On this episode of The Management Blueprint Podcast Tracy Gregorio, Chief Executive Officer of G2 Ops, Inc., discusses the evolution of cybersecurity, how to evolve your business into a product company, and the three most important priorities in every business. Listen to the full podcast episode here.
In this article, we will discuss the entrepreneurial journey of Tracy Gregorio, CEO of G2 Ops, a fast-growing cybersecurity company that helps companies stay ahead of cybercrime and its threats. Tracy shares her experience of how she started her company and developed a mental model that allowed her to grow and make it more powerful.
Tracy’s journey began with her early interest in computers, which was introduced by her high school teacher. Her father also encouraged her to pursue a career in technology, as he saw it as a need for the future. Tracy majored in computer science and began working for a company right out of college, doing computer programming, and learned a lot about database management. As she progressed in her career, she enjoyed solving problems, managing projects, and always said yes to managers who wanted her to lead or solve a problem.
Tracy’s interest in business grew, and as she managed people, she learned about human resources, budgeting, and management, which helped her when she decided to launch her own business. Tracy always treated her employer’s budget or whatever they asked her to manage as her own, which is what entrepreneurs do. She focused on maximizing the investment, no matter who was making it.
After working in the industry for many years, Tracy’s husband wanted to start something together. They saw a need for a model-based system engineering, which is a methodology in system engineering. They decided to focus on this niche and launched G2 Ops, making an investment themselves. They went into the company with the goal of understanding requirements and how things are affected from a cybersecurity standpoint.
G2 Ops has been doing good work, and Tracy credits their success to their mental model, which is centered around three priorities: growth, security, and brand. Tracy believes that her team, employees, and vendors like structure and understanding priorities, which is why they came up with this framework. Tracy talks about these three priorities regularly, and it’s the focus of their reporting system.
Tracy's mental model of growth, security, and brand is a game-changer for any business looking to scale and differentiate from competitors. She emphasized the importance of protecting the downside while pursuing growth and building a strong brand. Click To TweetTracy’s explanation of her company’s digital twin technology provides an interesting perspective on how businesses can approach cyber resilience. By creating a digital model of all the components of a complex system, businesses can better understand how those components interact with each other and identify potential vulnerabilities. This is especially important in industries like defense, where cyberattacks could have catastrophic consequences.
But the concept of a digital twin has applications beyond just cybersecurity. As Tracy mentions, businesses can also use these models for configuration management and reliability planning. By creating a digital twin of a product or system, businesses can more easily identify potential issues before they become actual problems. They can also use the model to test out different scenarios and see how they might impact the system.
Overall, the idea of a digital twin highlights the importance of data collection and analysis for businesses. By collecting data about a system’s components and how they interact with each other, businesses can gain a deeper understanding of how that system works and identify potential areas for improvement. This is particularly relevant in today’s data-driven economy, where businesses that can effectively collect and analyze data are often the most successful.
It’s clear from Tracy’s explanation that businesses can use digital twin technology to improve their cyber resilience and overall operations. By investing in the creation and maintenance of these models, businesses can gain a deeper understanding of their products and systems and make more informed decisions about how to improve them. As technology continues to evolve, it’s likely that we’ll see more and more businesses adopting digital twin technology as a key tool for success.
Tracy Gregorio’s entrepreneurial journey is an inspiring one. Her experience teaches us that it’s important to say yes to opportunities, always treat the employer’s budget as our own, and focus on maximizing investments. Furthermore, having a mental model that is centered around clear priorities can help companies grow and become more powerful. Finally, the story of G2 Ops shows us that focusing on the foundations of the business can lead to success.
To hear the full podcast with Tracy Gregorio click here.