Mark Bryant: Driving Latium Technologies Towards Industry Leadership and Success with Superior Innovation and Expertise

As construction demand continues to grow day by day at home and abroad, companies have to keep up the pace. One way this can be achieved is through the expansion and adoption of new technologies in construction. New technologies are allowing space for innovations to step in and tech tools are also changing how construction companies work. It is also revolutionizing the job site to a great extent. Disruptive technologies are also allowing job sites to be more interconnected than ever before. This is what Latium Technologies is leading the industry in.

Latium is a global leader in IoT and adjacent solutions that boost the construction, mining, and oil and gas sectors. Innovative, collaborative, accessible, and putting innovation to work is Latium's way. It is an Internet of Things (IoT) & Industrial Solutions provider that inspires better operational & business decisions through a scalable, field-proven suite of applications known as Job Site Insights®. The company has delivered solutions to top companies in many industries including Construction, Mining, Oil & Gas, and Pipeline. Combining real-time telemetry, project management tools, job-site visualizations, and resource scheduling, Job Sight Insights® enables organizations to enhance quality, safety, productivity, and operational excellence while reducing risks.

In an interview with Analytics Insight, Mark Bryant, the CEO of Latium Technologies, explains how his team innovates products and services that are customer-centric. He also gives us some vital insights by sharing his experiences and learnings.

Tell us about yourself and the important role you play at Latium Technologies:

Mark Bryant: As CEO of Latium Technologies, my role is to help our customers achieve success quickly, easily, and affordably. I have nearly three decades of IT expertise, serving in financial services, software, manufacturing, and AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction) industries. I completed my executive MBA at Boston University and business administration accreditation from Sheridan College in Ontario, along with additional credentials related to e-commerce from the Ivey School of Business.

What steps do you follow while innovating your Job Site Insights® products/solutions appealing to your target audience?

Mark Bryant: We follow three criteria to innovate JSI® products at Latium Technologies.

• You must first listen to what your customer needs or suggests. Even if it is a difficult and/or impossible task to achieve, turn that into a success plan.
• The second is to continuously collaborate with customers on fine-tuning and improving the solution based on what they need, not what you think they need working with them every step of the way.
• The third is to actively solicit the feedback and field testing the solutions with the end-users of the product or service and look at how to make good things great and eliminate those things that are of little or no value.

How are disruptive technologies impacting today's innovation and how has the role of a leader has changed over the years?

Mark Bryant: Data has become a critical resource to make real-time data-driven business decisions. Data needs to come in three critical flavours. Historical state (what happened), current/real-time state (what is happening right now that we need to action), and predictive – what's going to happen or could happen based on patterns that are happening now or historical patterns that match what could happen if we don't take action.

All applications and services drive data today. IoT has proven to be very valuable to the workforce of heavy industry as it provides real-time insights into risks and operational issues that could impact quality, safety, and schedule.

Equally, Cyber Security has never been more important than it is today. As more IT assets expand and become inter-connected, cyber-criminal activity escalates and becomes easier to conduct, and risk profiles also change. Cyber activity has shifted from the virus era to the era of impersonation, identity theft, and extortion. It has made cyber defence and insurance an absolute necessity to operate in today's modern world.

What are the biggest lessons you learned from your experience? 

Mark Bryant: I have learned four important points from my experiences.

• One- Creating a vision with whom you work to see how it can change the business and letting people own and help shape that vision is critically important.
• Two- Surrounding yourself with great people that share your passion is absolutely necessary.
• Three- Collaborating across all aspects of the business and not just certain areas to achieve a common goal to better an organization's business.
• Four- Continuously challenging the process and modelling the way of the art of the possible.

Kindly tell us about the primal challenges that you faced during the initial phase of your journey. 

Mark Bryant: Discovering the skills and tools that are needed to be successful is the major challenge that I faced. It was also difficult to understand how to gain acceptance, trust, and confidence at the beginning. The most significant challenge during this journey for me was, once gaining the skills, acceptance, and trust for myself, was then 'how to enable others to act on your behalf and trust in their capability to gain traction and adoption of the vision.'

Describe some of the vital attributes that every C-level executive should possess.

Mark Bryant: I believe that vision, energy, adaptability, trust, motivation, critical thinking, and active listening are the foremost attributes that C-level executives must possess. Having the energy and vision to create a new product, service, or experience and run an organization and its functions requires the ability to adapt quickly, think critically and actively listen to the very critical team of people that surround you that will contribute to that success. Equally, being able to trust and motivate people enabling them to execute your vision is critical to success. Critical thinking and change management wrapped around these things enable strong teams to continue to move in a path forward that contributes to that success.

How do you envision Latium Technologies' future?

Mark Bryant: There is a significant opportunity to digitize heavy industry that includes construction, mining and, oil and gas industries, which have not embraced technology as quickly as some other industry verticals. Latium Technologies, along with Job Site Insights® has a significant lead, expertise, products, know-how, and critically important, the people in the area of IoT and adjacent digital product solutions. The opportunity to revolutionize and write the history book of change in our industry is exciting with this very capable Latium team.

What is your advice for budding or emerging C-level executives?

Mark Bryant: Push and drive hard! Never give up your mission! Surround yourself with great people and be a role model. Challenge the process and model the way. Don't get discouraged if you hit a wall, find a way over it, under it, around it, or just knock it down. Be prepared to continuously reinvent, pivot, change and adapt if not never be afraid to ask for help. Lastly, leverage your network, and invest time in your customer's success.