Laura Pettit Rusick
Name: Laura Pettit Rusick
Current Job: President, OPT Solutions
Favorite restaurant in town? That’s so hard to pick! On the west side, I would say Parallax. They have been around for a while, but still great. On the east side, love EDWINS – food, service and mission.
Favorite thing about Cleveland? Cleveland is a small, big town. There is about 2 degrees of separation max which makes meeting people and connecting much easier. I’ve lived and worked all over Northeast Ohio.
Q: Laura first off, how are you dealing with coronavirus quarantine and how is it affecting your business? We consider ourselves very lucky as we have been a virtual business since I started the company in 2008. That said, while we do a lot of work virtually and have used videoconferencing for several years, we do prefer some in-person meetings. It is rather odd not being able to connect in person.
We have had a couple projects put off due to COVID-19. We are very fortunate to have some longer-term clients that have continued to work with us. The biggest downside right now is the difficulties with networking. Zoom works to a point, but I’m looking forward to lunches again!
Q: You were a CS major in undergraduate, but ended up going back and getting an MBA. How did having an MBA play a role in your career? To me, technology should be enabling the business. To do that, you need to have a strong business understanding so you can communicate at the executive leadership level to strategize and solve business problems. What can IT do to increase revenue, not just increase efficiency/decrease cost? I think it’s been a huge help both to my career in CIO roles and to founding and running OPT. I was brand new to starting up and running a business, so the more well-rounded perspective was a big benefit. Shout out to CWRU Weatherhead!
Q: You've spent the early part of your career as a developer and then transitioned to a manager role. What are some lessons you learned from switching to manager from developer? At times I need to get into detail with design, code management or other aspects of a project, so the developer background is useful. Early on though I started managing projects – you’re responsible for bringing in the project even though none of the people executing the project report to you. Not simple! In some respects, I found actual management easier. I continue to enjoy management. I like changing and building culture, creating strategy and getting IT aligned with the business. It’s great to see IT get organized and standardized, while working on projects that help the business.
Q: Can you tell us about what you do as president of OPT Solutions and how you ended up starting your own outsourced CIO shop? I spent a couple years mid-career at Deloitte Consulting, then spent 12 years managing IT at three different companies. I specialized in IT turnarounds, and was often surprised by the issues I walked into. Issues ranged from people issues and communication breakdowns with the business, to inadequate or out-of-date IT systems. The companies I worked for ranged from divisions of large companies to midmarket companies. I liked being part of midmarket companies – it’s hard to create change at large companies with all the layers. I also enjoyed consulting when I was at Deloitte, but knew I didn’t want to travel all the time. I got the idea for OPT by combining my consulting background with my midmarket experience. My goal was to give organizations access to experienced resources sooner in their life cycle to hopefully avoid the major issues I’d seen before.
Q: You spend a lot of your time fixing other company’s IT operations. What are some of the biggest mistakes companies make in their approach to IT? Most CEOs in the midmarket aren’t IT experts, nor should they be. But they don’t have an independent advisor. The biggest mistake I’ve seen is not getting a third-party assessment to identify risks and make recommendations, whether it be people, process or technology-specific. It is important to get recommendations from a company that is vendor independent so they have no horse in the race. We have seen many examples where IT has become an impediment to growth. Often we see IT (outsourced or internal) that began when the company was created, and now has a hard time making the leap to supporting a $10m or even $300m company. One of the most difficult is where there are a lot of applications because departments have been allowed to buy whatever they want. The focus has been on “point” solutions with no integration – so data from different systems gives different results. How many places do you want employee data? Customer data?
And on the deal side, ignoring IT due diligence can result in some unpleasant financial surprises post-purchase. On that front, we’ve seen inadequate Microsoft licensing where licenses must be purchased. Phone systems that are 20 years old and need immediate replacement. Hardware that is old and not up to date with security patches. ERP systems that have been customized to the point they can no longer be upgraded. A heads up can give the acquirer negotiating points. Will IT kill a deal if the financials are good? Unlikely. But are you getting it at the right price given the investments that will be required?