52. Handoff from Founder to CEO in a Cybersecurity Company, with Kevin Coppins

With the exponential growth of data in organizations, cyberattacks are becoming frequent and costing American companies millions and risking their reputations. Kevin Coppins, President and CEO of Spirion, knows just how much is at risk when it comes to employee data. When he stepped into his role as CEO, he made sure that the founder’s vision to “eliminate data breaches and the pain associated with them” stayed very much alive.

Join Jim and Kevin as they dive into the cybersecurity threats businesses face with the use of sensitive employee and consumer data. They discuss the importance of companies understanding the value of the information they have in order to protect it, how Covid has changed the world of cybersecurity, and Kevin’s experience transitioning into a CEO role and taking over a company from its founders.

3 Key Takeaways

• Protect the Digital You: The digital version of you is almost as valuable as the physical version of you, and you have to protect it accordingly. This is even more important for businesses, who have tons of “digital people” to protect.
• Choose the Right Buyer : Choosing the right buyer for your company can make or break your company moving forward. Take the time to do your research and find the buyer with the greatest propensity to drive the company where you want it to go. (Hint: It’s not always the highest bidder!)
• Make Customers Successful, Not Happy: Counterintuitive? Maybe. Effective? Definitely. In some industries (e.g., Cybersecurity), not every interaction is going to make customers feel good. There will be tough conversations because data integrity and protection is a high-stakes game and many companies don’t do it right. As a vendor, your job is to make the customer successful (i.e., data and assets secure) - this will cultivate a mutual respect and make for successful, long-term customers.

Resources
Spirion Website

Kevin’s LinkedIn

Kevin’s Twitter

About
As Chief Executive Officer at Spirion, Kevin leads a team of passionate data privacy professionals driven daily to “Protect What Matters Most” for their customers, colleagues and communities. Data breaches continue to grow with more than 33 billion records projected to be stolen in 2023, a 175% increase over 2018. As a result, privacy has taken legislative center stage as people’s physical identities become digitized into a form of personal data currency, for sale to the highest bidder. The real victims of a data breach are those individuals who will forever have to deal with their identities being compromised. It’s why Spirion takes what they do so seriously, and it’s why Kevin is honored to be a part of this team.

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