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Lyndon Brown

Purposeful Technology Leader

Lyndon Brown is a seasoned IT leader with over 20 years of experience driving enterprise transformation. He specializes in infrastructure, security and cross-functional leadership, delivering operational excellence and scalable technology solutions across diverse industries and large organizations.

Balancing Innovation, Cybersecurity and Operational Growth

Technology is constantly evolving. To be a successful leader, you need to keep an open mind and be open to change. However, it’s not always just changing with the latest trend. I’ve always stressed that my job as a technology leader is not about implementing the latest and greatest. What are the needs and challenges of my business. Then it’s matching the correct technology to meet those requirements, but also focusing on spending. The technology that can help the business meet its needs and goals is what will lead to the company’s ability to continue to grow and compete. Implementing new technologies just because they’re the latest does nothing if they don’t help the company's goals.

AI in Cybersecurity Opportunities and Emerging Risks

AI has become such a buzzword that everyone thinks they need to be involved. AI can be very beneficial to a company. However, you need to have actual use cases and what problems you are trying to solve with AI. Building use cases, I’ve seen an associate’s task that would take 4 days cut down to an hour and a half. That individual no longer thinks AI is taking their job, but it's giving them more time to do more tasks and be more productive. On the risk side, that’s a totally different story. A company needs to have some type of governance in place. An AI Policy and Strategy. Utilization of AI Tools with an enterprise license. Not the free open AI or an individual paid. You must be able to control the information being used in the AI models to prevent company data, proprietary data, customer or PII data. Security around AI is a must. Bad Actors are also taking advantage of AI for hacking and scams. It is a big business. That’s where things get a little frightening.

  The most successful technology leaders are those who put technology second and improve business functions and goals with technology.   

Managed Services versus Internal Ownership

Build a use case for the need and then do a full analysis. Not just based on cost, but overall performance, will it be better to use managed IT services or in-house? There can be an argument for either way. If you are a smaller company, you often can get more IT services and support much more cost-effectively than hiring staff. In this example, the IT services will generally cost about 2 full-time bodies. Depending on the size of the company and the services provided. However, that service should provide the service of 4-5 full-time employees you would need to hire. Due diligence is key. You need a company that will be a true partner or ensure you have a contract that allows you to exit if they don’t perform. That is normally the hardest part in selecting a managed IT service provider. On the flip side, there are reasons you want in-house staff. Depending on roles and or services. Full-time associates tend to have a more vested interest not just in their job, but in the company itself. Providing more quality in their work. With managed IT services, the staff typically supports multiple companies, and they don’t gain a full understanding or interest in your company.

The Strategic Value of a Strong Data Warehouse

In this day and age, Business Intelligence is key for a company to compete. Having the ability to have all your data from different sources in a single location, so you can accurately report on it. Performance, financials, forecasting, just to name a few. It not only makes obtaining the reporting information faster, but it is also more consistent, having been “cleaned” going into the data warehouse. Add some AI tools on top of that, and there are almost endless possibilities of information a company can use. Understanding their marketing, their targets, current customers and their tendencies and trends.

Building a Career in Technology Leadership and Transformation

Always have an open mind. I’ve seen many IT professionals get locked into a way of doing something or wanting to use the name-brand tools. Think outside the box. There are many ways to achieve a desired outcome. Determine which ones can work, keep cost in mind, and deliver efficiency and automation for your company.  Stay on top of all the latest trends and technology, but that doesn’t mean you need to implement them. Understand your company’s business model, then determine the best strategy for technology to meet the company's goals. Don’t just think about technology; understand the business of your company first, then apply technology. The most successful technology leaders are those who put technology second and improve business functions and goals with technology.