Looking Back, Looking Forward

This is the time of year where, as business leaders, we get to assess the year that has passed and plan for the year to come. This article is not meant to be a broad recollection of all that’s happened in the past year globally, but instead a more focused view as a small business owner and cybersecurity consultant.

Looking Back

Simply put, it just wasn’t the year that any of us planned on. Many of us have, or know someone who has lost a loved one, lost their job, or even lost their business. We have all felt extreme uncertainty and fear somewhere along the way, and maybe even do now.

Even through all of that, I still believe we need to focus on the good. We, as business leaders, need to pull something positive from the past 12 months. Even if it’s just the small things.

While we didn’t have the year we wanted to, overall, we were very blessed here at Bedel Security, some examples:

• We didn’t grow as much as we wanted to in 2020, but I’m giving us a pass. We still managed to retain our existing clients and add new ones – which is a win.
• We added 2 new members to our team; and they are kicking butt! Our people are so important to what we do and where we are going. Anytime we get this right is a MAJOR success.
• We were able to sponsor 15 children in 3^rd world countries for the entire year and help make a difference in their lives. I knew when we started this business that it had to be more than just a bottom line. Giving back is one way we do that and I feel so blessed to have enough to share with others.
• Although we didn’t properly celebrate it (nobody was celebrating anything at the time), Bedel Security turned 5 years old in April. It’s been stressful, exciting, and the best 5 years of my life.
• Our CySPOT™ methodology turned 2 years old this year. Maybe not a big deal to anyone else, but that collection of processes, forms, and templates has been a game changer for us. It’s allowed us to grow this business and still deliver excellent service to our customers in an efficient way.

Looking Forward

Maybe more important than looking back, is looking forward. Similarly, we need to be positive in our goals and intentions, but it has to have a dose of reality mixed in.

I was speaking to a fellow business owner and friend in the cybersecurity field and he reminded me that while we need to set positive goals, with growth in mind, it’s more important to maintain an agile approach.

Or as Mike Tyson put it:

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

Doesn’t it feel like we all got punched in the mouth in 2020?

As much as we are all hoping that everything will heal when the ball drops on midnight on December 31^st, that is not going to happen. We have to be ready to pivot, no matter what our plans are.

As an industry, I suspect there will be more challenges to community banking in 2021, like a possible second PPP, interest rate risk, or even asset quality issues. We don’t know for sure.

You could ask: “then what’s the point in planning at all?” And I’d turn to Ben Franklin for my response:

"Failing to plan is planning to fail."

So we can’t steer clear of planning just because we’re scared it won’t be perfect. We just have to be flexible and ready to pivot when change punches us in the face.

That being said, here are some of the things we at Bedel Security have on our list for 2021 to continue to pursue our mission of changing the way community institutions manage cybersecurity:

• New service offerings – we continue to look for creative ways serve community financial institutions without the commitment to recurring Virtual CISO services. While our CISO-as-a-service is much more affordable than hiring a full-time employee, it’s still not cheap and can be hard for some institutions to get in their budget.
  • This will include services to help both in-house ISOs and non-technical executives.
• Review and revision of some key components of our CySPOT™ program. It’s way too early to share the details of this, but I’m too excited about it to not at least mention it. We are considering some key partnerships that will take our vCISO service to the next level in terms of effectiveness, scalability and efficiency. It will provide risk management visibility that most community institutions cannot achieve on their own. As I said earlier, we have great processes now, but that doesn’t mean we can get complacent. We’re committed to continuously improve to provide more value to our customers.
• Growth – our intention is to grow this business. We plan to grow in a healthy way so we can ultimately serve as many community financial institutions as we can. We don’t want growth for growth’s sake, so we’ll continue to be very transparent in our sales process and only take on institutions we know we can help in a big way.

I hope you all can take a few moments during this holiday season to assess the past 12 months of your business and personal lives, but more importantly to look forward and have hope for a better 2021.

On behalf of the entire Bedel Security Team, I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year.

Additional Resources:

The Virtual CISO Whitepaper
https://www.bedelsecurity.com/the-virtual-ciso-whitepaper

Culture Counts
https://www.bedelsecurity.com/blog/culture-counts 

Your Information Security Program Needs Focus
https://www.bedelsecurity.com/blog/your-information-security-program-needs-focus