Between Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s Next
Between Fires and Futures is the podcast for modern tech leaders caught in the constant tension of today and tomorrow.
It’s the space between daily firefights—cloud issues, AI hype, security breaches—and the visionary work of building scalable, resilient, future-ready organizations.
Each week, we talk with the strategists, technologists, and innovators doing the real work of leading change. These are unfiltered conversations that expose the tradeoffs, wins, and lessons no one puts in the case studies.
No spin. No fluff. Just pressure-tested leadership, real-world insight, and bold thinking.
https://www.technologymatch.com/
Between Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s Next
Cybersecurity Won’t Save You. Resilience Will with CTO Justin Young
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In this episode, Tonya sits down with Justin Young—Chief Technology Officer at Commercial Tool Group. With more than 25 years in IT leadership, Justin has navigated both large enterprise environments and mid-size manufacturing—where the risks are just as big, but the resources are often much smaller. He’s built his career on one central belief: cyber resilience isn’t about the latest tools—it’s about people, process, and preparation.
Together, Tonya and Justin dive into what “resilience” really means in practice, why it must be seen as a business function (not just an IT concern), and how leaders can build cultures that withstand disruption. Through candid stories—from a WannaCry outbreak to tabletop crisis simulations—Justin makes the case for documentation, communication, and leadership buy-in as the true backbone of resilience.
You’ll learn:
- Why resilience is bigger than cybersecurity—and how to reframe it as a core business risk.
- The people-and-process mindset that keeps operations moving, even when technology fails.
- Real-world lessons from crisis management, including why the first 60 minutes matter most.
- How to run effective tabletop exercises that prepare your whole organization (not just IT).
- The hidden risks of vendor relationships, IPOs, and acquisitions—and how to evaluate third-party resilience.
- Why communication and documentation are the cheapest, most powerful resilience tools.
- The three moves every IT leader should make in the next 90 days to build resilience from the ground up.
- The biggest mistake new IT leaders make when launching resilience programs—and how to avoid it.
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