Support the cybersecurity "farm system" - Baseball & Security business perspective

Cybersecurity is a lot like Major League Baseball, organizations are the teams, the professionals are the players and collectively we are a business. It’s good business when we elevate that business together, even our competitors. Anyone who has read the book (seen movie) “Moneyball” can recall the trade scene; “Carlos you’ve been traded…. Here’s the travel contact number they’ll take care of everything. Ok…” It’s a transaction, its business, no one's upset about it. They all know this is the business of baseball, that player is going to a competitor now and it’s ok.

Every year players go into the farm systems to take their base talent and hone it into the skills needed to become an all-star. This is something we in the cybersecurity industry need to do more of. This is the entry level, be it fresh out of college or transitioning. Having a strong farm system ensures the availability of talent for years to come. Yes, money goes into hiring, training and employing them. Yes, they may move on. In fact, it’s very likely they will move on and work at competitors, but they will build upon the skills you put into them.

No one knows where a player's career will take them or how successful they'll be in the long run. The same goes for cybersecurity - it is hard to predict who will succeed at what and where at first glance. As time goes on through employers and organizations, we see who is doing well, who rises above.

In baseball, players learn from one another as they play for different teams. In cybersecurity, professionals will begin collaborating with each other over time. In both, this is beneficial because it helps everyone learn from one another and become better at what they do. It increases the talent pool.

-This is good for the sport.?-This is good for our industry.

We’ve all seen the quote, “what if we train our employees and they leave?” It's not just about training to retain talent but investing in new talent to grow the industry. Nolan Ryan played baseball for 27 years for 4 different teams, and every team was happy to have him for any amount of time they could. Every team he played for benefited from him being there, and he benefited from that experience. In the end baseball is better for him having been a part of it. Nolan Ryan was good for business, the business of baseball. We should look at every employee we bring to cybersecurity with the same hopes and perspective.

So, my point... as businesses we are always looking to ‘trade or sign’ the All-Star from another team. If we are lucky, they stay around and make our organization better over time, but if we neglect our farm system, we will end up having to restructure, hurting the business, not just our business but the business of cybersecurity. In the end we are all on the same team in cybersecurity, we are ‘the good guys’ and shouldn’t lose sight of that. Investing in the growth of our industry should be a priority.