Agile Businesses: Jay Mozo Of TEKsystems On How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In The Face of Disruptive Technologies
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Be more transparent with your team: Transparency plays a vital role in the digital transformation journey. It helps keep your employees invested and motivated in the enterprise vision. Define clear goals and communicate openly while simultaneously welcoming any constructive criticism of your vision.
As a part of my series about the “How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In The Face of Disruptive Technologies”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jay Mozo.
Jay Mozo, Director — Transformation Services, TEKsystems.
With over 20 years of experience in the tech industry, Jay Mozo has spent most of his career mastering cloud and DevOps. Prior to TEKsystems, he founded a small IT firm and also worked as the lead architect at State Farm. More recently, Jay was a leader at AWS’s professional services organization and helped build out their DevOps practice. Jay is passionate about cloud, DevOps, business modernization and helping customers get delivery done faster and more efficiently.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
I am a Filipino American from Detroit, MI, born and raised. My parents migrated from the Philippines in the late 60s and settled in Detroit as there was an emerging Filipino culture. I started in IT as a Junior Systems (Unix) Administrator, SUN Solaris Administrator, to be exact. With the many automotive suppliers in the metropolitan Detroit area, the Unix/Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) landscape was thick to support computer-aided design, computer-aided engineering, and computer-aided manufacturing systems common in the auto industry. I moved quickly up the System Administrator route and became a Senior Unix Administrator/Consultant in a fast-flying two to three years. By this time, I had started working for a defense contractor to access cutting-edge technologies. My passion in the Department of Defense world switched to enabling better software engineering environments. This grew into what I love today: helping our customers modernize their business with software and technologies.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?
About a decade ago, I designed a fully automated server configuration management solution that managed an entire end-to-end deployment for a large insurance company. We had a team that focused on developing the Infrastructure as Code modules but occasionally, I would get into them and make some edits. We had scheduled an automated release one day, and the deployment failed so we had to auto-roll back. The team quickly started troubleshooting but was unable to visually see where the code was giving us some merging conflicts. When updating some of the modules, I used “tabs” versus “spaces.” Those who understand coding know precisely the problem here. I think this is funny for a couple of reasons. First, it sparked tons of debate on our team because it is funny to think we were arguing over whitespaces. Also, this is a considerable debate in the industry. Later, there was a scene from that HBO show Silicon Valley that discusses it in a very humorous way! What did I learn? Coding standards are mandatory!
None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
In late 2005 I started a consulting business with a good friend and colleague. His name is Warlito Guerra, or Warly for short. Warly and I were a great pair. I focused intensely on technology solutions, and he focused on our business’ future. I would often get wrapped up in the chaos of our customer’s environment, but I wasn’t looking at the problems with the proper mindset. Warly told me, “Jay, with chaos, comes opportunities.” Obviously there is no secret recipe there, but it was more about the conversation that followed that changed me. It wasn’t the typical opportunity-based greed conversation. Basically, it was to focus on the word “opportunity” vs. the word “chaos.” Chaos feels and sounds negative, which is not always the case. Either way, if your mindset is focused on the opportunity and the potential outcomes, it is a much healthier place. We see this as a part of the Cynefin Framework as well, overall, better decision-making will come from the right mindset. As I think about how to help our customers through this chaotic world, I stay focused on the opportunities for our customers.
Extensive research suggests that “purpose-driven businesses” are more successful in many areas. When your company started, what was its vision, what was its purpose?
We strive to be the number one transformation partner for our customers and number one career destination for our people. At TEKsystems, we join our customers on their transformation journeys — wherever they may be — to determine how to achieve their business goals and then we stick with them throughout the journey. Customers partner with us for our full-stack capabilities and speed, strategic guidance, commitment to service, delivering on our promises, hands-on collaboration and help on capitalizing on change. We build tomorrow for our customers by creating sustainable business growth.
Additionally, we know our people are what make TEKsystems what it is. We keep our people top-of-mind to ensure that our value of relationships resonates throughout the organization and then to our customers.
Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion. Can you tell our readers a bit about what your business does? How do you help people?
At TEKsystems we’re obsessed with technology. It’s our mission to accelerate the business transformation to solve complex technology, business and talent challenges for our customers. We work with over 80% of the Fortune 500 across the globe, delivering tailored technology solutions that span from business modernization and cloud migration to workforce development and talent solutions. Our goal is to help our customers move into a continuous transformation mindset that focuses on how organizations approach, sense and respond. We aim to help customers align business and IT so that business goals are in the driver’s seat, and IT is the enabler in meeting these identified endpoints. In short, we help people by owning change, our tagline that encompasses the work TEKsystems delivers.
Which technological innovation has encroached on or disrupted your industry? Can you explain why this has been disruptive?
Over the past two and a half years, the COVID-19 pandemic upended industries, and, for those focused on technology, we were directly challenged in operational architecture and infrastructure. While some organizations could move immediately to a resilient mindset, others struggled and lagged setting up tight restrictions that often left them unprepared to adapt to sudden changes. One example is modern cloud computing platforms such as containers and serverless technologies. These platforms helped customers achieve faster time to market and opened new market opportunities for organizations that were previously unattainable due to underlying infrastructure needs. Each organization can now aim to become a global scale organization without spending large sums of money on enterprise IT needs. The modern cloud era is forcing organizations to rethink their enterprise IT strategy from the ground up to ensure they stay ahead of the competition. As we learned during the pandemic, companies must be able to pivot quickly to avoid business risks and financial burdens.
What did you do to pivot as a result of this disruption?
We pivoted by advising our customers to sense and respond, a strategy involving actual business and delivery agility for their organizations and customers. We noticed throughout the past few years that genuinely agile organizations expect changes and have created a foundation based upon anticipating new hurdles and opportunities. It started with three essential functions: people, processes and technology.
Organizations must address their culture, following a “sense and respond” mindset with their people. It starts with leadership, ensuring that leaders understand their role and serve as “mission command” rather than “commanders and controllers.” Enterprises need to develop an environment that encourages meaningful feedback and cultivates a culture that’s open to all ideas. Then it’s the people, as incorporating various backgrounds and experiences can drive outcomes that increase confidence and safety.
We then see “sense and respond” invoke processes, where new value streams are created to align with this vision. Here, we must view new processes in business and delivery agility instead of implementing those that can be recrafted depending on customer needs.
Last is technology, otherwise known as the most significant enabler. Once organizations have the culture and processes, planning out system architecture becomes vital. We’ve noticed that data analytics and user experience are critical for sensing and responding. They become primary differentiators in emphasizing how businesses develop the agile mindset to continuously improve capabilities, including end-to-end automation, to modernize business functions.
Was there a specific “Aha moment” that gave you the idea to start this new path? If yes, we’d love to hear the story.
I think I am lucky as I have had many “aha moments,” but a few stand out to me for different reasons.
Back in 2005, the consulting company that my colleague Warly and I created was born during a long conversation at a bar. The night ended with us realizing that many great people would benefit from the right chances and training. Our mission statement would have been to help as many people as possible with better career opportunities and growth. Yeah, we made money, every business still needs to do that, but overall, we accomplished our goal. In 2015, we celebrated our success. By this time, dozens of people came into our organization and left with far better opportunities. Many of them are leaders today and operate with the same mindset of helping others.
As a technologist, I was always confident that we could make anything happen. My problem was I stayed so focused on technology. What is beyond technology is people, customers and how technology is consumed. It became clear that what matters is how the outcome improves or benefits the other side. This was my “aha moment,” when my passion quickly turned away from how to leverage technology and instead what value is needed. Also, I realized this value is necessary for professional services, but we needed to ensure that our customer’s clients, business and IT were deeply aligned.
Here is when I joined TEKsystems, after learning about who they are as an organization, precisely one that is embedded in people and culture. After joining, I was allowed to focus on my passion for aligning business, delivery and organizational transformation with technology. Since I started at TEKsystems, we have worked with companies and IT departments to deliver quality results. The exciting part of this work is that our customers engage us with maturity. First, their business leaders are aligned with our approach to continuously focus on the value that must be delivered. Also, we are seeing many IT leaders that are business savvy, given the natural value’s message. This results in a high level of business agility which we believe is the foundation for success.
These moments stick out because it provides my two biggest passions and a place to live. I’m incredibly fortunate that I work for an organization with the same passions, and it’s even in our TEKsystems’ core values. We exist to be the number one transformation partner for our customers and the number one career destination for our people!
So, how are things going with this new direction?
We are more customer-focused than ever before. We have a great suite of offerings that resulted from our push to become the number one transformation partner for our customers, and they are specifically targeted toward increasing business platform and delivering agility. Our business modernization framework and curated service offerings allowed our teams to reach more customers in significant verticals. We continue to evolve by building new sets of service offerings based on trends we see in the industry.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this pivot?
The number of opportunities and work we managed to secure after we made the pivot is astonishing. We work with many legacy customers with ancient technology stacks, platforms and ways of working and are willing to modernize due to the business modernization framework we have put in place.
For example, our teams at TEKsystems focused on helping customers in their enterprise modernization journey by creating programs targeting key foundational areas in digital transformation. We built programs such as modern computing platforms, enterprise operations, application modernization, data-driven enterprise and enterprise site reliability engineering (SRE). These programs focus on setting up a strategy and roadmap by identifying the current state of people, process and technologies and then laying down architectural foundations that help accelerate modernization while delivering incremental value to achieve enterprise “north stars.”
What would you say is the most critical role of a leader during a disruptive period?
I would say the most critical role of a leader during a disruptive period is to stand by the go-forward vision and decisions around modernization initiatives. Another important responsibility is maintaining business continuity while the enterprise is in a hybrid state. The modernization journey is disruptive across people, processes and technologies, and the leader’s responsibility is to motivate and effectively communicate strategic objectives and enterprise north stars to everyone in the organization.
When the future seems uncertain, what is the best way to boost morale? What can a leader do to inspire, motivate and engage their team?
There are a few things that I recommend leaders must do when an organization is going through a period of uncertainty:
- Open and regular communication is a key to ensuring the team’s morale stays high during an uncertain period. Leaders should proactively engage in more conversations with the team to ensure they feel valued, informed and included. Sharing your vision, goals and expectations clearly and acting on the feedback received from the team help increase employee engagement.
- Create an inclusive environment where the team can speak freely and contribute to solving business challenges, which helps increase participation from the group by engaging them further.
- Promote team growth and upskilling. Modernization initiatives require the adoption of new technology, tools and processes leaders need to ensure that the team feels confident in achieving enterprise objectives by providing them opportunities for growth via upskilling and training initiatives.
Is there a “number one principle” that can help guide a company through the ups and downs of turbulent times?
Focusing on business agility would be one principle that can help guide a company through turbulent times. Business agility requires you to adapt based on changing environments. In a world where data is the new oil, leaders have access to many analytics that provide insights into where they are heading. Use these insights and proactively build strategies to ensure you are prepared for any downturns. Don’t focus on how much data but rather the innovation that realizes the value of the data. Data-driven value is critical for all business transformations.
Can you share 3 or 4 of the most common mistakes you have seen other businesses make when faced with a disruptive technology? What should one keep in mind to avoid that?
We must gauge this answer with a bit of historical context. We’ve worked with organizations that have attempted to work through modernization efforts three or four times, and they often fail due to a lack of internal alignment. Usually, the organization has minimal alignment or no direct path forward in determining its business goals.
One of the most common mistakes we see when organizations embark on digital transformation journeys is a lack of strategy. Leaders often become more tactical in solving short-term needs without understanding the implications of their choices in the long term. Digital transformation initiatives disrupt fundamental ways of working across people, processes and technologies and require a well-defined strategy covering all enterprise IT areas.
Another common mistake we see is a lack of skills and capabilities. Organizations often embark upon modernization initiatives without a plan for upskilling their workforce to support it. This results in delays in achieving the goals and increases cost exponentially.
Lack of leadership support, unrealistic timelines and organizational inertia to adopt a change are other common pitfalls encountered when businesses are on their digital transformation journey.
Ok. Thank you. Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things a business leader should do to pivot and stay relevant in the face of disruptive technologies? Please share a story or an example for each.
Be adaptable: The technology sector is rapidly evolving, and many great products and technologies are coming into the market. Leaders must be more flexible than ever due to the constantly changing environment to ensure their organization stays relevant to the industry trends.
Focus on your people: While navigating a hybrid enterprise state during your transformation, ensuring your employees are in a continuous learning phase is essential. Leaders must ensure there are upskilling opportunities for the employees in the organization.
Focus on significant trends in the industry: Trends today become standards tomorrow so focus on trends that are rapidly adopted in the industry and evaluate if you can leverage them to give you an edge over your competitors.
Be more transparent with your team: Transparency plays a vital role in the digital transformation journey. It helps keep your employees invested and motivated in the enterprise vision. Define clear goals and communicate openly while simultaneously welcoming any constructive criticism of your vision.
Celebrate milestones: Digital transformation journey is a multi-year initiative as a leader acknowledges your team’s efforts when key milestones are achieved. Recognition is a great motivator for employees to keep moving forward.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Be the servant while leading. Be unselfish. Have infinite patience, and success is yours.”
― Swami Vivekananda
Vivekananda was a great philosopher and reformer in the 18th century in India. I feel it’s essential for a leader to stay grounded and make the success of others his, hers or their priority. This quote helps me keep my priorities as a leader in check.
How can our readers further follow your work?
Readers can check out some of our work, mission and more at TEKsystems.com and by following us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
Agile Businesses: Jay Mozo Of TEKsystems On How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In The Face of… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
