I recently completed my first six months as CEO of OneTrust.
I have spent much of that time listening: meeting with employees across the company, speaking with customers around the world, reviewing our products and operations, and developing a clearer view of both the opportunity ahead of us and the work required to realize it.
I joined OneTrust because I saw the foundations of an exceptional company. OneTrust has deep expertise, an impressive global customer base, a talented team, substantial resources to invest, and a strong position in a market that is becoming more important by the day. Six months in, I believe the opportunity to deliver meaningful value to our customers is even greater than I understood when I accepted the role.
A Defining Challenge for Business
Data, regulation, risk, and artificial intelligence are becoming increasingly interconnected.
AI is moving rapidly into the core of how companies operate. It is changing how decisions are made, how employees work, how customer experiences are created, and how businesses compete. At the same time, organizations face growing expectations to understand where data is, how technology is being used, which risks they are accepting, and who is accountable for the decisions being made.
Companies cannot address these issues through disconnected processes and point solutions. They need a practical way to connect information across the business, make informed decisions, and show that those decisions are being carried out. They need governance that helps the business move, not governance that simply documents what has already happened.
This is the opportunity in front of OneTrust. We have spent more than a decade building technology and expertise around many of the most difficult governance challenges our customers face. We have the customer relationships, market experience, and ability to invest required to bring those capabilities together in a much more powerful way. Our ambition is to help define this market alongside our customers and build the platform they can rely on as these challenges become more complex.
What I Have Heard From Customers
I have heard two things clearly from customers.
First, many customers believe strongly in what OneTrust can help them do. They value our vision, the depth of our expertise, the capabilities of our technology, and the commitment of our people. They see the importance of the problems we are helping them solve, and they want us to succeed.
I have also heard clearly that realizing this opportunity will require us to improve.
OneTrust grew rapidly over its first decade. That growth enabled us to serve thousands of customers, enter new markets, expand our capabilities, and build one of the most experienced teams in our industry. At times, however, our solutions and customer experience didn't keep pace with our rate of growth.
Customers have been candid with me about those experiences. That balance matters. We are hearing both the confidence and the frustration, and both are shaping how we move forward.
We do not take that confidence for granted. We have to earn it through the products we deliver, the service we provide, and the way we manage our relationship with every customer.
What We Are Changing
We are entering OneTrust's next phase with greater focus.
We are concentrating our resources on the products, platform capabilities, and customer outcomes that matter most. We are simplifying areas that have become unnecessarily complex. We are bringing more rigor to how we set priorities, develop products, support customers, and measure performance. We will do fewer things, do them better, and be clearer about what customers can expect from us.
We are also investing in the systems and teams that shape the customer experience. Great technology is not enough if it is difficult to deploy, hard to adopt, or inconsistently supported. The quality of our implementation, service, support, and ongoing partnership must match the importance of the work customers are asking us to help them do.
Customers should expect us to become easier to work with. They should expect clearer communication, greater consistency, and urgency when something is not working. They should also expect integrity in how we communicate, how we make commitments, and how we take responsibility for the experience we deliver.
What Will Not Change
As we become more focused, we will not become less ambitious.
We will continue to invest substantially in innovation. We will continue building the next generation of our platform. And we will continue preparing for the role governance must play as AI changes how organizations operate.
We are building OneTrust as an independent company for the long term. That direction allows us to make sustained investments in our customers, our people, and the technology this market will require. It allows us to think beyond the next quarter and build for the needs customers will face over the next decade.
Our Commitment
Thank you for your business, your candor, and your continued belief in what OneTrust can help you accomplish.
We know that belief must be earned again and again.
Our commitment is to become more focused, more consistent, and easier to work with. It is to invest in the products and services that will create the greatest value for customers. It is to communicate more clearly, execute with greater discipline, and respond with the level of service our customers should expect.
OneTrust has already accomplished a great deal. But I did not join this company simply to preserve what has been built. I joined because I believe OneTrust can become the defining governance platform for the next decade and an even stronger, more trusted partner to our customers.
We know what we need to do next. And we are doing it. I also look forward to continuing that conversation at TrustWeek, September 28-30, where we will share more about where OneTrust is headed and how we are building to better serve our customers in the years ahead.
John Heyman
Chief Executive Officer
OneTrust
