In this year’s Sekurokon, Sekuro CEO Noel Allnutt delivered his opening speech about the four steps towards building a resilient organisation. That speech has been adapted into this article.
SekuroKon is about redefining community events. We don’t want our annual conference to be just another event with a sandwich and a follow-up email. It’s about sharing ideas, not selling products. It’s about learning new ways to strengthen Australia’s resilience, not re-hashing out-of-date strategies.
At SekuroKon 2023, we had an impressive lineup of leaders telling stories of resilience – from both a technology, business and personal perspective, all with unique insights that will help us build employees, teams, organisations and, ultimately, societies that have resilience at their core.
For me, there are four steps towards greatness, all of which help to build resilience:
1. Create Your Tribe
Our ability to be resilient in the face of adversity is heavily determined by the people we surround ourselves with. The same goes for an organisation. The first step towards resilience is choosing the right people around you. We can only get ahead if we deliver as a team –- whether this be across teams, departments or organisations. In the wise words of Steve Jobs, “If you want to go fast – go alone! But if you want to go far – go together.” Resilience is about building your tribe and recognising you are stronger as a team.
2. Innovate at the Speed of Relevance
Taking advice from NASA – we don’t need to create a new EV car or spaceship to be relevant. Building resilience requires a pragmatic approach to addressing the challenges facing organisations today. Sekuro offers needs-based solutions to meet customers where they are on their security journey in a number of ways, including:
- Our Managed Services 2.0 which delivers Security Operations Centre (SOC) services from anywhere in Australia
- Our Cyber Resilience as-a-Service Program
- Sekuro’s award-winning flagship Zero Trust Strategy
- The delivery of a Common Control Framework (CCF) to save resources and reduce friction
3. Deliver Meaningful Work
We are taking a step back and re-visiting what creates meaningful work. If our staff is delivering meaningful work, then our customers will be reaping the benefits. If we think back to the days of apprenticeships, it was about taking the time to integrate people into the organisation and helping them find their purpose so they can thrive in their environment. This is what we’re doing at Sekuro through our Hackcelerator Mentorship Program and Cybernator Graduate Program. We want to build the next generation of resilient professionals, and fostering their passions is a key part of it.
4. Play the Infinite Game
Popularised by Simon Sinek, the idea is that you can either play a finite or infinite game. Finite games are like cricket. You have a set amount of players, with fixed rules and an agreed-upon objective (to get more runs than your opponent). In an infinite game, there are unknown players, the rules aren’t set and the objective is to stay in play. This means there are no winners or losers, only those that drop out of the game. An infinite game instead allows for innovation. Finite players play to win, whereas infinite players play to survive. In this context, surviving requires the resilience to fight unexpected players, battle new threats and maintain relevance. This mindset is absolutely critical when you’re defending against often-unknown cyber threats.
Finite players play to win, whereas infinite players play to survive. In this context, surviving requires the resilience to fight unexpected players, battle new threats and maintain relevance. This mindset is absolutely critical when you’re defending against often-unknown cyber threats.
Everyone’s journey towards resilience is going to be different, but if you keep these four things in mind, you’ll not just build a resilient organisation, but a resilient community.
We are grateful for the opportunity to host our tribe each year at SekuroKon in an effort to build resilience across Australia and the globe. We look forward to expanding our community and seeing even more of you in 2024.
Watch the full session here:
Noel Allnutt
Co-Founder and Managing Director, Sekuro
Noel is a driven and award-winning IT leader. He specialises in building teams that enable companies to create a secure and sustainable competitive advantage in the digital economy. Noel also hosts the ‘Building Resilience Podcast,’ which explores the world of sport and deconstructs the tools and ethos of world-class athletes that can help create growth and optimise business and life.
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