In an interview with Insights Success, Garry Drummond, Founder and CEO, 802 Secure, shares valuable insights from the experiences he gained in his entrepreneurial journey. Moreover, he broadly discusses the services offered by the company.
Below are the highlights of the interview conducted between Garry and Insights Success:
Give a brief overview of your background and your role in 802 Secure, Inc.
Originally from Scotland, I arrived in the Bay Area in 1998. I am a 20-year veteran in the Information Security industry. An active member of the CISSP organization, Certified Information System Security Professionals. I am also a Certified Wireless Networking and Security Professional. Before founding 802 Secure, I spent seven years at nCircle Network Security (pioneers of vulnerability management) and nine years at AirDefense, (wireless intrusion detection company). Both companies had successful exits. I have always enjoyed leading-edge technology evangelism. The experience gained in sales management leadership, product development, product marketing has proven to be invaluable, the wins and the loses. As Founder-CEO at 802 Secure, my vision for the company is simple: to be the market leader in Wireless IoT Threat Management. With 80% of IoT devices being wirelessly connected, wireless is the new network and now the new attack surface.
How do you diversify your organization’s solutions that appeal to your target audience?
What makes our solution unique: We address IoT risks stemming from unmanaged, unsecured, and misconfigured IoT devices and networks. These risks stem from the explosion in IoT devices ranging from building automation (50% of new building construction includes a wireless IoT network), deployments of IoT across OT networks, and Shadow IoT. 802 Secure protects the wireless and IoT mobile edge by providing visibility into the IoT security blind-spot combining edge security with centralized cloud threat intelligence.
The Problem that we solve – 80% of edge computing is wirelessly enabled today across devices, networks, and IoT. This evolution requires a new level of visibility across not only the IT network but the surrounding physical environment (off-network systems). Gartner and NIST refer to this cyber Physical Security. The lack of Physical visibility, management, and security exposes organizations to risks including unmanaged, Shadow IoT, and adversarial devices such as wireless thermostats, Smart TVs, spy cameras, drones, rogue cell towers, wireless storage devices, and much more.
What is your thought process behind leading the organization effectively?
Successful organizations share two characteristics: they are smart, and they are healthy. An organization demonstrates that it smart by developing intelligent strategies, marketing plans, product features, and financial models that lead to an upper hand over its competitors. The company demonstrates that is it healthy by eliminating politics and confusion, which prompts higher confidence, lower turnover, and higher efficiency.
Culture fit is likewise essential. The characteristics that I search for are:
- They need to be humble and practical.
- Are they hungry to do well, and do they have strong work ethics.
- They need to be smart and eager to learn the business, roll-up the- sleeves, and be a problem solver, think outside the box. Invest wholeheartedly in taking care of business.
Describe some of the vital attributes that every best performing CEO should possess.
I believe that confident leaders hire people better than themselves; they give credit to others, they are not hesitant to assume the fault, admit when they don’t know something, enable the group, hire people who don’t check off all the boxes, yet center around the potential. They give others a chance they deserve, and they don’t see good people as a threat to their position.
Explain how your strategies are helping employees to bridge the gap between idea and execution.
Implementing and reinforcing organization clarity is vital to executing the business well. I have a few rules that help me accomplish this:
Rule # 1. Building and maintaining a united leadership team.
Rule #2. Create organizational lucidity by eliminating any confusion within the company.
Rule #3. Lead from the font — over-communicate the goals and direction of the company.
Where does 802 Secure see itself in the near future and how do you plan to sustain its competency?
Achieving a product-market fit (PMF) is a real accomplishment. Figuring out Go-To-Market Fit and driving growth through our business partners will hopefully fulfill the mission. I see global markets opening up, as IoT enablement grows worldwide. To sustain competitive advantage, we need to continue to work hard as a leadership team on building a zero-touch and straightforward GTM model, a repeatable GTM deals playbook that lines up on the right use cases to create urgency.
What advice would you like to give to the young minds
Begin with an issue or disruption. Enterprise organizations get funding based on tackling a critical client issue or addressing a potentially significant disruption. Enterprise clients don’t purchase technology for technology’s sake. They are buying to take care of problems, shield against interruption.