A security industry thought leader and mentor once told me to seek to be a business leader with a security expertise rather than being a security expert with a business mindset.  If you seek to be a business executive first, then you are in a great position to understand any business.

<strong>Read <span style="text-decoration: underline;">What the CEO Wants You to Know</span> by Ram Charan.  </strong>In this book, Charan explains a company’s financials from the perspective of a Fortune 500 company and a street vendor.  He reviews the key financial metrics--cash generation, return on assets (ROA), velocity, margin, and growth (market share)-- that apply to any company and directs the reader to understand these financial metrics in order learn how the company makes money, which is the first requirement for enhancing business capabilities.   

<strong>Learn to read a balance sheet.  </strong>Security is about protecting assets, and a balance sheet summarizes the value of a company’s assets, liability and shareholder equity.  The basic balance sheet equation is:  Assets = Liabilities + Shareholder Equity.  If security is in the business of protection assets, then our efforts to do so increase the value of the assets on the left-hand side of the equation.  Indeed, this can be a differentiating factor in the company’s treatment of its assets compared to that of its competitors.