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365- Global IT Reality Check w/Fabio Mazzulla · You've Been Heard

• 0:09
  Speaker A: Hi, nerds. I'm Michael Moore, hosting this podcast for dissecting popularity Nerds. I'm here with Fabio Mazula Matzula. I gotta get. Did I get that right?
• 0:18
  Speaker B: That was perfect, Michael. Thank you so much.
• 0:21
  Speaker A: Global head of IT and cybersecurity for Infinity Global. Welcome to the program, Fabio.
• 0:27
  Speaker B: Thank you so much.
• 0:30
  Speaker A: So your first question is, if you could compare your IT career to any song, what would it be?
• 0:39
  Speaker B: Oh, my. That's a great question. Because I love music. I. I don't know. I mean, it's my life. It's the obvious one.
• 0:54
  Speaker A: That's a good one. Is it? You go in like, it's my life by who's the. Who's the artist that does so, huh?
• 1:02
  Speaker B: Bon Jovi.
• 1:03
  Speaker A: Yeah, Bon Jovi. There you go. There you go. That's a good one. Because there's so many ones that do the my life thing, right? They've on there, but yes, Bon Jovi. I like that. Oh, now I got that song stuck in my head. Fabio, you did that to me now. Now I'm going to be doing this podcast and I've got Bon Jovi stuck in my head. I'm not going to sing it just in case there's some hyper copyright violation that happens and stuff like that. But. But good, good music suggestion. All right, your. Your next question is, if you could instantly master any one new technology concept today, what would it be?
• 1:40
  Speaker B: I mean, the obvious one is AI.
• 1:42
  Speaker A: Well, that's the obvious one, right?
• 1:43
  Speaker B: Yeah, that's the obvious one. That's the one. Robotics. Robotics. Yes. Yes. I think robotics. I think robotics, especially use of robotics in industries. Like, I was very fascinating, actually, when I went last time at an AI conference in Las Vegas and there was the. I don't remember the name of the company, but it was a company that was basically made making robots that companies were using in different. Different situation, including also, I think the police department of Massachusetts, like, specific, very dangerous situations in which they didn't want to send people. They were sending robots to explore or those robots. Yeah, yeah.
• 2:33
  Speaker A: The poor robots. They're sending them out to do all the dirty work.
• 2:36
  Speaker C: For sure.
• 2:39
  Speaker B: They showed us, like, images.
• 2:41
  Speaker A: I feel like that's going to come back to us someday. That's going to come back to us someday. You know, like, we're saying it now, but later on they'd be like, I remember when you sent me out to get this, and you're like, oh, that was my bad. I'm sorry.
• 2:54
  Speaker B: Yeah. But I think their application, especially to maybe also to my industry. That will be great because I think that there is a lot of potential there.
• 3:02
  Speaker A: Yeah, you know, you know, let's take a second real quick. I know we got another question, but let's take a second real quick because it relates to this robotic stuff. Let's talk about your industry for a minute and where Infinity Global fits in on this.
• 3:21
  Speaker B: Yeah, that's actually something I'm very proud of because I mean we are a renewable energy company, so we produce energy and using renewable sources. So it is something I think everybody that works in this industry is very proud of. I mean it's something that it's contributing somehow to make this world a better place, let's say. Yeah. While at the same time obviously you're also doing your job and you're sustaining your family. So it's sort of compromise with.
• 4:00
  Speaker A: Your.
• 4:00
  Speaker B: Conscious also, but also I mean, your needs as a, as a human being.
• 4:07
  Speaker A: I love that, I love that my, my daughter is a, is huge into this and, and she's the one that originally got me into, you know, self sustaining stuff like that. And I, what a, what a great, great thing to, you know, try to try to make this earth last a little bit longer while we work on, on uh, creating robots to, to do a bunch of stuff. So we got robots, we're generating and then we have, we're also trying to sustain the earth.
• 4:39
  Speaker C: I love it.
• 4:39
  Speaker A: It's that. What a great, great part there. All right, so let's, let's talk about the last question because I think you're gonna like this last question. Right? If you had to explain your current job to what 10 year old, how would you do it?
• 5:00
  Speaker B: So I have two little kids, something I do every single day. I think I work with computers. That's it.
• 5:08
  Speaker A: So.
• 5:11
  Speaker B: I don't know. Actually they love sitting on my chair and work up with my computer. One is two years old and the other one is five. So they don't know.
• 5:18
  Speaker A: Oh great ages, great ages.
• 5:20
  Speaker B: Yeah. But they love just touching the keyboard to mouse and, and showing things on the screen. So I think they're getting there. Must be showing them what I do. I don't have to explain anything actually. But yeah, I mean, how to explain that maybe. Yeah, I work with computers. That's it.
• 5:40
  Speaker A: I work with computers. I love, you know what, that's so simple and easy on that. And I say, you know, explain it to a 10 year old. But sometimes I have to explain my job to people that are the same age as me. And, and that's also as Tough, right? What do you do? I just, it's, it's, it's. It just.
• 6:03
  Speaker B: I deal with my. I mean I think that's my title already. Self explanatory Global Idle it. So I take care of the IT department.
• 6:11
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 6:12
  Speaker B: And IT related in the company.
• 6:15
  Speaker A: Very nice. Yeah. Two and two years old. Five years old. Those are really, really good ages. You know that's before they get corrupted later in life. I'm just joking. The. No, I got no mind. I heard I'm blessed to have two. Two wonderful daughters and one just turned 18.
• 6:37
  Speaker C: Right.
• 6:38
  Speaker A: Yeah. And she's graduated high school looking onward to college. And then I have a one that will be turning 16 in a few months and she is actually going into college. So going into that, you know, the dual enrollment and she's gonna be actually going to college instead of high school. Which is just an amazing thought to me. I wish they, I wish I had done that when I had it. So. But yeah, yeah, we've got, we've. Yeah. Two kids. That's a lot of work and. But it's, you know, it's, it's, it's gives back. It really does. So you know like that. So you can just say what do you do? I go and I do computers. Just. I just, I stare at a computer all day. Sometimes I do work, but I don't know, I just stare at a computer monitor or, and. Or a laptop to people and I think well, let's talk about, let's actually talk about what you do. Right? Let's, let's start there. I know it's like you said, pretty self explanatory. Global head of it.
• 7:51
  Speaker C: Right.
• 7:52
  Speaker A: At a renewable energy company. Right. This is a fantastic thing. Let's talk about what IT means for a renewable energy company. Right. Because it, we all know, you know, you can throw it out there. There's a bunch of stuff that encompasses it. Right. But how has working in a renewable energy company affected the way that you do it?
• 8:23
  Speaker B: I mean it's fascinating to be honest. I mean I think that IT can play a very important role in this industry because everything that is business related, I mean also production of the energy control. There is a lot of cybersecurity. There is a lot of cybersecurity especially if you include in the scope of your activity not just the pure it, the usual it, but also the operational technology. So everything that is related to the production of the energy monitoring. There are a lot of activity, a lot of infrastructure that has an IT you have to manage. So on One side, it could be a very important driver for the business. It can guarantee security if a vision for cyber security is well implemented in the company and also is the driver for innovation. That's not strictly related to the industry, but I think it's very, especially nowadays it's a very important role in every, every single company. The innovation is key also for the growth of the, of the company.
• 9:43
  Speaker A: Yeah, I, you made so many good points in there. Let's, let's dissect them kind of one by one. So let's, let's start with cyber security first, right? And then we'll, we'll, then we'll tackle innovation after that. Let's start with cyber security. There, there is, I can imagine that if you have, and this can happen in any industry that has devices right out there, a whole bunch of different devices that are operating and have to be connected to the network and be able to operate that you would have a lot of security in that. Is that where you're going with that? Is that from a cybersecurity standpoint?
• 10:31
  Speaker B: Yes, there are a lot of, I mean and cybersecurity means also compliance. So there are compliance aspects, but technology aspects. And also you have to be prepared to everything. I mean I think renewable industry is also one of the most, not popular but the most attractive industry also for hackers. And you probably know why is that? Well, because there are a lot of deals, there's a lot of money also going around and so it's not easy, but it's a potential field where they can actually perform their crimes and it's not easy to control because of the complex of the technology also. So I think that's always evolving and that makes it very difficult also from our side to stay behind the evolution of this technology. And then there is the compliance aspect which is also constantly changing and is also local based. So especially for a company like Infinity Global, which is a global company, you have different compliances and regulation depending on the states, which is I think a little bit more complex compared to other industries also because of other safety aspects that have to be considered not just from a cyber security perspective.
• 12:16
  Speaker A: I have like about a gazillion questions already and, and, and, and, and every time you, you talk it fragments into a new question. So we're going to back up just a bit, right. Compliance is, I'm going to park compliance. It's parked with innovation and I'm going to go back to just strictly cyber security and then we're going to come back to those other, other items. So let's talk about, let's talk about just the actual security piece of it. You know, got these devices out there, they're highly complex, they're connected. You, you, you also have. And it probably. It's what, the Internet of things at this point, right. With them. So we've got Iot and, and we also have new tech, right. Tech that is being generated and developed that doesn't have standards that are, that are generated for it and security that's generated for it. You're building the security as you build the device, essentially, right? Yeah.
• 13:25
  Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, that's.
• 13:27
  Speaker A: So let's talk about that challenge real quick.
• 13:29
  Speaker B: Yeah, it's, it's because it's not just about building the security while you're building the technology. Because also the technology is not this, unless you define the standard, which is probably the right approach in this world, is you have to be sure that you are controlling an homogeneous environment that you want to protect. And that is because of the different distribution of the business and the local regulation. To simplify, when you have. We build plants, okay, we build plants. We take energy from renewable sources and whatever, and we make this with different partners. We make this with different partners in different regions which have different protocols, they have different procedures and stuff like that. Also, from a contractual perspective, when it comes to integrate all of that in our environment, in our infrastructure, you need to make sure that you don't have a mosaic of components, a mosaic of procedures, processes and infrastructure integrated. Otherwise they will be very, very difficult to control. From a cyber perspective, that's the main issue, I guess, especially if you think that the ot. The operational technology part of this, of this job.
• 14:52
  Speaker A: Yeah, okay, I could. With all that combined, that does seem like it could get extremely complicated. So how do you, how do you deal with that? How do you, what do you do? What are your strategies to deal with that?
• 15:05
  Speaker B: First of all, you try to define a standard that you implement from the very beginning of every project. And that standard needs to be applied also within the integration and agreement with the other partners that are part of the project. In this way, if you have at least a standard infrastructure that you want to implement and then integrate into this infrastructure guarantees the requirements, you have a better and homogeneous control over it.
• 15:37
  Speaker A: Very nice. Do you think that now I'm going to dip into compliance for a bit? Do you think that the frameworks that exist out there right now are updated enough for your industry?
• 15:54
  Speaker B: The framework gives you a guidance. It doesn't say exactly what you have to do.
• 15:58
  Speaker A: Right, right.
• 16:00
  Speaker B: You have you are basically the key to adjust and adopt that properly to your company, properly to your needs and your industry.
• 16:09
  Speaker A: But do you think the guide itself is clear enough? Does it give you a. Or do you wish that there was additional items in those frameworks to help you?
• 16:24
  Speaker B: I think everything in it today is always one day late.
• 16:32
  Speaker A: So you answer my question.
• 16:34
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 16:36
  Speaker A: Yeah. It sounds like being on the forefront of such new tech that you're not going to get this framework. You're not going to get the frameworks exactly for everything that you need. So that seems to be a concern. But I think that if you back up and you look at the, you look at the, the frameworks that we, that we have and you look at like you mentioned that they're, they're guides, they're, you know, they allow me to do it. It actually sounds like a little bit the work that you do, right. The items that you make and, and, and how, and how you secure them and how you work on putting those controls in place might actually influence future framework changes.
• 17:28
  Speaker B: Of course. That's how it works, actually. Yeah, I totally agree with. If you want to know if they are evolving properly according with the risks that you have to mitigate. Yes, the answer is yes, then great.
• 17:40
  Speaker A: Okay, good. Good. So, yeah, so I think that. All right, so from a compliance standpoint, you have to almost invent some of your, some of your controls, some of your stuff that you do now. But you also mentioned that there are state and I would assume federal.
• 18:02
  Speaker C: Federal as well.
• 18:03
  Speaker A: But on top of that, you're also not just US based. Right. You're, you're global. So you have a whole host of challenges. Do you do, do they work in, they deal with Europe at all?
• 18:17
  Speaker B: Yes, yes, we are actually in Europe. Italy, Spain, Netherlands, we are in India and Japan and United States.
• 18:24
  Speaker A: So do. So you probably have to deal with a little bit of privacy concerns for gdpr, Right?
• 18:30
  Speaker B: Yes. Okay.
• 18:31
  Speaker A: And I'm sure there's more, even more items that you need to deal with and stuff given, given the landscape.
• 18:40
  Speaker C: Right.
• 18:41
  Speaker A: You, you, you seem to have a tough job here when you, you know, kind of figuring out, having to figure out all these different compliance. How do you handle that?
• 18:54
  Speaker B: Choosing the right partners. It's also important you can think that you can do everything alone, especially because, I mean, I have experience, I've been working in a lot of places, but there are still things that are new to me and I cannot just expect from myself that I'm prepared for everything. So sometimes also being, I want to say humble, but Being smart in choosing the right partners you want to have on board in your journey, that is very important because that way you know that also if you don't know anything, you have someone else that can help you. That's also part of the job. Anyway. CIO is never the most technical, skilled person in everything. That's not the kind of skills request, actually. CIO or cs, I mean, so having the right partners, knowing your people, knowing your limits also, that is key, I think.
• 19:54
  Speaker A: Then again, not just this job, that's a great. I'm glad you said that. There is a lot of. To knowing what you, what you're good at and what you're. And what you can be better at, and then bringing in a team of individuals, if you can, to help kind of supplement what you can do and what you can't do.
• 20:16
  Speaker C: Right.
• 20:16
  Speaker A: And so, so you want, you want people to, that you can bring in to be able to kind of A, be smarter than you and B, you know, display some of the things that you, you're not as good at.
• 20:30
  Speaker C: Right.
• 20:30
  Speaker A: I think that is kind of a, a big deal. When you go and you do your hiring, right. What are some of the things that you look for in, in the individuals that you want to bring on your team?
• 20:47
  Speaker B: There are a lot of things, and not just technical. I mean, technical skills are part of it. But in my job, the human component is very, very important, especially in hiring. You also want diversity. I mean, you want people that are able also to give you different point of views. So you have to not just hire the people, but hire the people for the team, the right person for the team, how this. But this person can be the best person maybe for a specific job if you look at the paper. But you have to see also how this person fit in your current team, the dynamics in the team, how collaborative it will be. So that's a very important component. And also I don't want to have people that are all the same. I want to have different opinions. I want to have different point of view, different perspectives when it comes to collaborating with people in my team. So this is a very important component also, I think, to have a very effective team that can support you in the, in, in all your projects and activities.
• 21:53
  Speaker A: It's a great answer. And you know, you said something there that kind of triggered a thought in my mind.
• 21:59
  Speaker C: Right.
• 22:00
  Speaker A: We're, there's, there's no, there's no question right now that we're. That AI is displacing jobs. Right? We have. I mean, if you've seen LinkedIn, you, you see the amount of, hey, I'm open to work, I'm open to work, right? So, so we're in a situation now where AI is displacing a lot of jobs. But, you know, you just said something that made me just think for a minute, and that was, when you look, and I do the same thing when you look for somebody to hire, the first thing you look for is the human component, right? You look for these characteristics of, you know, that define us, that make us human, that make us different than an AI, right? Not just technical. And, you know, that's something I've always done when I, when I hire. I always used to say I could teach tech, right? I want somebody that has these skills, these skills, and their skills are always interpersonal skills that, you know, or, or the, you know, how well they can, how well they can handle stress, how well they can work with others, and how well that, you know, emotionally they can interact and, and communicate. All of these different items are the items in which we look to hire people. And right now the entire thing is being displaced by AI, which, which makes me think that when we see, you know, when we see this kind of thing happen, we're, we're just gonna, we're gonna get shocked by a lot of the job losses and stuff like that. The companies that use AI, but also focus really hard on the human component, I think those are going to be the most strategic companies out there. What's your thought on that?
• 24:06
  Speaker B: I completely agree with that also, because I don't think that AI is replacing jobs. I think that the AI is making your job more efficient if you master the technology. So if you know how to use technology, Broadway and you will be, it is not completely independent. You cannot just leave the AI there and it will do your job. Doesn't work like that. You need to use the technology properly. You have to master the technology, and that way you will not be replaced by the technology. This happened not just with AI, this happened all the time in the history, with every new technology.
• 24:42
  Speaker A: It is, it has every. Well, and that's what I meant to say, right, is that the use of AI, the implementation of this, of this, of AI is displacing jobs at the moment. I mean, I've got 20 colleagues that have lost their jobs in the past month, right? So, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's going quick, but that doesn't mean that they're not picking up new jobs and changing it. It's just, we're we're changing, we're in a status change right now that, where people are going to get displaced and then they're going to get picked up and do new things. And this happens, you're right, with every single possible change that happens with. And you know, it always happens tech because tech is the forefront of, of leading that change. Right. You know, happens to tech first and then everyone else, the others. So we're just in the forefront of it starting. But yeah, as it changes these industries and modifies these industries, there will be new, new opportunities and new things that come out. And we're already seeing that anyway. So it's just a, it's a displacement. It's, you know, it's a moving around of the, of the chessboard and, and everything will come back. So let, let's. Okay, so now let me fold back and talk about. Because we were talking about cyber security, then we were talking about compliance and we were talking about this new tech that we had and putting that in there and how that and, and how you have to kind of deal with that.
• 26:20
  Speaker C: Right?
• 26:21
  Speaker A: Let's talk about the tech itself and, and, and building this new tech. What challenges do does your team, besides cyber security and compliance? Because we already talked about that. What challenges have you run into? I mean, I can imagine there would be, you know, project planning challenges. There would be challenges that, of having to do with, keep up with infrastructure and network and stuff. And I'm not even sure how cloud fits in into your, into your thought there. How do you, how do you first, what are the challenges? How do, how do you work with those challenges within it and then how do you work with your team to make sure that they can work through this?
• 27:18
  Speaker B: So we're talking about the emerging technologies in particular. And in that case, what I've noticed actually in the last two years maybe is that there are. And going back to something that I said before, like finding the right partner, I think that's the most difficult challenge I'm facing right now because there are so, so many outside, so many. And everybody wants to talk to you and everybody wants to discuss with you about what they can do to help you, to support you. You cannot stay behind that. And it's also difficult to understand what is the right one for you and why not. Because we don't have clear requirements. Maybe because it's still young. I mean, it's still a new technology. And probably we need to also understand better what is our requirement related to this specific new technology. That is also another possibility, but also if you know, it is very difficult to understand and navigate through all these possibilities that you have and find the right solution, the right approach that fits exactly your need. So you have to explore a lot, be open and reflect on what is exactly that you need and then proceed. If you think that if you exception you don't have, I think that also the impulse to jump into something new just because you want to show that you are into something new and you don't want to stay, stay behind, that's also another risk that you have to manage at the same time at finding the right partner. So it's also kind of balanced. So people maybe want to jump in and for, because of this rush, they just go everywhere and they do not actually do the right thing. They do not write the, they do not find, sorry, the right partner and do something that is actually improving the company and in to embrace these new technologies.
• 29:34
  Speaker A: So you follow this model where essentially it's this measure twice cut once theory.
• 29:40
  Speaker C: Right?
• 29:41
  Speaker A: Yeah. You know, let's take the time up front to really get the right partners, plan it out, get the, the specs of what needs to happen, make sure that we implement the right cybersecurity, make sure we have our governance set up all these items up front and set up, make sure it's communicated out well to the entire team.
• 30:05
  Speaker C: Right.
• 30:05
  Speaker A: And then take that and be able to send it and be able to start a project with, with all of the abilities now understood and all of the information now understood.
• 30:20
  Speaker C: Right.
• 30:20
  Speaker A: Is that, I mean, does that sound sum up kind of, yes.
• 30:24
  Speaker B: But it doesn't mean that you have to go slow. It just means that you have to think twice properly on everything.
• 30:32
  Speaker A: Okay, all right, let's take that for a minute. It doesn't mean you have to go slow.
• 30:36
  Speaker C: Right.
• 30:37
  Speaker A: So how do you take the initial time up front to, to get all this stuff done, but continue on a pace that everybody agrees is the way.
• 30:52
  Speaker B: To go when considering the amount of project and initiatives you can manage in a company, you have to give the right priorities. So you need to understand what's the priority right now and so dedicated the proper time to each one of them. So if you do that, you know how much time you can dedicate something and if it's really a priority, you spend your time in that. And I think this way that solves more or less the problem.
• 31:16
  Speaker A: And you know, and I completely agree with that. Let's talk about how you communicate that priority to executives.
• 31:23
  Speaker C: Right.
• 31:23
  Speaker A: Because I know sometimes it can be difficult to, you know, hey, listen, we have all of these things that come down and they have to, they have to come down at one time. You know, hey, we've got project deadlines. Hey, we've got all this stuff. How do you effectively communicate with your executives to be able, so they understand, hey, here are the, you know, here's the timeline. Here's, here's what we got. Here's the things we need to work on. You know, here's what we've actively got going. Hey, I need something else from you. Okay, what do we, you know, how do I fit this in? And then tell them that we need to shift it around.
• 32:03
  Speaker B: Well, my priorities, I mean, not my priorities. The IT priorities have to be aligned with, with the company's priorities and goals. It's not that it has its own priorities and the company has other priorities. They have to be aligned the. IT is part of a company and we need to go in the same direction. So the communication with your stakeholders, with your top management is key to make sure that you are not going in a different direction. So you have to go in the same direction and they somehow drives also which are your priorities. I'm not doing something as a priority number one just because I like to do that object. You know, I do that because I think that's the right things that will help the company solving one of the problems, needs or whatever you want to call it. So that's for me, the, the key of, I mean probably every, every question you ask me, the answer will be communication.
• 32:57
  Speaker A: Communication, Communication. You know, I had it. Well, so I was speaking with a CIO one time and they did a. They did something really interesting. They took and sent an email to the CEO, to the CFO and the COO of a company.
• 33:16
  Speaker C: Right.
• 33:16
  Speaker A: And the email said, what are the top five projects that it should be working on?
• 33:24
  Speaker C: Right.
• 33:24
  Speaker A: And when they got the emails back, only one project was on all three. Only one? Yeah. Each one of those C level executives thought that it was working on the top five projects and they only had one shared. All the rest of them were different projects. That means that it, through just the three C levels was working on. You know what, it's 12 different projects in addition to that one other project that they all agreed was really important.
• 34:00
  Speaker C: Right.
• 34:01
  Speaker B: Communication has to be bidirectional. You cannot what's the question that they answer and then you do what they say.
• 34:07
  Speaker A: You're really correct. Correct, correct.
• 34:09
  Speaker B: That's important. You have to have negation and a conversation. So. And then you understand what are the priorities and you implement what you have.
• 34:17
  Speaker A: To, you should, you should try my little, that little suggestion. See, see if everyone's aligned on the top prior project priorities. It, no, it's a, you know, it's interesting to see. I mean everybody, even the C levels are in charge of their own departments and they have their own things that they need to get done and sometimes they're not aligned and if you're, they're not aligned then the alignment into it can be even more difficult. So how, how do you work to keep those executives aligned on what the top things that it is working on at the moment. And don't say communication. No, just kidding.
• 35:01
  Speaker B: Corey. My only option. But it's true. I mean I try to.
• 35:05
  Speaker A: What strategy do you use?
• 35:08
  Speaker B: It's not just communication. I mean it's part of a communication strategy but I think involvement. So sometimes making them part of a pilot of the project, test it. Touch actually the solution with a pilot. I mean we use a lot of Agile actually. I mean Nowadays probably 90% of the projects are agile. So when you do an mvp contributing also interviewing, trying to understand the company needs. So involvement, not communication. I mean communication also the second one is involvement and in this way you have internal sponsors that can support you probably.
• 35:41
  Speaker A: Very nice. Okay, very nice. Well that's a nice way to keep, keep everyone involved there. Let's talk about, but let's talk about mentoring a bit because I really think that, you know, I can tell from chatting with you and stuff like that that mentoring kind of is a kind of huge part of, of what you love.
• 36:03
  Speaker C: Right?
• 36:05
  Speaker A: Let's talk about mentoring your team and the best way to nurture them and, and, and, and make sure that their professional growth continues to, continues to grow. What are some tools you have and employ to make sure that you can mentor your team and coach your team and get them so that they keep improving?
• 36:33
  Speaker B: First of all, what I like to do obviously is, and I think this is a basic one is to have staff meetings with my team weekly in which we talk about the challenges of the week, open points and stuff like that. And for me it's not about checking the progress and the status of the project. And this is something that actually I always say them, it's a space in which they can, they need to train the way in which they communicate to each other because they are a team and they can support each other. So for me this is just one way to mentor them in working in a very collaborative group. It's super important. The self meaning for me is not a place, a time in which they just present their probably it's a space in which you have problem. Let's see if someone else can support or also this is a topic that is a common interest for everybody else. Let's talk about that then. One to one meeting constantly with them to see how they're going, planning actually not only the goals but also their training progress among the year, which is the where do you want to go from a career perspective, how can I support them? The one to one is also useful to give them. I mean, I have an open communication about that. We don't talk all the time about activities sometimes, I mean, most of the time probably yes. But sometimes I start a conversation just feel, I mean touching the field and see how do they feel about their journey, about their, their daily job and stuff like that. And we do it every week. So I think that they're doing it pretty constantly. And for me, one of the keys also transparency. I'm always transparent with my people. I mean always. I always try to share with them also the vision of what I do because I don't want people that are working just because I say to do that job. They need to understand what they're doing, what they're doing that how they're contributing to something in the company looking the something that the company growing. That's very important. That inspires people also to do their job every day. Inspires me too. So that is, I think, key for everybody in my team to understand where they are, why they are there, what they are doing.
• 38:51
  Speaker A: I love that, I love the fact that you're tying it to the business and the goal of the business and why it's so important what they're doing is making a difference in this business. Um, you know, it's, it's, it's something I, I, I, I always thought was, it was a, was a smart thing to do because I always felt like people worked harder, worked smarter when they knew what they were doing and why they were doing it. Right. You know, if they know how they can make an impact, if they know how they, they can build on the company and, and, and, and do what they need do, that's, that's what makes them the most productive and effective of team members. I always thought, and it sounds like I'm glad to see that there's another person out there to validate that and have it. All right, well, listen, Fabio, we are moving into our final segment, right? This is called the IT crystal ball.
• 39:52
  Speaker C: Right?
• 39:53
  Speaker A: And you can envision a little crystal ball as we put our Hands over the top and think about what it is going to be like five years from now.
• 40:03
  Speaker C: Right.
• 40:04
  Speaker A: Which, you know, it's amazing where we're at right now. I think I've been lucky to be part of this podcast for almost, almost three years now. And, and I've seen a lot of the things that they've said earlier on in the podcast. When I did the, did this come to fruition, a lot of it was about AI and I watched it happen, they said it and I watch happen. But sometimes we get creative about what the future is going to be when it comes to it. I feel like we kind of feel like we're living it right now.
• 40:40
  Speaker C: Right.
• 40:40
  Speaker A: I mean, it's amazing, you know, that we've kind of caught up with all of our dreams at the moment and we're kind of in the, in this, what we thought it would go. Now we're here. Where do we go from here? Where do we, you know, where are we launch padding from here to get to the next spot? I would sometimes I limit these and, and say, hey, you know, where I t and this and I t and that. But with all the different stuff that you, we've talked about on this podcast today, I don't want to limit you. I want you to kind of think about the future rightea in a general sense and, and just hop on over and just, you know, give us all the different types of things that you think where it would go. I'm interested to think what, what your brain there is going to come up with.
• 41:32
  Speaker B: I mean, I think that nowadays it's very, it's quite impossible to define where it will be in five years. I'm not actually going to answer with the specific technology. I have no idea. I mean, in five years, what do you think about AI five years ago maybe, or. I don't know, it's very difficult. What I think the place where it should be is to be more embedded in the business. I mean, the companies should be more and more it driven in their operational, in their operations, basically. So that's where I see the came from a corporate component of a company in which we were supporting the business. We are still supporting the business somehow, but I think somehow it has to be part of the business. I mean it has to be actually the key, the driver. Companies that don't have it as a key component of their business, they will fail. That's what I think. In five years, it has to be a key component. Not just about talking about delivering products, delivering software, stuff like that. I'm talking about the technology that is at the base of the business of each company and that's where it should be.
• 43:01
  Speaker A: You know, I always kind of tell people that, you know, as it. We're information movers, we move information around. That's essentially what we do. We just use technology to do it. And I think what you said there is key. You won't be able to understand the data that you have and be strategic about the data unless you know how to get the right data, you know how to access that data, you know how to use that data. And with our current climate of having AI, we, we haven't, you know, we're just at that forefront of being able to analyze all the information that's now provided you have an in AI, you have a giant bunch of people submitting a bunch of information and asking a bunch of questions and harnessing that and trying to figure out, you know, what that does. I mean imagine thinking about all the clients that you have asking questions and stuff like that. And you could answer all those and be like, oh, I know how to answer that and figure that piece out. It's amazing to me why that information is not being farmed and, and utilized by businesses to create strategies in how to better serve clients, how to build better programs, how to answer, how to stay ahead of other companies. I mean this is like a data utopia we're living in. But we don't, but we rarely see people wanting to pull that data out and, and mess with it and, and try to get it. Get it correct. I think you're right. I think the future is. Is ha. Is. Is working with it to pull strategy out to get the data, to get ahead of all that information. So I think you're going to see it as much more of a, a key component of, of the C level suite, not just eh, you know, they gotta, they gotta have us because they, because they support us for going. I mean the. IT was created out of finance anyway, right? I mean it was numbers and it got born out of. That's why so many IT leaders report to the cfo. That's why you see so many IT folks generally love working with numbers and you know, in that, that data and that supporting that thing. I know that in talking with you, you know, you have a, a big love for cost efficiency, right? We see that cross all the time with, with that. It was born out of finance, it was born out of numbers and it was born out of data and that data is still there. And some of the biggest things we talk about with cybersecurity are, you know, is protecting that data. And so the next piece, I think, and I think this is kind of where you were going was, is business analytics and strategy, right? Is that kind of where you were headed with that?
• 46:05
  Speaker B: Exactly right. Yeah.
• 46:07
  Speaker A: I think that that's a, I think it's a wonderful way to segment into the future. I think understanding that data is your strategy, right, is such a, it's such a key spot of understanding how to, how to move the business. Hey, nerds. I'm Michael Moore. I've been hosting this podcast for dissecting popular IT nerds. I've been here with Fabio Matsula, global head of IT and cybersecurity for Infinity Global. Fabio, thank you so much for coming on the show today. What an amazing discussion and what an amazing, you know, field you, you work in.
• 46:52
  Speaker B: Thank you so much, Michael. Thank you for having.