These are unprecedented times, as companies are scrambling for business continuity, and millions of workers around the world are forced to adapt to a workplace culture dubbed as the world’s largest work-from-home experiment. But there is a steep price to be paid for this change – weakened cybersecurity.
Michelle Drolet, CEO at Towerwall, Inc. can help identify these top-tier risks and provide you with a list of priorities & recommendations that can boost your overall cybersecurity posture. An Interview conducted between Michelle Drolet and Insights Success helps take actionable steps to close these vulnerabilities to safeguard your business.
Below are the highlights of the interview:
Take our readers through your professional journey until being in a leadership position at Towerwall.
Before founding Towerwall in 1993, I ran the US operation of CDG Technologies, growing the IT consulting and VAR business exponentially before selling it to a public company. I stayed with the new company but grew disenchanted by the direction, so I decided to buy back the company and make it mine! That was my proudest moment in business. For nearly 30 years I’ve worked closely with many SMBs, mid-market, and enterprise companies providing highly specialized cybersecurity technology and services.
What roadblocks or challenges were faced by you in a corporate business? And how did you overcome them?
Security is a journey, not a destination. Keeping up with the growing list of regulatory mandates and upcoming data privacy laws can be challenging. A great example is a client who came to us to help them answer a seemingly simple GRC security questionnaire from one of their customers. In doing so we discovered they needed an entire information security infrastructure to protect not only their own intellectual property but their customers as well. The big challenge was getting a plan in place in a very short time span to ensure they could continue doing business.
What is your idea of impactful leadership? What style of leadership do you personally prefer and have implemented within your team at Towerwall?
I am a firm believer in servant leadership. Our team is incredibly talented and committed to not only our profession but to our clients and our community. By serving and empowering them “we” are able to effectively and efficiently solve our client’s information security challenges. In the end, our clients receive superior service and result knowing our team is highly collaborative.
How do you diversify your organization’s offerings to entice the target audience?
Information security is all we do. We are highly focused and specialized in protecting our client’s critical assets. We take great pride in being our client’s trusted security partner by working along-side in addressing the daily challenges they face in securing key data as well as keeping them abreast of the evolving legal and regulatory requirements. We build security user awareness programs that take their employees from “weakest link” to “strongest asset”, a winning combination.
What are the vital traits that every woman business leader should possess?
I would say every leader no matter their gender, should place integrity, honesty, and client needs ahead of any profit motive. I always say “You only have one reputation so honor it”. So for us, it’s easy, we demand excellence and hold each other accountable which I attribute greatly to our success. I learned a long time ago a great leader surrounds themselves with “GREATER” people. I am very blessed to have an exceptional team.
Where are you focusing your energy now, and where do you hope to make an impact next?
To help protect companies and fuel their growth we are seeing rapid adoption of our Virtual Security Officers. These virtual roles provide a great balance by providing full-time protection at a fraction of the full-time cost. We call it our 5th Wall of Information Security.
According to you, what essential traits should a business leader possess to thrive in any given competitive market?
Focus, determination, and compassion. We all face challenges in our personal and business life (especially in the world of COVID), but the ability to persevere is the difference between success and failure. Particularly in business, it’s being highly focused on solving your customer’s needs. As I mentioned before, Information Security is what we do so our entire team is focused on just that. They are highly experienced and versed, in the key challenges CIO, CISO, ISO, and DPO’s face. To cite by example, Towerwall often competes and wins against the “big guys” because our team has a “run through the wall” attitude when we are maturing our customer’s security programs.
What have you envisioned for your organization’s future, with regards to your role at Towerwall and for your personal ambitions as well?
The bad guys are getting “badder” and we are helping our customers build repeatable processes to protect themselves. In addition to our corporate headquarters in Massachusetts, we operate throughout North America and Caribbean countries. Our service set continues to evolve and adapt to changing market conditions and the regulatory framework. We are growing organically as well as through partnerships to better help our customers. Again, our “run through the wall” attitude will take us a long way.
Michelle Drolet | CEO | Towerwall
