Podcast season 3 recap: Future of Operations

The Future of Operations is transforming the way operations teams approach cybersecurity, skills gaps, resilient operation models, and more. Disruption is inevitable, but the experts in this season of Bold Stories. Future Focused. are here to share their perspectives and ideas, and promote discussion and action for the future of work.

Podcast host, Francis Carden (VP of Intelligent Automation and Robotics, Pegasystems), sat down with tech experts and influencers who shared their perspectives and experiences with new operations models, the future of cybersecurity, how resiliency promotes innovation, and more. Check out the recap below!

Episode 1: Reversing the top-down operations model with Kieran Gilmurray and Shelly Kramer

Disruption in tech is inevitable because it defines generations and promotes innovation. As each disruptive event happens, humans work hard to collaborate, adapt, and grow.

Kieran Gilmurray, Global Automation Lead for Cybersecurity at Rapid7, talks with Francis Carden about how the top-down operations model for digital transformation an organization-wide effort, not a daunting task that’s placed on IT alone. Digital transformation impacts all teams and individuals and successful modernization efforts rely on support and collaboration from the entire business.

“…the days of actually digitally transforming an organization isn’t a technology problem as much as a change management, a communication, or a vision that involves everybody in the team and everybody playing their part in the organization to make things happen.”

And, in order to sustain operations, it’s important for operations leaders to hire employees who possess both the hard and soft skills required to contribute to a company’s growth as well as a company’s culture. It’s one thing to attract talent, but another to retain talent. Especially in this hybrid working landscape where people rely on technology to both stay connected and build great products and services. It’s the people who make or break a company’s success.

“…the reality of it is if you want to attract talent, and if you want to retain talent, you have to listen to what it is the workforce is telling you and what it is they want and need. […] I think there’s a danger in not understanding that and not embracing change in some way.”

Episode 2: Outsmarting the future of cybersecurity with Jody R. Westby and Katryna Dow

Data is absolutely everywhere you look. Any time you go on your computer or phone, shop at the grocery store or online, etc., you’re generating data. Tech makes data so easy to collect and distribute, making people vulnerable to hackers looking for personal data.

Operations leaders are taking action to protect against cybersecurity threats to their company data and personal employee information. Jody R. Westby, CEO of Global Cyber Risk LLC, talks about how leaders who prioritize and deliver on security efforts are viewed as more reliable and trustworthy for clients, partners, and potential hires. This is becoming a marketable and valued trait for any type of organization.

“…companies will learn that security and trust are marketplace features. That’s a competitive advantage. When you can get a message on the marketplace that you are a trusted resource, I think that is going to start carrying more water, and maybe it’ll get you lower insurance premiums…”

Katryna Dow, Founder and CEO of Meeco, ramps up the discussion on cybersecurity by questioning organizations’ readiness to either proactively support security initiatives or wait until forced to participate. This sets the tone for our podcast listeners to take action and protect customers everywhere.

“[The] question is, I think, for organizations, ‘What side of history do you want to be on? Do you want to be helping customers have better digital experiences? Or do you want to wait until you’re forced to do that?’”

Episode 3: The real impact of resilient operations with Richard Seline

In this episode, Francis Carden talks about resiliency in the future of operations with Richard Seline, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Resilience Innovation Hub. Richard explains that anything and everything can change in a single moment and what’s most important for operations leaders is what they do before and after the change has occurred.

Resilient operations leaders know to prepare for potential disruption as well as how to keep their teams going in the aftermath. Change is scary and uncertain, so resiliency is key to convince others that precautions and practices must happen because not everyone within an organization is going to agree or trust what’s on the other side of change. It’s important to arm organizations with the proper solutions and tools to support their employees, clients, partners, and beyond.

“…the reality is that we now need to be truly realistic, but that reality doesn’t come with solutions and answers that now are available. Operations folks have a hard time fighting against internal perception, or shareholder value, or markets […] this is not going to work if we keep doing it this way. We need to equip the operations folks with all the tools that allow them to say we are going to have to pivot.”

Episode 4: Innovating operations within a skills chasm with Yael Kaufmann, Stacy Cline, and Bob Chapman

Based on the title of this episode, it must be difficult to imagine how anyone can innovate within a chasm. How can anyone innovate if there are limited amounts of skilled individuals around to make it happen? This is what operations leaders are faced with because the workforce is struggling to keep up with the skills that are the most in-demand.

Yael Kaufmann, Co-Founder & COO at Learn In, talks about how we need to do what we can with what we have to overcome rapidly-growing global issues. There’s no doubt that a gap exists, but that doesn’t mean that we should give up or give in because these problems aren’t going to resolve themselves.

“The skills gap is large and growing. Any number of these problems we’re talking about, climate change or what have you, these are large problems, and they are growing and they are not going anywhere. We have to figure out how to solve them faster with less resources…”

Operations leaders need approach hiring and retention from new and innovative angles. Stacy Cline, Senior Director of Corporate Social Responsibility & Sustainability at GoDaddy, is always adjusting to best support her data center teams as they monitor greenhouse gas emissions from the company’s data centers. The best way to manage emissions is to have both teams (the data center team monitoring emissions and employees working in the data center) really work to understand each other in order to make actionable plans and realistic changes.

“So it’s really joining forces with teams, understanding what they have going on, and then presenting these options and this new work as a solution to what they’re already doing.”

Bob Chapman, Chairman & CEO of Barry-Wehmiller, also reminds listeners that as the skills landscape continues to adjust with different technological advances, we should take this as a sign to focus on developing other interests and skills that enable us to embrace what makes us human. Bob talks about how embracing automation and progress can challenge us to grow in new ways and give us time to become better and happier people.

“We want everybody every day walking in saying, ‘How can we be better? How can we create a better future for each other?’ I think automation is an extremely positive way of sharing meaningful information that empowers us to do better things in the future…”