From solutions architecture to security, Gabe Gumbs brings wide and deep technical experience to his position as Chief Innovation Officer at Spirion. Today, he is leading the Spirion product team through strategic product development to create technologies that push data security forward in an increasingly complex digital world. Prior to his new position at Spirion, Gabe held a range of positions in security technology, including VP of Product Management at Spirion. Other prior positions include VP of Product Strategy at STEALTHbits Technologies, and Director of Research and Products at WhiteHat Security. Gabe also served on the Board of Advisors at eGRC.com.

Show Notes:

• [01:16] Gabe shares his career journey and how he got into IT. His interest in technology actually began in high school.  
• [02:39] He started his IT career as a junior network admin.  About ten years ago he switched from the practitioner side to the solution provider side.  So now he builds security technologies and that is the core of what he focused on.
• [04:25] Chief Innovation Officer means that he sits at the head of their project strategy.  He ensures they are bringing the market the right technologies to solve their customers problems.  
• [05:52] They spend a lot of time understanding and examining the customer’s problem well before jumping to the solution. 
• [06:46] He spends a lot of time digging into the problems themselves with the customer. 
• [07:11] For the most part, your average customer understands that they are not so unique that their problems would stand out from others. 
• [07:55] When organizations are taking very differentiated approaches to solving their own problems where they might run into unique challenges of their own.  
• [09:24] Privacy operations is going to become a very necessary function inside of any organization with any sizable amount of data.  
• [11:25] It is especially difficult when the internal business doesn't understand where all the data exists in multiple clouds. 
• [12:57] You can have security without privacy.  On the security side you are dealing with risks that arise from unauthorized access to data.  On the privacy side you are dealing risks that arise from authorized access data. 
• [13:37] The expectation of privacy is a bit overstated in the corporate world.  
• [14:38] Where is all your data and what type of data is it?
• [15:50] If that is data that you’re required to share with a third party, that is going to require different security and privacy controls.  
• [16:14] We have to link the business use of the data to the security and privacy controls.  
• [16:35] Align business use of the data with the data type. 
• [17:01] Did I genuinely understand that problem and am I approaching it the right way? 
• [17:56] The non malicious threats continue to surprise them in different ways. Underestimating human ingenuity will always get us in trouble.  
• [19:03] It helps to visualize the problem.   
• [19:51] Gabe shares his best worst boss story. 
• [20:47] It is important to understand how the business operates and then understanding how you are going to secure the business. 
• [22:26] Gabe’s advice is to slow down. Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up. 
• [23:46] Spend more time in the problem space even in your personal life.  When we are under pressure we tend to want to run towards solving it, but being uncomfortable for just a little bit longer so you can understand that problem is really where we need to be. 

Links and Resources:

• State of the CIO Podcast Website
• State of the CIO Podcast on Apple Podcasts
• Dan on LinkedIn
• Gabe on LinkedIn
• Gabe on Twitter
• Spirion
• Privacy Please Podcast

Sri Koneru is the Global Technology leader with Worldwide Operations experience in Fortune 100 companies His industry and functional expertise includes retail, energy, and utilities, manufacturing, and technology. He is a motivated and customer-centric senior technology leader and business strategist with a track record of transforming organizations to deliver sustainable results and propel digital innovation. I champion cutting-edge technologies that increase customer engagement, grow the business, expand operational capabilities, improve efficiency and reduce costs.

Show Notes:

• [01:08] Sri shares his career journey. He got an engineering degree and he knew he wanted to learn as much as he could. 
• [02:20] It is all about people and relationships.  Work gets down through relationships.  
• [03:18] He was good in math and logic growing up so naturally, he leaned towards technology so that really paved his path into technology.  
• [04:13] Technology is a part of every business model.  You have to have some technical knowledge. 
• [05:10] You can never go wrong looking at how you can transform your customer experiences.  
• [05:51] At the end of the day, the customer is king. 
• [06:13] The other thing you can never go wrong with in your transformation efforts is employee experience. Enhancing the employee experience and helps them provide a better customer experience.  
• [07:45] Understanding what are customer friction points and pain points are and doing that in the context of customer journey mapping. 
• [08:35] You have to do step zero before you get to step four.  Sometimes in the digital transformation world, we try to go to step four first. 
• [10:06] When you are talking about customer journey mapping sometimes you have to unlearn what you have learned over the last 20 years and outsiders can enable you to do that.  
• [11:34] As an IT leader you want to know the details of the business process and business capabilities.  IT leaders have to be business leaders first.  
• [12:41] Sri shares about Winnebago Industries and who they are. They are known for continuous innovation, quality, and service. 
• [14:32] The pandemic has taught us to get more in touch with our soul and our purpose.  We are all recognizing as humans that there is a lot more to do than work.  
• [17:29] Sri shares his advice for himself at the beginning of his career.  Never lose the curiosity to learn.  Have the curiosity to learn about the business you are in.  Curiosity should not have an expiration date.  
• [19:00] Have the passion, have the curiosity, but also know that you don’t have to put a timeline to that progression. 
• [20:18] Sri shares his best worst boss story. 
• [21:07]  The best bosses give your honest, timely, and open feedback, but they also have your back.   
• [22:29] Having a support system was crucial to him during his worst boss story. 
• [24:12] It is not competition anymore, it is cooperation.  We can provide more value and faster value if we can create those partnerships across ecosystems.  

Links and Resources:

• State of the CIO Podcast Website
• State of the CIO Podcast on Apple Podcasts
• Dan on LinkedIn
• Sri on LinkedIn
• Minnesota Technology Association

Brian Watson is Principal at CIO Clarity Advisors. He previously served as VP of Enterprise Innovation at Traction Technology Partners, where he and his colleagues help companies source and vet the emerging technology companies that drive innovation and create competitive advantage. Brian is the author of Confessions of a Successful CIO: How the Best CIOs Tackle Their Toughest Business Challenges (Wiley, March 2014), which was a top-rated title on Amazon and has appeared on numerous “must-read” lists for current and aspiring IT leaders. He also served as Editor in Chief of CIO Insight. Brian has spoken and moderated CIO panels and fireside chats at IT leadership events across the U.S. Brian holds degrees from Bucknell University and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He lives in Fairfield County, Conn, with his wife and two sons. 

Show Notes:

• [01:09] Brian shares his career journey. He is always looking for ways to help CIO’s tell their story or help CIO’s.  
• [04:01] Brian and Dan wrote their book Confessions of a Successful CIO to share stories about CIO’s that have saved their companies in depth. 
• [06:18] If you don’t have a plan, you plan to fail. 
• [07:13] 2021 is going to be very similar to 2020.  There is a big emphasis on speed. 
• [08:11] We have seen what teams can do when they’re focused and that is going to continue to be a game-changer. 
• [08:18] Extenuating digital investments, e-commerce, and the power of the ecosystem are really important. 
• [09:48] Harnessing your ecosystem for new ideas, better ways to integrate technology, and maximize what you have in your environment already paid off really well for a lot of CIO’s last year and is a big focus of their time this year.    
• [12:22] The wins are more spread out and not as easy to benchmark.  We don’t know the final outcomes on a lot of the things that have happened.   
• [13:29] Talent is a perennial challenge for any organization.  Work from home allowed many companies to seek out talent beyond their geography.  
• [15:54] You want to make this the best employment situation for the people you have right now.   Many companies are asking what they can keep doing in this remote world to keep rallying and motivating their people outside of financial bonuses.  
• [17:16] One of the other concerns is the workplace itself. What is it going to be and how many people are going to be there?
• [19:06] Another concern is innovation.  
• [21:05] Brian’s best advice outside of IT is to set goals that are measurable and tangible.  If you are going to work in an IT organization have a really clear idea of what you want to accomplish.  
• [21:46] You want to be as focused and goal-driven as possible. Learn as much as you can about the organization and the pathways through it.  Understand your business.  You’re there to enable the company so you have to know what it does.  
• [22:11] Go through as many professional development exercises as you can. Try to learn as much as you can.  There is nothing better than a mentor.  
• [24:01] There are so many folks that have been in the technology field for a long time and just want to give back.  There are a ton of people out there that can be learned from and are happy to do it.  
• [25:32] Brian shares his best worst boss story.
• [26:20]  It is very important to think about how you are communicating about people and towards people.  
• [27:43] Brian shares about the nonprofit called ReferVets that he, his buddy, and a team of volunteers are launching soon. 

Links and Resources:

• State of the CIO Podcast Website
• State of the CIO Podcast on Apple Podcasts
• Dan on LinkedIn
• Brian on LinkedIn
• ReferVets