The Great Conversation

As I have watched many industries evolve, I have paid particular attention to those companies who have thrived in the midst of change. I also have taken note of the people who fought the change and tried to understand why? When the opportunity was uncertain, then control and constraint were the weapons they deployed.

Where are they now?

After speaking to our guest, I believe they either were left behind or, later, attempted to “hitchhike” onto the speeding car on the highway. Those who embraced the change were either driving the car or created businesses that became the car.

I had the opportunity to talk to a highly valued Risk Intelligence Consultant, Chris Story. Chris also is highly interconnected through his work with the International Protective Security Board (IPSB), a non-profit promoting the advancement of protection professionals worldwide. He also works with Chuck Randolph on the podcast known as Conversations in Close Protection (CiCP).

Chris and I reflect on what we learned at a recent Protective Intelligence Summit hosted by Ontic where we shared stories of those that took note of changes in their industry and profession and embraced the change and those who did not.

The protectors are about to learn this. And those who embrace the change will be future leaders in the risk, resilience, and security industry.

She has traveled all over the world and her journey intersected with some of the pivotal moments in the world’s troubled history.

But you would never know it.

She is humble; a disarming openness that draws you in. And, once in, you can see why she has been successful.

Wendy Bashnan is the CSO of Nielsen. Nielsen shapes the world’s media and content as a global leader in audience insights, data, and analytics. Through an understanding of people and their behaviors across all channels and platforms, they empower their clients with independent and actionable intelligence so they can connect and engage with their audiences—now and into the future. An S&P 500 company, Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN) operates around the world in more than 55 countries.

Wendy and I have a great conversation around how the emerging interconnected, intelligence platform will empower security leaders to a new level of organizational value.

“I can only solve what I can see.”

And, may I say, we are currently not seeing enough of the picture to play a strategic role within the organization. But we will. The new intelligence highway is rapidly becoming a reality. Enjoy the conversation and see if you agree.

“It was staring us in the face, but we just couldn’t see it.”

This is the conundrum many face when it comes to navigating risk and opportunity. Many things conspire to keep us from seeing and seizing the opportunity. Organizational silos. Fear of change. Cost vs. Return on the Opportunity (different than ROI).

I was fortunate to listen to a powerful story of navigating risk and opportunity by Ontic’s Chief Product Officer, Manish Mehta at the recent Protective Intelligence Summit. And I followed up with him on our Great Conversation Podcast around the opportunity that is gradually being “seen” and deployed by leaders in the risk, resilience, and security industry.

Listen in, connect the dots, and enjoy the ride along the new, interconnected, intelligence highway.

Manish has over 25 years of market leadership in software development, In his role as Chief Product Officer, he is the principal evangelist linking customers, partners and product development teams together in a highly collaborative and strategic web of innovation.

He was a Senior Vice President and Chief Security Officer for Verizon, a veteran, and one of the highest-ranking special agents in the FBI (who happen to be black) before retiring and becoming a school bus driver. The bridge was easy to cross if you are a true servant leader. His name is Michael Mason. We know him well. He was one of the most captivating speakers at our Great Conversation events before the pandemic. But he also sat in the front row taking notes as others spoke before and after him.

To get in his head and his heart, I decided to have a great conversation with him coinciding with the publication of his new book: Working in America - Spectator or Gladiator...You Decide

The book is designed for those who want to navigate the “white water rapids of the American workplace” with courage, discipline, kindness, and strength. Seizing the day requires you to get in the game, because the “world owes you nothing”, as Mike’s father once told him.

I hope you enjoy this lively conversation. It is like reading a good book animated by a voice that is clear and engaging.

Thought leaders are defined by the mountains they climb, the vistas they see, and their ability to articulate to others the how and why of the journey.

Adam Cambridge, a leader in Enterprise Risk Intelligence at Mitre, was recently acknowledged for his efforts in the Protective Intelligence profession at a summit hosted by Ontic.

We explore how his education and experience created the foundation for his passion for intelligence gathering; aggregating and analyzing information that could predict breaches or incidents for organizations and the world.

We also learn about his scorecard for great leaders and how this will be important for the next evolution of the industry. And fundamentally, we exchange ideas for how the role of security is changing in an exciting way; no longer defined just by what we protect, but how we enable the organization to achieve its goals.

The former global head of communications and crisis management at one of the world’s largest insurance companies, became an international business coach on strategic communications through his company The Orvieto Academy for Communicative Leadership.

We speak with him from Rome, where he has been since the pandemic.

Emilio is a thought leader in communicative leadership which focuses on empowering and strengthening leaders and employees. He is the chairman of Italy’s largest change management consulting group as well as teaches leadership principles through his virtual and onsite workshops around the world.

We talk about his journey and finish with the six tipping points of leadership that he has focused on during the pandemic. We discover a curious mind, driven by a passion for people and learning. And we are left with key steps in our path to values-based leadership.

We used to think job security was important. And it may be. But what if the real need is to belong to something bigger than ourselves?

I sit down with an accomplished executive coach who has been helping C-suite executives around the world unlock their leadership power to deliver on their strategic and personal objectives. She is a former global HR executive with a highly attuned ability to listen to her clients deeper than the words they are using and the stories they are telling.

She has been travelling to Central America since 2014 with an organization called The Business Council for Peace (Bpeace), an award-winning nonprofit working in crisis-affected communities to grow small and medium-size businesses, create significant employment for all, and expand the economic power of women. To Bpeace: “More jobs mean less violence.®”

What I found extraordinary about Angel Scalpello, the founder of the Scalpello Group, is how she bridges the profit and non-profit world with her competencies and gets her hands dirty in the process. Although she sits on the board of directors, she personally advises and trains budding business owners in some of the most distressed parts of the world.

We have a great conversation, and, as always, we discover important questions we should be asking ourselves and our leaders.

I first became acquainted with Jon Polly’s ideas and competencies through his articles on smart buildings and cities. I knew that many systems integrators and technology vendors were not equipped to carry on a great conversation on those topics.

But security is no longer a silo. It is becoming deeply embedded in digital transformation initiatives at the corporate and consumer level. Design thinking must become more holistic and the value proposition more integrated into the very fabric of the living building and the living city.

Jon doesn’t believe in going it alone. He wants to extend the vendor ecosystem to support the new initiatives creating a force multiplier for the end client and their trusted security systems integrator. The partner model is not new. However, I believe it will take on new urgency in the future.

Get ready to take a deep breath. Imagine juggling the following:

President of the National Economic Security Alliance

Leadership Council Member of the National Business Association

Senior Fellow Emeritus of Auburn University’s McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security

Distinguished Fellow of the Ponemon Institute

Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Directors of the National Intellectual Property Law Institute

Board Member, International Security Management Association (ISMA)

CEO of Mattice and Associates

Keynote speaker for strategic forums like The Great Conversation

Okay. You can breathe now.

Take all this experience and you can see why we partnered with Lynn in 2018 and 2019 to create the Executive Summit Series leveraging Lynn’s background as a CSO and the track record above.

The pandemic forced us to pivot, and Lynn is now directing the future of the Executive Summit Series. The next one will take place on April 28, 2022, as an anchor event for DSAC week and will be held, as in previous years, at The Boeing Company in Arlington, VA.

Lynn and I sit down to discuss his agenda outline.

Enjoy the conversation.

We have been using VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) to describe the world in which we live and our response to it since the United States Army War College used it following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. Imagine what military planners faced with a radically different international security environment that had emerged. VUCA was used to describe it. Now business, in this age of digital transformation and expanded risk, is using it as well.

Let’s face it, risks and opportunities abound in a VUCA world. The risks are hard to see because they are multi-layered and intersect in a “tangled mesh of reaction and counter-reaction”. And we find, much to our dismay that not everything is black and white. And change is the only constant. Just when you think you are there, there is a shift, and all your old mental models no longer apply. This causes uncertainty, doubt, and fear, often paralyzing us while the window of opportunity to address the risk and seize the opportunity closes.

We have been pursuing the guides that can help us be better leaders in this VUCA world, and we found another in Germany: Waltrud Glaeser.

We have a great conversation around helping leaders “return to curiosity” about themselves, the others around them, and their impact on their companies and the world. We come away with a positive substitution for the VUCA acronym: Vision, Understanding, Clarity, and Adaptability. And that is a worthy starting point for leader’s growth, personally, professionally, and within the context of their business.