Mike Blake

Over the past few months, Matt Stravitz and I spent time with CIOs, CEOs, and board members about how the #CIO role is evolving, shaped by real operating pressures. One consistent theme that emerged was the CIO roles' continued evolution beyond it's traditional remit, with 2026 likely to place greater emphasis on it's influence over competitive advantage, AI adoption, and the pace of enterprise change. We pulled those conversations together into a short guide - The Modern CIO: Leading Transformation in an Age of Intelligence The guide focuses on three core themes: 🔸 How the CIO mandate has fundamentally evolved and the expectations that now come with it. 🔸The CIO archetypes organisations are prioritising today. 🔸What boards, CEOs, and HR leaders should be expecting from the role as we move into 2026. 👉Read now: https://lnkd.in/g-5FUtMb Riviera Partners

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Technology doesn’t drive value. People do. We often talk about the ROI of technology, but the real value doesn’t come from the system itself - it comes from how it’s used, how it fits into the bigger picture and how it helps people work smarter. You can invest in the most advanced platform in the world, but if it isn’t connected to business goals, or if teams aren’t supported to adapt to new ways of working, it won’t make much impact. True transformation isn’t about implementing more tools - it’s about helping people use technology in a way that moves the business forward. #Leadership #DigitalTransformation #BusinessStrategy #Execution #People

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The Boardroom Question No One Asks (But Should) In every board meeting, 90% of the questions focus backwards on quarterly performance... but the most powerful boards ask a different question entirely… The “unasked question” that great boards use to future-proof strategy (e.g., “What will make our current business model irrelevant in the next 3 years — "Blockbustered" and how can we disrupt ourselves first?” it could be #AI or #digitaltransformation... leaders who have seen disruption before, anticipate it, plan for it... and #capitalize on it... it's their #leadership secret weapon. If you sit on a board — what’s the question you believe should be mandatory in every meeting? The right questions aren’t just conversation starters — they’re company savers. #ExecutiveInsight #StrategicLeadership #GrowthStrategy

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“Practice AI with purpose, not hype.” Marriott International’s AI strategy is simple: amplify the human touch, do not replace it. In conversation with Lindsey Wilkinson at CIO Dive, I shared that we are reimagining every layer of our tech stack and exploring Agentic AI with a clear foundation: Guided by Principles, Powered by Trust. Our AI governance and policies ensure innovation stays responsible, ethical, and lawful. AI is a force multiplier, but it only matters when it deepens trust and delivers value for the people at the heart of hospitality: our guests, our associates, and our owners & franchisees.    Hospitality is, and always will be, about people. https://lnkd.in/ej6XB_-2

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Speaking at #GraylogGO 2025: Sept 16–17 (virtual) Talk: Less Pain, More Gain: Smarter Data, Stronger Defenses with Graylog Security teams don’t need more logs. We need more detection. In this session I’ll show how we use Graylog, Inc. to: - Turn high-volume telemetry into actionable signals with Pipelines, Lookup Tables, and Correlation. - Cut hot-tier noise without blinding ourselves (route, don’t drop). - Track fraud operators and standardize the approach across multiple sectors. - Measure what matters. If your goal is fewer false positives, faster triage, and lower ingest costs with evidence, you’ll get working flows, dashboards styles, and a 10-day rollout plan you can test. #GraylogGO #Graylog #SIEM #DetectionEngineering #SOC #Fraud #HigherEd #Cybersecurity #LogManagement

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Imagine your neighborhood watch suddenly calls it quits—midnight creeps in, and no one’s on the lookout. That’s where we stand today with the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA 2015), set to expire on September 30 unless Congress renews it. This law provides the liability protections and legal scaffolding that allow the private sector to share cyber threat intel with the government in real time. Without it, cooperation slows, lawyers hesitate, and attackers gain ground. https://lnkd.in/erPFCzQZ The cracks are already visible. The Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC), one of CISA’s most important programs, dropped from over 100 contractors to roughly 10 when contracts lapsed this summer. That’s a 90% capacity loss in the very muscle designed to coordinate public-private defense. https://lnkd.in/e3brDdkH The CyberSentry program—CISA’s deep-visibility sensor network for critical infrastructure—has also gone dark in places. Its partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Lab expired in July, leaving power plants and hospitals without the same level of monitoring or analysis. https://lnkd.in/ew2DVg-6 And this erosion is happening at the exact moment the threat landscape is accelerating. Adversaries now weaponize generative AI to spin up realistic phishing sites in less than a minute using tools like Vercel’s v0. The barrier to entry for highly convincing social engineering has never been lower. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eXcujmCc The takeaway is simple: cybersecurity laws and funding structures can’t lag years behind the reality of threats. Whether you’re in government, the private sector, or somewhere in between, you depend on these partnerships to close visibility gaps and accelerate response. Letting CISA 2015 lapse without a plan is like parking the firetruck and hoping the neighborhood doesn’t burn. Congress has a choice—react after the next incident, or act now to reinforce what works. The clock is ticking.

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Most boards approve cybersecurity budgets to prevent hypothetical breaches, then wonder why they cannot measure returns on preventing things that did not happen. I have spent over two decades watching this pattern waste board time and capital. Security investments justified through abstract risk reduction get minimum budgets and maximum skepticism. Boards approve because they have to, not because they see value. At Waste Management, I led an initiative that strengthened security posture while creating long-term cost efficiencies. I am continuing that work at Brinks Home. Modernizing systems eliminated downtime, costing revenue. Reduced maintenance expenses consuming IT budgets. Enabled capabilities improving operations. Real dollars, real results. True integration with the core business. Boards could finally evaluate investment using financial metrics instead of risk arguments that they could not verify. This changed how they thought about security. Not a cost center requiring approval, but a strategic capability creating enterprise value. Security leaders translate technical complexity into business strategy that boards can act on. We align investments with measurable outcomes boards already track. We reframe security from "insurance expense" to strategic capability. Forward-thinking boards stack the deck with people who have walked the walk. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gcC65peH

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ChicagoCIO members focused on the advantages of the decentralized IT business model, highlighted by an insightful overview from Mike Parisi, ITW, this week. Decentralized enables this $15B Chicagoland manufacturer, bringing innovative products to us for over 100 years, along with 20K + new patents. We look forward to full Insider overview in July! Key benefits of the model include: - Speed: Accelerates decision-making and drives action. - Empowerment: Provides employees with greater ownership and adaptability. - Scalability: Facilitates growth and expansion. - Reliability: Reduces single points of failure. A compare/contrast format sparked engaging questions and insightful answers from attendees. Special thanks to key contributors for their insights and additions: Ivan Skerl, Bosch, Allison Radecki, Morgan Street Holdings, Eyal Altman from Littelfuse, and Chad Steighner, Clarios. 🙏🏻 Jim Hart at Burwood Group, Molly Gallmeier, M.B.A. Gallmeier from Baker Tilly US, Faith Fiore, TEKsystems, Nick Shafer, Lumen Technologies, and Jeffrey Stephenson, Slalom. #Decentralized #CIO

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Remember when we thought a strong perimeter firewall was enough? Those days are gone, especially after watching major hotel chains get hit with ransomware attacks that cost millions and damaged guest trust for years. Zero-trust isn't just another buzzword - it's become survival strategy for hotels operating in today's threat landscape. Here's the thing: your property management system, point-of-sale terminals, and guest WiFi create a complex attack surface that traditional security can't handle anymore. Start with identity verification everywhere. Every device, every user, every connection needs continuous verification. That housekeeper's tablet accessing room status? Verify it. The front desk system pulling guest folios? Verify it again. Sound paranoid? Maybe, but it beats explaining to guests why their credit card data is on the dark web. Implement multi-factor authentication for all staff, use certificate-based authentication for devices, and segment your networks like your property's survival depends on it - because it does. Next, embrace micro-segmentation. Your casino floor systems should never talk directly to your spa booking platform. Create isolated zones for different operations and control traffic between them with strict policies. When ransomware hits one segment, it stays contained instead of spreading through your entire infrastructure like wildfire. Finally, monitor everything and assume breach. Deploy endpoint detection across all systems, from the executive offices to the loading dock scanners. Log everything, analyze patterns, and investigate anomalies immediately. The average ransomware attack dwells in hotel systems for 21 days before executing - that's three weeks to catch it if you're watching. The harsh reality? Implementing zero-trust while maintaining the seamless guest experience we're known for is tough. But explaining a ransomware attack to your loyalty members is tougher. Start small, protect your crown jewels first, then expand. Your future self will thank you when you're not writing that dreaded breach notification letter. What's your biggest challenge in securing your property's technology stack? #HotelCybersecurity #ZeroTrustSecurity #RansomwarePrevention #HospitalityTechnology #CyberResilience

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𝗪𝗲𝗯 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗹𝘆. #ValicekBlue For years, we’ve designed websites for devices: first desktops, then mobile phones. Everything evolved around the screen. But what if the real shift isn’t in the device, it’s in the mind? Today, users no longer land on a page out of curiosity.  • They arrive from conversations with AI.  • They don’t start with a blank search bar.  • They carry context, synthesis, and flow. Jumping from an AI dialogue to a website isn’t just a click.  • It’s a cognitive leap.  • From fluid co-thinking to static layout.  • From entangled rhythm to interface grid. This dissonance breaks user momentum. What we need now are not better interfaces, but interspaces. Pages that don’t just respond to device type, but to where the user is coming from mentally. That means:  • Memory, not menus  • Continuity, not instruction  • Context-first, not content-first  • Surfaces that adapt to a user mid-thought, not at square one We are no longer designing for a user alone.  • We are designing for a human–AI pair.  • A user who is accompanied, informed, already moving. The future of the web is not about more speed or better visuals.  • It’s about rhythm, thought, and transition.  • Web design must now follow the flow of cognition itself. We are not 𝗺𝗼𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗲-𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁. We are not even 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿-𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁. We are 𝗰𝗼-𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁-𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁. 👉 Read the full article on Substack: https://lnkd.in/dfJbHqKx #WebDesign #CognitiveDesign #ProductDesign #HumanAIInteraction #DesignThinking #InterfaceDesign

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You are a Chief Information Officer, who periodically reports to the Audit Committee on Cybersecurity, Compliance and Risk. However, this time around, they want an update on Digital Transformation, which spans multiple programs, functions and budgets and happens to be the other hat you wear. Where do you start? How do you put your update together coherently so that your Audit Committee is well informed to ask relevant questions and has comfort that the Digital Transformation Initiative is on the right track? Here’s a simple 5 step Framework that will allow you to structure your update in a cogent fashion: https://lnkd.in/g-kHeVfE

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