Ryan Loy, the vice president of IT at Adtran, says an IT leader's job is to find tech-enabled ways to differentiate a company from its competitors. With that mission in mind, last year he met with eight other Adtran executives to share his ideas on how the company can use internet of things (IoT) technologies to its advantage.
Loy, who bills himself as a businessperson who runs IT, says such activities are among his key responsibilities. "It's bringing the right ideas to the right people," he says.
In his view, harnessing IoT capabilities will allow Adtran, a provider of networking and communications equipment, to gain further insight into the health, performance and security of connected devices — and that's a value-add that the company can market to its customers.
Loy's business-first philosophy is evident in the way he manages his 70 or so IT employees. He asks them to do four things: Keep your core assets healthy, deliver on your commitments, know the business, and tell the business what's next on the tech front.
He says it's critical to prepare the staff to fulfill each of those mandates. "We have surgical focus on what skills sets we're going to need so we can develop them internally," he explains.
Although Loy runs a bimodal shop where one team is focused on innovation, he says he's committed to encouraging all IT employees to propose ideas and take risks to advance strategic goals.