A featured contribution from Leadership Perspectives, a curated forum for enterprise technology leaders, nominated by our subscribers and vetted by the CIOApplications Editorial Board.

Renfro Brands

Driving Innovation and Operational Excellence in Legacy Organizations

Michael Everly is a transformational IT executive with a proven track record of driving business success through strategic technology solutions. Known for his hands-on leadership, he builds strong, positive cultures and high-performing teams, effectively communicating complex ideas with clarity and humor. With experience across manufacturing, apparel, distribution, education, retail, IT consulting, healthcare, and public utilities, he excels at turning technical challenges into clear business outcomes that foster growth and competitive advantage.

Key Roles in Organizational Technology Management

I oversee the organization’s technological ecosystem, ensuring seamless operations across our business staff, distribution centers, and manufacturing plants. My role spans infrastructure management, cybersecurity, application development, and system configuration. Beyond tech, I’m deeply involved in operational processes, blending innovation with practicality to keep everything running smoothly. It’s a dynamic mix of strategy and execution, bringing fresh challenges and opportunities every day.

Evolving Trends and Challenges in IT: The Past 24 Months

Over the last two years, advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and data management have significantly shaped the IT landscape. Generative AI has become a focal point, driving innovation and reshaping business strategies. Data dispersion has been a significant challenge in our organization, a hundred-year-old company with a legacy of acquisitions. We’re addressing this through a comprehensive data governance initiative to establish a unified data model, enabling better enterprise reporting and analytics.

We’ve embraced automation to enhance efficiency by streamlining manual processes and implementing enterprise workflows. via tools like Salesforce Service Cloud. These efforts reduce reliance on spreadsheets and improve operational productivity.

In cybersecurity, the rising demand for strong protection has led us to explore managed security services to compensate for our limited internal resources. With constrained budgets, every technological investment is geared towards measurable outcomes like cost reduction, efficiency gains, or workload optimization.

Despite these constraints, we’ve partnered with Silverline, a small data and AI development firm to integrate predictive analytics into our data projects. This collaboration demonstrates how strategic innovation can deliver impactful solutions, even with limited resources.

Addressing Security in a Resource-Constrained Environment

As the CIO and CISO, I oversee the organization’s security operations. Despite not having a dedicated security team, we’ve implemented several key measures to safeguard our systems.

These include automated patch deployment, email monitoring tools to detect phishing and spam, and a cyber training program with phishing simulations to educate employees.

Our approach focuses on “blocking and tackling” fundamentals to establish a strong security foundation. This includes deploying strong safeguards analogous to locking doors and installing gates.

We are exploring managed security services to enhance our proactive threat detection capabilities. This partnership will provide 24/7 monitoring and threat analysis, enabling us to respond swiftly to potential risks. Given our resource constraints, these strategies ensure we maintain a strong security posture while maximizing the efficiency of our operations.

A Technology-Driven Journey: Advancing a Legacy Organization

Our company, a 100-year-old apparel manufacturer in North Carolina, has a long history of prioritizing manufacturing and sales over technological innovation. When I stepped into my role as CIO, my mission was clear: leverage technology not for its sake but as a strategic tool to drive business growth and efficiency.

  • Being adaptable and flexible in your approach will help you navigate the inevitable changes and challenges that come with the territory


Historically, IT operated under limited investment, reporting through the CFO, and focused primarily on maintaining operations. Shifting this perspective required strongly emphasizing aligning technology initiatives with measurable business outcomes. Every project we undertake is backed by a solid business case and a clear return on investment, ensuring each implementation contributes directly to efficiency, revenue growth, or cost savings.

Directly reporting to the CEO has secured support for transformative initiatives, such as cloud adoption, tighter operational processes, and enhanced security measures. These advancements are not just theoretical; they deliver tangible results, proving that strategic technology deployment can modernize a legacy organization while strengthening its competitive edge.

Fostering Whole Organizational Processes: A CIO’s Advice

My career in IT, spanning multiple organizations as CIO, has taught me a key lesson: listen to the business. IT often assumes it knows what’s best, but true success lies in understanding the business’s needs and aligning IT solutions to meet them.

At Renfro, we’ve adopted a structured approach to foster collaboration. Our IT Project Management Office hosts monthly meetings with each business unit, creating an open forum for discussing priorities, project updates, and new requirements. Initially met with skepticism, these meetings have evolved into a transparent platform that bridges the gap between IT and business operations.

My advice to peers: engage with the business consistently. Establish regular communication, prioritize transparency, and treat IT as a partner, not a silo. By aligning technology initiatives with business goals, you streamline processes and build trust, driving meaningful progress for the organization.

The Next Frontier in IT: Transformative Trends for the Coming Years

The IT landscape is poised for significant transformation in the next 18 to 24 months, with artificial intelligence (AI) standing out as a pivotal driver of change. However, foundational readiness is the key to leveraging AI—having the correct data and well-defined use cases.

At Renfro, we’re embarking on a comprehensive data governance initiative to align manufacturing data with our ERP systems. This multi-year project lays the groundwork for deploying AI to revolutionize demand planning, raw material procurement, and overall supply chain efficiency. By strategically integrating AI with logistics and supply chain processes, we aim to achieve a proactive and efficient operational model.

This effort also positions us to compete more effectively against international manufacturers. While offshore players often benefit from lower labor costs, our vision is to leverage AI to optimize processes, ensuring we remain competitive domestically while meeting global standards.

Looking ahead, IT leaders should focus on strategic enterprise projects that embrace data-driven decision-making and AI implementation. Organizations that prioritize these initiatives will enhance efficiency, unlock innovative ways to drive business growth and remain agile in a rapidly evolving market.

The articles from these contributors are based on their personal expertise and viewpoints, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of their employers or affiliated organizations.