As a small or medium-sized business (SMB) in this new world of remote work, you may not be thinking about security. You’re probably just trying to figure out how to enable your staff to work productively when all or most of them are working from home.
Even before COVID-19, the security statistics for SMBs were alarming. 55% of SMBs suffer a cyber attack every year. In the case of ransomware attacks—43% of them take more than a week to fix; only 35% of SMBs are profitable after a prolonged attack; and the average cost is around $80,000.
PC Magazine says that phishing attacks have increased by 350% since the beginning of the crisis.
The statistics for phishing—the top security threat for SMBs—are just as bad. PC Magazine says that phishing attacks have increased by 350% since the beginning of the crisis.
Remote work means tens or hundreds of workers using their home networks to access your systems and critical applications. As they try to collaborate with colleagues or socialize with friends and family, your employees may be downloading free tools that introduce even more risk to their devices and therefore to your business. And then there’s your data. Every business has sensitive or confidential data— customer contact information and credit card numbers, proprietary business information, and more. To do their jobs effectively, your workers may need to access these files, or worse, download them onto their personal or company-owned tablets or PCs. What happens when they leave that device at the park? Think of the potential loss and liability.
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None of these threats or risks are unique to COVID-19—they can happy anytime someone works remotely or travels for business. As an SMB, you need to enable your remote workers to collaborate and work productively on their critical applications while also keeping your business safe. Some organizations achieve this by purchasing separate collaboration tools and security solutions. Taking this route introduces integration issues, complexity, and extra expense and may not be possible to implement while workers are remote. The key is to find a comprehensive and proven collaboration solution that is already integrated with and includes a high-rated security system. Seem too good to be true? It exists. It’s affordable. It’s proven. And it can be implemented remotely with automated deployment. It’s Microsoft 365 Business Premium.
Microsoft 365 Business Premium includes the tools your staff needs to collaborate during the pandemic and beyond. Microsoft Teams, a part of Microsoft 365, provides connected tools for online meetings, screen sharing, audio calls, cloud file storage and syncing, real-time editing, on-the-fly chats, project management, task lists, email, video presentations, and more—all from a single vendor. Those tools are combined with security solutions such as Defender, Azure Information Protection, Intune, and more, enabling you to keep your business up and running now and in the future.
Enable secure remote access and protect identities
With secure remote access, Microsoft 365 Business Premium enables you to control where, when, and who connects to your on-premise apps without risking your network. It also provides safe remote desktop access and multi-factor authentication to help you protect against lost or stolen passwords. And its Advanced Threat Protection defends your company against cyber threats such as malicious links, malware, phishing, and impersonation.
Secure personal and company-owned devices
According to Microsoft, 60% of cyber attacks begin with a breached device. Making sure your company’s devices are secure can feel like a full-time job under any circumstances. With widespread and prolonged remote work, SMBs now have employees who may be using their own devices to do their work. Microsoft 365 Business Premium allows you to secure and manage all devices that access company data—whether personal or company-owned. For company-owned devices, it allows you to centrally manage and install applications, restrict functions or usage, and wipe those devices if they are ever lost or stolen. For employees using their personal devices for work, Microsoft 365 Business Premium gives you control of company-owned data only and can enable this data to be wiped easily if lost or stolen.
Safeguard confidential business and customer data
Microsoft 365 Business Premium includes several safeguards to protect your sensitive data. For example, it protects against accidental data leaks by automatically detecting when an employee is about to send an email that includes sensitive data such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, and dozens of others. It also monitors how data moves inside your organization to help prevent sensitive data from being stolen or accidentally shared, provides visibility into cloud application use, and controls access to sensitive email and documents with Azure Information Protection. And if you need to send sensitive data to partners or customers outside of your organization, it can encrypt the email with one click—ensuring only the intended recipients with the right credentials can open the email.
Easy deployment and low price point
You may be thinking that there is no way you can possibly afford this type of solution and that you don’t have the IT staff (or any IT staff) to handle the deployment anyway. But Microsoft 365 Business Premium has an affordable, per person monthly charge. It also eliminates the various costs of having multipoint solutions. In addition, the solutions can be deployed simply and quickly due to the cloud. As with any IT investment, utilizing one of Microsoft’s trusted partners like Logic Speak can help your SMB get the most out of your solution.
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At Logic Speak, our core values shape how we lead, how we work, and how we serve our clients. They’re not words on a wall, they’re filters for decisions and expectations for how we show up every day.
But here’s something we’ve learned the hard way: even good values have a shadow side.
Values, when taken too far or applied without self‑awareness, can create unintended consequences. What starts as a strength can quietly become a blind spot. And if we’re not careful, the very things we pride ourselves on can work against us.
So today, we want to talk honestly about our values, not just the best of them, but the risks of overusing them.
We Care for You
The strength:
Caring for others is foundational to who we are. It means treating people with dignity, empathy, and kindness. It means remembering that coworkers, clients, and partners are humans first, not just roles or tickets or invoices.
The shadow side:
When care goes unchecked, it can turn into avoidance. We may hesitate to give hard feedback because we don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings. We may tolerate behaviors longer than we should because we empathize deeply with circumstances. Over time, clarity suffers, and ironically, so does trust.
Care without courage isn’t actually care.
We Lean In
The strength:
We lean in when there’s a need. We take ownership. We step up when things are unclear or uncomfortable. This value fuels responsibility, initiative, and teamwork.
The shadow side:
Leaning in too much can become overfunctioning. We jump in to fix things that aren’t ours to fix. We take on too much instead of letting others wrestle and grow. Eventually, this can lead to burnout, resentment, or invisible bottlenecks where “that person always handles it.”
Sometimes the most responsible thing to do is not lean in, but step back.
We Love Our Craft
The strength:
We take pride in doing things well. We pay attention to details. We care about quality, process, and doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.
The shadow side:
At its extreme, loving our craft can turn into perfectionism. We may over‑engineer solutions, delay decisions, or become critical when others don’t meet our internal standards. What was meant to produce excellence can unintentionally slow momentum or make collaboration harder.
Excellence should serve the outcome, not replace it.
We Keep Improving
The strength:
Growth matters here. We believe learning never stops and that feedback, when handled well, is a gift. This value keeps us curious, hungry, and moving forward.
The shadow side:
Constant improvement can quietly create the feeling that “where we are is never enough.” Wins may go uncelebrated because we’re already focused on what’s next. People may feel like they’re always being evaluated instead of occasionally being affirmed.
Improvement without appreciation can feel exhausting.
Why This Matters: Blind Spots Are Part of Being Human
None of these shadow sides mean our values are flawed. They mean we’re human.
Every person, every team, and every organization has blind spots. Often, they’re not found in our weaknesses, but in our strengths, overused or unexamined. The danger isn’t having blind spots, it’s assuming we don’t.
That’s why self‑awareness matters so deeply to us. It’s why feedback matters. It’s why we believe asking questions like “How is this landing?” and “What might I be missing?” is a leadership responsibility, not a sign of insecurity.
Living Our Values With Humility
Our goal isn’t to live our values perfectly. It’s to live them thoughtfully.
That means holding our values firmly, but ourselves humbly. It means inviting perspective, welcoming challenge, and remembering that good intentions don’t eliminate unintended impact.
When we name the shadow side, we don’t weaken our culture, we strengthen it.
Because the best teams aren’t made of people without blind spots.
They’re made of people willing to look for them.