Aptum Panel Discussion: How Business Leaders Can Stay On The Offensive In Challenging Times
Recently, Susan Bowen, CEO and President of Aptum, hosted a panel discussion on “How business leaders can stay on the offensive in challenging times” with Philbert Shih, Managing Director of analyst firm Structure Research; Jack Danahy, Former SVP of Business Development and Chief Evangelist with managed security leader Alert Logic; and Mark Vivian, CEO of Oracle Managed Services provider Claremont.
During the discussion, they touched on these topics:
- Business Strategy – How the pandemic has impacted business, and strategies to grow in the face of challenge
- IT Security – Security in the new business landscape, and its impact on the IT environment
- IT Infrastructure – The immediate impacts IT infrastructure can have on business success
- Remote Work – Strategies to keep remote workers engaged and maintain (or even build) productivity
A defensive business strategy is often the fallback approach for organizations in turbulent times. Over the past year the COVID-19 pandemic has caused many organizations to adopt this mindset. Putting new remote work strategies in place, shifting budgets to compensate for unpredictable revenue and trying to maintain a ‘business as usual’ stance has consumed senior executives across all industries. To grow their customer base and revenues, businesses must now be on the offensive.
The panelists all agreed organizations looking to be more aggressive need to have a solid cloud strategy. Toronto-based Philbert Shih at Structure Research has followed the cloud and data centre market for 20 years and noted that like the 2008/2009 financial crisis, the pandemic has spurred interest in cloud and outsourced infrastructure.
As businesses shift more of their infrastructure to the cloud, security will play a key role. For example, the increase in employees working from home creates different security dynamics, Alert Logic’s Jack Danahy noted. IT infrastructures that were once managed on-site now need to be managed remotely. And with more devices being used for both personal and professional applications, new security processes need to be explored.
Technology isn’t the only factor organizations need to address to take a more offensive business stance post-pandemic. Remote work is here to stay and ensuring employees feel connected to one another and the company will be more important when they’re not in regular face-to-face contact.
All panelists believe over the next 12 months, more organizations will turn to the cloud to boost scalability, efficiency and security.
Please see Bowen’s full blog here: https://aptum.com/blog/how-business-leaders-can-stay-on-the-offensive-in-challenging-times/
The roundtable recording is also available here.
July 12, 2021 at 12:24 pm
[…] worked closely with the Aptum team on the project. A quick recap of the discussion can be found here. Check out these videos from the roundtable discussion. They provide insights into business […]