Gone are the days when a company’s IT teams just babysat servers. Today, individual services and outside vendors dominate the industry. With this fast pace of recent technological leaps brings new opportunities to harness technology that can help businesses find creative ways to scale.

Karen Fedyszyn, an award-winning Information Technology Executive, sat down with Pat and Shelli for a wide-ranging conversation about her experiences managing teams for brands such as Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurants, Ace Hardware, and HSBC. Karen shares why she believes shadow IT should be treated as an innovation pipeline, the challenges of moving from problem focused to solution focused IT, and her tips for creating productive IT teams that allow members to both learn and work on things they are passionate about.

Tune in for practical advice from an IT industry pro.

• [00:25] – Introducing Karen Fedyszyn, IT Executive
• [01:05] – Embracing being a mid-sized company at Cooper’s Hawk
• [04:57] – Keeping your employees current
• [09:18] – Karen’s ORBIE 2019 finalist award
• [13:44] – Problem solving from within
• [17:08] – How going global changes the game
• [19:36] – Wartime CEO mentality
• [23:45] – Practicing meditation
• [27:41] – Having a personal mission statement
• [29:49] – How an evolving industry creates new problems
• [35:31] – Keeping your employees interested
• [38:09] – Proliferation of software as a service

Karen Fedyszyn is an accomplished information technology executive, CIO Advisor, consultant, and Non-Executive Director board member. She is sought after for her work in information and technology, establishing vision, devising strategy, as well as executing digital transformation, acquisition integration, program execution, cyber security and innovation supporting both local and global companies. She has worked with brands including Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurants, Ace Hardware, and HSBC.

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This podcast episode was produced by Dante32.