What's The Right Attitude To Have To Succeed In Security?

security, information security, data security

The rules around security have changed, and solution providers need to build up their psychological armor in order to fight back against a radically changing market, famous author and journalist Malcolm Gladwell said.

Information security is expected to grow to $75.4 billion by the end of 2015, according to Gartner, and amounts to a significant opportunity that solution providers don't want to miss out on. By adopting some of these characteristics into their leadership styles, Gladwell said the solution provider executives in the audience would better be able to survive and thrive in the fast-moving security market.

Gladwell, currently a staff reporter for The New Yorker, has written five New York Times best-selling books, including The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference; Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking; Outliers: The Story of Success, What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures; and David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants.

Following on the theme of the "New.Next" of the recent FOCUS 15 event hosted by Intel Security in Las Vegas, Gladwell addressed the turmoil that faces the security industry today with large-scale breaches and a continued onslaught of attacks. Gladwell pulled two examples from the past of other industries faced by a rapidly shifting landscape, and what traits allowed a few leaders to capitalize on the change.

1. Sense Of Urgency

Xerox PARC has been a renowned center of innovation since 1970, having developed laser printers, graphical user interfaces, the computer mouse, and more. When a young Steve Jobs toured the center in Palo Alto, Calif., Gladwell said he saw the inventions and immediately recognized their potential, ultimately turning them into the foundation for Apple. While Xerox had the resources and the innovation vision, and recognized the technology's potential, Gladwell said that what set Jobs apart, and ultimately set him up for success in a fast-paced market, was his urgency.

"That sense of urgency, that sense of being in a hurry, that sense of understanding of the magnitude of the opportunity in front of him, that’s what sets him apart," Gladwell said. "We can give you the greatest software the world has ever seen. We can give you an unlimited budget...but none of that matters if you don’t have a sense of urgency about what you do."

2. Reframing The Past

In the 1920s, radio was used to either listen to classical music or the news, making it not very popular. However, Julius Hopp of RCA changed that by pushing past naysayers and broadcasting a popular prize fight, the first live sports broadcast in history, through radios distributed in bars and public locations around the country. In doing that, Gladwell said, Hopp redefined what radio was all about, and its popularity soared into a "runaway success," making RCA a lot of money.

"Reframing is really hard. It threatens people. It challenges all kinds of assumptions about who you are and what you do," Gladwell said. "There is a class of winners who are capable (of) reimagining their world and a class of losers who cannot."