Blue Mantis COO’s Advice For IT Leaders On Speaking With Boards And C-Suite

Don’t talk firewalls and tech jargon.

Jay Pasteris is the COO at IT services provider Blue Mantis. He also was the company’s CIO and CISO, so he understands many of the pain points of IT leaders.

Pasteris noted that IT leaders can often have issues bringing forth their needs to executive leadership and boards. He offered some advice.

First, he said speaking with leadership or a board of directors is not about talking “firewalls and technology.”

Presenting to executive leadership should always be about “business outcomes,” Pasteris said.

“That business outcome being revenue goals. What is the technology that is used to drive those revenue goals? Why is [that technology] important? How is that technology being used for automating, streamlining the business?”

He advised cutting right to the chase and putting aside tech jargon when making a case for funding projects.

Many organizations are seeking dollars to bolster their cybersecurity defenses. Executive leadership isn’t concerned about the “bits and bytes” of cybersecurity, Pasteris said. Instead, inform them where the organization is from a security perspective, the business risks and those risks’ impact on the business.

And Pasteris said it is beneficial to bring in outside help.

“I’ve always tied the business outcomes to business risk. The other thing, I educate. They have a responsibility as a board. ... They have obligations as a board. So, I brought an expert in to answer, to educate them to understand, ‘Here is your obligation as a board member. Here's what you are accountable to, and here's what you are legally accountable to.’ That was a moment where they said, ‘Oh, this is not just a technical conversation. This is a business conversation.’

“CIOs and CSOs traditionally are not very comfortable sitting in those meetings with board members. I help organizations. We have a group from my team that helps organizations [speak] to the C-levels; here’s what you need to be talking about, here’s the presentation.”

Pasteris had some other advice for midmarket IT leaders:

• Regarding AI: IT leaders should specify how using AI drives revenue opportunities.
• What data is [AI] touching? Is that data clean? How are you protecting that data? Is it customer data? Is it partner data? Is it health care? Is it financial data?
• IT leaders should reflect on, ‘How are we driving our cloud strategy?’ Pasteris said. ‘What are the applications? How are those applications supporting the business unit? How is marketing going to consume those services to drive marketing campaigns easier? How is the sales board going to consume those services?’ Establish a deep partnership with the revenue side of the house, he advised.
• Cyber [is] more than just cybersecurity. Cyber [is] data governance, GRC.
• Understanding security data is part of security. Data governance, data hygiene, data protection ... you must think about what are the crown jewels of the company?

IT is more than a back end, Pasteris said. “You can provide the solutions that make [your organization] more efficient, you can supply the applications, you can give them the vision of where the technology is going to meet their business objectives.”