Speaker 0 | 00:05.899
Hello everyone, this is Phil Howard, your host of Technology with a Beard extravaganza. Today, we are very fortunate to have with us Felix Gorovatsky. Felix is an IT advisor, currently IT manager at Centage. We had a really interesting conversation the other day, made me want to have you on the show. It revolves around the topic of companies valuing, really valuing IT. And there’s kind of this, I guess you’d say, paradigm shift happening in the marketplace right now, which should have happened a long time ago, where people are all of a sudden saying, wait a second, our IT staff is no longer a utility. It’s actually… part of the business that actually drives revenue it’s so massively important and me working with IT directors on a daily basis I’m helping them sell ideas to upper management a lot of times and it becomes a team effort to sometimes just sell an idea like security which we all know is so important with especially with the Equifax breach recently Why don’t we just start this way? Give a little bit of a background on yourself. You know, how’d you get where you are? And I’m going to let you lead off with that. Give me a story.
Speaker 1 | 01:36.115
All right. Well, my story is very interesting. It’s unique. I find it in communicating and talking with other colleagues in the industry. I know it’s something different. My background comes back. I’m a first generation Russian American immigrant, a childhood immigrant who came from. the previous Soviet Union to America for religious prosecution and for a new way of life. So being born an American citizen to a Russian cultured family and pushing hard to have what I have, I went to a trade school for high school, learned about technology back in the early 2000s. My dad was a electrical engineer back in the Soviet Union. So that’s really where my passion for IT and the hardware aspect came in place. Then going into… university and studying my undergrad level to my graduate level all within the IT aspect, all at the same time while owning my own IT consulting business and working contract and part-time gigs here and there to get my experience, my knowledge. And throughout the time, I’ve definitely seen a lot of issues that need to be addressed at this point in time.
Speaker 0 | 02:43.041
Nice. A lot of people start, it’s, I was one of the first kids to have a computer. I was, you know, even me. I was a creative writing major in college, but in high school, I mean, I had a 386 and my friend in, you know, across from me, I actually went to boarding school. My friend in the room next to me also had a computer. And he said to me, Phil, you know, we should put in some network cards and drill a hole in the wall and we can network our computers. And I said, what the heck is a network? And, you know, it was like you used to have to type in win. you know,.exe to load Windows, and you couldn’t have multiple programs running at one time. So that’s, you know, I learned a lot from him. And, you know, fast forward, however many years later, you’ve got a creative writing major who works in technology.
Speaker 1 | 03:36.067
So choose paradigm shift there.
Speaker 0 | 03:40.109
Yeah. So well, actually, it’s interesting how both of them go hand in hand. And I think part of that is why we’re having this conversation today was just how do we translate and form IT managers into business owners as well but that’s another subject that we can go into depth go into you know for quite a while but you’re also writing a book what what’s the book about what’s
Speaker 1 | 04:02.922
all that what give me a little bit about the book so my book currently is being hopefully all put together and published around August of this year or earlier in the book itself titled IT and Business. The main aspect of this book is to help bridge that gap between IT and the business realm. So you’re talking between the IT professionals and the C-levels, the executives. And to talk about that gap that I know myself, and so we’ve talked about it previously, but we’ve seen it on our LinkedIn conversation going further and further, is that gap of knowledge and the understanding that IT is a value asset to the company, meaning it’s not just a drain for revenue, for expenses, it’s actually a revenue stream as well. So coming to understand that IT is actually going to help your business grow, it’s going to… help increase your revenue and there are so many little aspects that the current management structure doesn’t understand what it means because we’re still we’re still uh our current management system is still tailored to the 1920s and 1930s it’s the old industrial style and it’s not ready to grow with how fast technology itself has grown and we can definitely see that within the past five years how technology has turned from the idea of cryptocurrency to the way of security to insecurity self ransomware attacks, but how all of that affects the bottom line of the business.
Speaker 0 | 05:43.112
So I know you’re dealing with a lot of various different compliance issues, getting employees to buy into compliance issues, which I’m sure is the same for many, many people. I’ve, you know. I’ve got a lot of people outside of the United States that are commenting, even on LinkedIn, talking about how the United States does not have strict enough policies, does not have strict enough compliancy. Give me, I mean, what’s some of the, just like in the real work-life experience, even that you’re experiencing right now, what are some of the compliance issues that you’re dealing with?
Speaker 1 | 06:18.097
Well, right now I can definitely say just adhering to properly to Fox with compliancy and even PCI compliance with the data that’s being held. Obviously, I know internally that everything’s locked down, but it’s getting that end user training and getting the end user to understand what does it mean. They think, okay, since our environment’s locked up and it’s controlled, we’re compliant. No, there’s a lot of paperwork. There’s a lot of business continuity that goes behind it and the auditing trail, the documentation, the regulations, the change management, all of that that goes into managing the IT infrastructure needs to be done in order for you to have that. certified logo saying you are stock compliant or you are ISO compliant or your VDPR compliant and with all the new changing regulations especially right now with definitely in Europe in the next several months the VDPR is going to be hitting very hard and the fees are going to be ridiculous if you can’t pass the audit so the IT professionals have to be have to see this midnight reading to understand what they have to do to train their end-users and get the business owners on board to understand this needs to be done or we’re going to see huge consequences.
Speaker 0 | 07:33.811
I’m thinking we might have a I’m thinking, you know, we have a business we can start up right here. It’s not going to be the health inspector. It’s going to be the PCI compliant inspector. We’re just going to pop in for, I don’t know, like secret stoppers. We’re just going to pop in, hang around. You know what? And if they let us in and let us check right away, we’re going to say failure number one. Because honestly, the human error is a huge hole for most people to get into an organization, especially the email phishing attacks, et cetera.
Speaker 1 | 08:08.043
So one of the hugest things I’ve seen as an adjunct professor at Endicott College teaching IT security courses, one of the biggest things I’ve always loved to do is test my students towards the end of the course. And I have one of my very good close colleagues teach that stuff to students to see how much information. you can get from them doing social engineering attacks in a real world environment. And you would be shocked at the number of students or number of professionals that are in their early 20s to late 30s that are willing to give up the information if they have one or two drinks in them. And that’s, and that there’s this own security risk, you find out the office, you find out the passcode to that pin to the forgery pin on the door to the get in. You can go in the middle of the night and get into the office and you’re taking computers and taking hardware. Or the aspect that you found out that Jenny in accounting is still using the same password she uses for her Gmail. If you can get into her Gmail, you can get into her corporate account. So it’s coming down to all the policies and management and understanding, are you doing enough as the IT professional to train your users? And Phil, you could probably guess with me, you’ve gone to IT conferences. right yep have you ever gotten a free thumb drive absolutely have you ever had that thumb drive have you ever formatted that thumb drive before actually plugging into your laptop probably not who knows that i’ve seen i’ve been to places i’ve been to a conference and i got a thumb drive that had a uh some malware on it no way so you have to be careful like when you’re getting freebies like have you ever received a free pen and paper
Speaker 0 | 09:49.881
that’s like that bitcoin thumb drive picture that i’ve seen flowing around yeah yeah have i ever gotten one it’s
Speaker 1 | 09:57.671
Have you ever gotten a free pen in the mail from like a reputable company or something like that? It’s like a nice cross pen that’s all metal. A lot of people just start using it, but they never open it up. I’ve seen some floating around that have a built-in microchip that will record everything you write and say. And it’ll upload in a burst in the middle. It will upload as long as it gets onto an open Wi-Fi signal like, for example, Xfinity Wi-Fi.
Speaker 0 | 10:27.555
Hmm. That’s real deep. That’s funny because, uh, you reminded me of a, of a sales and old sales trick where, and I was talking about this the other day, one of, one of my sales coaches used to video himself in the office. Like if they were having a hard time getting past the gatekeeper at like a huge enterprise company and they wanted to get and get ahold of the CFO or the CEO, they used to video themselves talking, right? to this, you know, to this prospect. And then they would upload it to a frame, like a video frame that you’d get on Amazon and, you know, send it to him in the mail along with, you know, his favorite, whatever they would research him and get on Facebook. They’d find out whether he got a new car, they’d find out something about him that he really liked, send him a gift in the mail with that picture frame. And you can just see in every time it worked. the guy would call me like hey thank you very much this is awesome yeah I’d love to talk with you guys so
Speaker 1 | 11:33.083
I I can see something like this happening very very easily and it’s a new venture that that isn’t really known that much on the market for security it’s something people think it’s science fiction but it really isn’t it’s the same way that if you look I won’t go down the rabbit hole but I will mention it if you look back at cryptocurrency back in what 2007 2008 everybody thought it was just uh this this little thing and those people who invested into it made millions off of it and now now look at the value of it so definitely if you think it’s possible it is possible this is what happened this is how real entrepreneurs think they think outside the box turn
Speaker 0 | 12:14.373
the table a little bit so now definitely you live it’s very clear to you a lot of this stuff You have your passions, you have your desires, you wake up every morning, and this is what drives you. But a lot of people, they’re all the same way. If you’re in technology, you’re in technology because you love it. You’re not in technology because you thought, this seems like a good idea. Although, actually, there probably are a lot of people that think that because they think it’s the way to go in the future. But I would say it’s the majority of people that have an IT director position or higher at a company. have a similar story of growing up loving IT. There’s going to be something there that got them involved in it. Now,
Speaker 1 | 13:00.778
however… I agree with that 100%.
Speaker 0 | 13:03.299
They’ve got to come into work at Hot Dog Sales Incorporated, and they’ve got to run the entire network. They’ve got to deal with user-based password resets. They’ve got to run a help desk. They’ve got to hire people, train people. They’ve got to deal with all these security issues. They might have to deal with the phone system. They might have to deal with an ISP, Internet Service Provider, going down. They may have to deal with a wide area network, multiple locations. And a lot of these guys, they may be drinking from the fire hose on a daily basis, and the whole passion and the reason why they got involved to begin with seems to quickly get drained out of them. Would you say that’s a fair statement?
Speaker 1 | 13:49.271
That is an extremely fair statement because I’ve seen that happen to myself at a few companies who I’ve seen it happen to my colleagues. It happens over time, but it’s also you have to be very conscious in the IT realm of your own mental health to not overdo it and to realize that not everything’s in your control. But that also comes down to if you’re advocating for budgeting and trying to get resources that you can get that one or two help desk or IT support analysts or… the junior support engineer into the company to help you out. And you have to fight for that because if you don’t get the help, you’re just going to be, we’re going to be working 80, 90 hour weeks, which is totally unfeasible. You’re trying to have a life and you have children or you’re in the middle of trying to go to school, whatever it is, you do have to work very closely with the business side to make sure you get the resources you need. So you’re not killing yourself at this.
Speaker 0 | 14:48.227
job gotcha so that the don’t that’s the I guess I don’t know if I say dilemma, it’s not really a dilemma, but that’s the problem, right? You’re there treading water, you’re drinking water from the fire hose, you know the problems, you know the issues, and you need to fix, you need to have a strategy. You basically need to come up with a strategic approach to IT so that you’re not constantly reacting to problems, right? From that perspective, how does someone that’s kind of… floundering in that situation because i know myself i know from an outside perspective and i come into a lot of organizations and i look at it and they’ve just been there getting beat over the head for for years so it’s kind of hard to see and i can look at the place right away and say hey well let’s take a look at where all your money is being spent let’s take a look at where we can save money and now let’s take a look at where we can renegotiate stuff let’s take a look at where we can donate things and get a tax write-off Let’s take a look at where we can get free trials on XYZ for a while to test something and get a proof of concept. And now let’s take a look. Let’s put all that together into a plan. And let’s take a look at how we can relieve, you know, a typical issues that you’re dealing with on a daily basis. If it’s email, it might be a migration to 365. Right. If it’s, you know, I guess my point is, is a lot of times they don’t have time to do that and to put together a business plan or a business case to take. to the person that looks at you like a utility and that you’re just doing your general job description, right? And be able to sell a business case to not really just get you what you want, but really it’s going to relieve a lot of pressure, but it’s also going to make the business produce better. You’re going to be more productive. You may even save on a heck of a lot of labor that the ROI on these things is huge. There’s there’s hard costs and soft costs right to both you might actually be able to do that through a heck of a lot more with the same amount of money right and then you may actually be more productive to begin with but a lot of times it’s hard for someone to even know where to begin or how to step out what do
Speaker 1 | 17:07.199
you have any thoughts on that so my personal thought is I I used to think like that a hundred percent and I once I went through and got my MBA Again, I’m not telling everybody in IT management to get a master’s in business, but the instance that you start thinking outside the box and you go through some standard accounting courses, even reading a few accounting books will help you, is to see that financial trend that you can tackle and realize that IT is IT, but the financial side of it. The instant you can talk numbers and figures and see the ROIs on the objectives that you have, that’s when you will be taken seriously. seriously in the eyes of management. At the same time, if you see these issues, don’t be scared to put on the big voices and approach and schedule the time to talk about and let the management team know if it is that if you’re who you report to is the CFO or the CEO of the company. So C-levels sit down and tell them listen we’re having issues I know I need I need X Y & Z and because this X Y & Z there’s going to be a better return on the offer. on the investment, not just on me, but on the product and on the design and on the infrastructure of the company. So making sure you’re setting those goals very clearly and you’re constantly checking in on checking in with the executives, but as well, checking in with your team and yourself to make sure you’re on track. That’s the biggest thing because like our conversation here has gotten very sidelined, but we have a set agenda. You need to follow that agenda to the T, but it’s okay to… to drive off of it as long as you find your way back.
Speaker 0 | 18:47.248
Yes. Yes, absolutely. I call that getting the golf clubs out. Get the golf clubs out. Go have some conversation.
Speaker 1 | 18:53.713
If that’s the term you want to use, go ahead.
Speaker 0 | 18:56.455
I know. Mine are sitting here in the corner. I would actually have to dust them off. And I just haven’t played golf in, like, well over a year. Maybe it’s because I have seven kids and it takes four hours to play 18 holes of golf. Yeah. been a great conversation what else what else you got any other I mean if you had one message to deliver to you know IT directors out there even even teams possibly even you know IT directors in teams other companies looking for you know like looking to maybe beef up their IT department or or do more with you know make it more productive what would you have to say what’s that message you
Speaker 1 | 19:41.622
So that’s my message. I’m a huge advocate for teach and learn from the team. So I would say if you have someone who’s a potential candidate for management, in your team give them a little extra tlc some extra love and care um because they could be that your replacement or they could be the next growth the next growth spurt for the company if that means you’re going globally or you’re going uh continentally large to manage another office realize that you have that internal resource that isn’t looked at that much but as well i would always recommend that training training training keep your avenues open if you do have a team and you see that there is something with telco or there’s something with networking and you’re using an outside vendor to do all your management don’t hesitate to pair up that one person who you know who has a passion for networking to learn more about it and to possibly start being the liaison instead of you uh that will help relieve your stress but it as well will help grow that individual employee’s portfolio and knowledge base because you may end up having the next the next best network engineer in your whole company and he’s just sitting there all he needs is a push and some extra love to to say it’s possible that’s that’s a great message and i’ve seen that a lot and i’ve seen when i ask some team members what they think of their it director and why he’s so successful they
Speaker 0 | 21:08.828
always say he pushes me to learn more he puts me on projects that are not above my head but i don’t have full experience with so that i can learn from that and lets me, you know, and lets me learn, lets me learn from that. It doesn’t just stand over my shoulder telling me what to do. Actually lets me learn, even make, even make, you know, mistakes that aren’t detrimental, right. With, you know, with guidance. But I’ve seen whole teams look up to their leader because a, he was developing them and without, without fear of losing an employee to somewhere else.
Speaker 1 | 21:46.386
No, definitely. It’s the same way if you look at some of the best statistics out there about leadership or what they say about leaders. There are people who are bosses and leaders. There’s a big difference between the two, how you nurture and pair up your team compared to how you’re commanding and pushing a team. So there’s a different aspect in IT. If you want the best results, you have to be more of a leader than a manager, than a boss, and telling people what to do. show them how to do it and that’s how you grow your asset the asset which is your employees in the IG department because the head is usually a generalist he has had experience with every little bit and piece but he’s keeping it all tied together but he needs to help but he has no problem mentoring those individuals in the department to get the resources they need in order in order for them to be an expert in that industry. I can quote one of my professors from from uni and this is Professor Pohnielski, IT there are no experts you cannot be an expert of all of IT but you can be an expert of your own silo and so management needs to realize they cannot be an expert of all of IT they can only be a generalist and help build those silos of a network or sysops or netops. systems operations or if it’s regional operations or if it’s just development you have those experts in just that one area but they cannot they then can become generalists but they if their passion is in java let them do their thing in java if they are a
Speaker 0 | 23:30.644
person for cisco networking let them be the professionals in cisco networking that’s interesting you mentioned silos because i’ve got a podcast coming up with bill pymann who talks a lot about silos He’s actually really not a fan of silos, but I think it’s the same concept that you’re talking about. Not everyone can exist on their own island, right? There has to be someone bringing them all together. Everyone has to work together, and everyone can help even cross-train each other. But like you said, all of these successful IT directors that I’ve seen are generalists. They know a little bit here, they know a little bit there, and they’re not afraid to say, you know, to pull in their team member that’s in charge of. whatever, the wide area network and the firewalls and say, Hey, what are we going to do here? You know, what do we have here? How is this going to work like this? It’s a, it’s a great point. Thanks for being on the show and anytime. Yeah. And if there’s anyone out there that’s, that wants to get ahold of you, are you okay with them reaching out to you on LinkedIn?
Speaker 1 | 24:33.407
Yep. They can reach out to me on LinkedIn, follow me, add me. They can follow me on Twitter, which is at my last name. They can, They can find me on my last name.com or at techsmarts.net. That is where I’m posting a lot of my knowledge base articles. It’s still in development. But then on top of that, if you guys have, if you want to book any time to talk with me, I do have around my LinkedIn page a foundly site that people can book time just to chat with me.
Speaker 0 | 25:05.726
Gotcha. Ladies and gentlemen, Felix Gorovatsky. Thanks, man. Have a great day.
