MANAGING THE VIRUS HUNTERS

Managing the Virus Hunters Rhonda White Chancellor University

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2 Abstract

This case study is about managing the virus hunters at Symantec Corporation. Information provided on their website shows that Symantec was a spin off of Machine Intelligence Corporation (MiC). MIC provided the seed money from a National Science Foundation grant to a group of visionary scientists to help small businesses (symantec.com). Three years ago they celebrated their 25th year in business, incorporating on March 1, 1982. According to our case application, the computer-virus hunters are a group of software analysts that collect the viruses and other suspicious code and try to figure out how they work so the company can provide security updates to its customers. Vincent Weafer has been leading Symantec's virus hunting team since 1999. The case application goes on to say that they went from seeing five new viruses a day, that would spread in a matter of months, to seeing 20,000 virus samples a month. His job has become increasing challenging. This paper will discuss how Vincent Weafer can use technical, human and conceptual skills to maintain an innovative and professional environment. We'll also discuss the management roles he plays throughout the companies innovative culture, while keeping the employees focused on the company's commitments to being customer driven around the globe. We'll also touch on the learning opportunity for other managers based on Weafer's and Symantec's successful approach to these challenges.

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Managing the Virus Hunters Vincent Weafer, Symantec's leader for their virus hunting team since 1999, has an extremely challenging job with a long road ahead of him. It's obvious that he's successful at what he does, considering that he's been leading this team for almost 12 years. The reason that his job is so challenging is that he has a team that expands the global, just like his competitors. The team is tasked with developing network security sotware for consumers and businesses in an environment that changes in a matter of minutes every day. These are not his only challenges, he also has to manage a different breed of computer viruses than what was originally out there. According to Robbins and Coulter, computer attacks being spread by criminals with plans to steal information for fraudulent use, are on the rise. So, Symantec must have extremely talented individuals that can handle this type of frenetic, chaotic and challenging work environment (Robbins and Coulter). It is the job of the manager, Weafer, to attract the best talent to perform at the level that he needs. These talented professionals are an extremely important asset, and they must be valued in order to minimize the cost of employee turnover. There are several technical, human and conceptual skills that Weafer can use to foster an environment of innovation and professionalism. According to research, there are 11 skills exhibited by an effective manager: (1) clarifies goals and objectives, (2) encourages participation, (3) plans and organizes, (4) has technical and administrative expertise, (5) facilitates work, (6) provides feedback, (7) keeps things moving, (8) controls details, (9) pressures for goal accomplishment, (10) empowers and delegates,

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and (11) recognizes good performance. Let's discuss how he can use these skills to lead effectively. Based on the skill set necessary to be an effective manager, Weafer has to recognize good performance. He can do this by measuring their technical and administrative expertise at the onset (hiring phase) of a new employee, as well as during an employee's career with Symantec. To achieve this effectively, he must make sure that he attracts and retain the most talented individuals. This is when all of the skills mentioned previously will come into play. He must clarify goals and objectives of his team directly to potential candidates, before, during and after the interview process. He not only needs to share these goals and objectives, but he need to convey the activities necessary to achieve his objectives. Symantec has a timeline on their website of how they were able to grow this company. Weafer needs to be proactive in offering the same type of flow chart for his team in order to keep his employees moving forward. Symantec's website says that they are 'customer-driven'. If this is the case, then the only way to be customer-driven is to also be focused on their employees. Symantec features their mission statement on their website. However, Jack Welch states in his book, 'Winning' that most mission statements are overrated. Another interesting point that Jack makes is that "business schools add to the confusion by having their students regularly write mission statements and debate values,...". He goes on to say that "There are also a lot of companies that do the same to their senior executives, usually in an attempt to create a noble-sounding plaque to hang in the company lobby". "Too often, these exercises end with a set of generic platitudes that do

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nothing more than leave employees directionless or cynical", according to Jack. He states that, "who doesn't know of a company that has spent countless hours in emotional debate only to come up with values that, despite the good intentions that went into them, sound as if they were plucked from an all-purpose list of virtues including "integrity, quality, excellence, service, and respect." If a company develops a mission statement, Jack states, then you need to look at the larger picture. The mission announces exactly where you are going, and the values describe the behaviors that will get you there. Symantec's mission statement is: Symantec Enterprise Support Services is committed to responding quickly to your inquiries. We will help you address malicious attacks and vulnerabilities in your computing environment, and help you to maximize the business value of your Symantec products. Our primary focus is to enable you to leverage the operational functionality of your Symantec licensed software by providing tools, resources and technical assistance. They talk about their focus, however, I don't see any direct attention given to the behaviors necessary to get them to the mission. Symantec needs to direct their employees on the concrete behaviors necessary that will give their employees a roadmap to achieving their mission statement. If their employees were directly involved in creating this mission statement, it'll be much easier for them to manage to it. They'll need their managers to be trained to use relationship building tools to effectively encourage participation.

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When Symantec launched the Blaster-B worm, it changed their approach to dealing with viruses (pearson custom business resources). Based on this new development, they had software analysts working around the clock for two weeks. The company then realized that they needed to hire much more talented individuals. Secondly, they needed to add more members to their team. Change was on the horizon. Symantec now has team numbers in the hundreds (Robbins and Coulter) and they can now rotate people from the front-lines. These teams are responsible for responding to new security threats, so they've been divided into groups where they can help with new-product development. They also say that they have teams to help with writing internal research papers and even other team members assigned to developing new tools that will help colleagues battle the next wave of threats. They are also now focused on prevention. Robbins and Coulter states that Symantec now has an individual who tries to figure out what makes the virus writers tick. They are also focused on preventing employee burnout by implementing a rotation system that seems to be effective. They have Tokyo taking over for their Santa Monica team, and Dublin takes over for the Japanese team, which then reverts back to Santa Monica. All of these things help to keep their company focused on innovation, while servicing their customers. It's quite obvious that Weafer has to be in the business of understanding the psychological implications of working globally. He has major cultural challenges and has to work to bridge these gaps so that everyone can work as an effective and efficient team. During one of his weekly security calls, he has to be able to encourage his global team to get on board with bringing in a new network security consulting company. This

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is where his management skills come into play. The universality of management is the reality that management is needed in all types and sizes of organizations, at all organizational levels, in all organizational areas and in organizations no matter where located [i.e. globally]. In Weafer's organization there is constant change. In order for him to disseminate information on his weekly global calls, he needs to manage to it by using his conceptual and human skills, as well as his technical skills. According to Robbins and Coulter, human skills involve the ability to work well with other people, both individually and in groups. They say that managers with good human skills get the best out of their people. They say they're able to communicate, motivate, lead and inspire enthusiasm and trust. Pearson also states that conceptual skills are the skills managers use to think and to conceptualize about abstract and complex situations. He also has to use these skills to manage to the impact of change in the organization as a whole. He needs to understand the relationships among various subunits and visualize how the organization fits into it's broader environment. Considering Weafer's position, this is the one skill that he has mastered based on the effectiveness and growth of his team. Based on my observations of Symantec's history, organizational structure and growth, it's quite obvious that their success is not by accident. Managers at all levels can learn from Vincent Weafer and Symantec's approach. Based on Robbins and Coulter, the characteristics of an organization has a distinct purpose, deliberate structure and people. Weafer started off managing an organization of a dozen people. Because the organization has grown dramatically, then by default, he has too. If other managers have the opportunity to research Symantec, it would obviously be in their

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best interests. According to researchers at Harvard Business School, the most important managerial behaviors involve two fundamental things: enabling people to move forward in their work and treating them decently as human beings. The company's timeline shows where they've been, where they wanted to go and how they got there. Symantec's approach and Vincent Weafer's managerial skill is a major reason why they are where they are today.

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References

Symantec's Mission Statement. (2010, November 6). Retrieved from www. symantec.com Robbins, S. P., & Coulter, M. (2009). Chapter 1 of Management, Pearson Custom Business Resources. Pearson Custom Publishing. Rothbaum, N. (2007). Cyber Threats Get Personal. Retrieved from http:// www.cnnmoney.com