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#Altitude Day 3: Leading IT in Hypergrowth Companies and Celebrating the SaaSOps Stars of 2021

BetterCloud

November 5, 2021

2 minute read

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As SaaS adoption continues to grow exponentially, the role of IT leadership is evolving rapidly. The final day of Altitude 2021 featured a Q&A between Brian Hoyt, CIO of Unity Technologies, and David Politis, CEO of BetterCloud. Their discussion explored both the excitement and challenges of being an IT leader in a large company during hypergrowth. 

Here are just a few key takeaways from yesterday’s session:

  • IT is now playing a “front and center” role in rapidly growing companies. How and when SaaS applications are deployed now have a direct, measurable impact on strategic business goals. Today, IT departments find themselves responsible for multiple critical business systems and have to work more cross-functionally than ever before. Hoyt emphasized the importance of continually aligning the work of IT with operations across the rest of the company.
  • In rapidly growing companies, IT leadership must prioritize—and do it very strategically. IT departments continue to be under-resourced when compared to product development or sales, so leaders must learn how to say “no” (or “not yet” as Hoyt advised). Otherwise, the successful execution of projects most critical to the company’s goals will suffer.  “[You] have to focus on one thing, not 75, because there are always 75 things,” Hoyt said.
  • The skills needed to be a successful IT leader are changing. With IT playing a more strategic role within companies, soft skills are becoming more valuable than deep technical know-how. “It’s not necessary to understand everything at a fundamentally technical level,” Hoyt said. Success as an IT leader now depends on effectively communicating with fellow business leaders, and building a strong, execution-focused team.

Near the end of the chat, Hoyt offers some helpful tips for those pursuing roles in IT leadership. You can watch the full discussion by registering for Altitude 2021 here, where you’ll get on-demand access to this and all of our other sessions from this week.

Announcing the 2021 SaaSOps Stars

Now in its third year, BetterCloud’s SaaSOps Stars Awards program celebrates innovative individuals and teams that have transformed their companies, careers, and the IT industry. Joe Iantosca, Head of Customer Success at BetterCloud, presented awards to five winners whose SaaSOps practices are pushing IT to new heights.

  • Orchestration Wizard: Gareth Thomas, Ocado
  • Security Specialist: Ben Silber, 605
  • SaaSOps Rookie of the Year: VMware Team
  • Discovery Detective: Chloe Becquet, HelloFresh
  • Superhero of the Year: Jon Aviles, Ibotta

Want to learn more about this year’s winners? Check out this in-depth blog post about the unique challenges they faced—and more importantly, how each winner thrived this year.

This is just a small sample of what you missed during #Altitude 2021. If you missed anything, you can watch any of our sessions on-demand by registering here.

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