworks and controls to customer requirements, and then to the ARR they support. That visibility shows the business value of every control.”
Q3: What are some interesting risks or exploits that GRC has helped defend against?
A: Dave highlighted how programmatic GRC caught a vendor access misconfiguration that traditional audits would have missed. “Our automated testing surfaced it before it became an incident,” he noted.
Q4: How do you stay on top of new global regulations like the EU CRA before frameworks are available in compliance tools?
A: Sravish explained that TrustCloud’s control graph and regulatory intelligence automatically map new requirements to existing controls, helping CISOs prepare even before official frameworks are finalized.
Q5: Does your platform quantify risk in dollar terms?
A: Yes. TrustCloud provides risk quantification that translates control gaps into financial exposure, allowing CISOs to communicate risk in business language and make better investment decisions.
Final thought: The strategic CISO mindset
The conversation closed with a challenge to every CISO: stop reporting on controls in isolation and start showing how those controls enable growth, protect reputation, and strengthen trust with every stakeholder.
The next evolution of GRC isn’t just about security. It’s about strategy, and it starts with a shift from compliance to continuous assurance.
