Now

Fresh off the press, a new piece with Forbes Technology Council:
“The Risk Of Inaction: A New ROI For Tech Leaders.”

For years, ROI has been the guiding star: value gained for resources spent. But most leadership teams still don’t quantify the other side of the equation: the cost of standing still. In a market defined by rapid tech change and shifting expectations, inaction isn’t neutral. It silently compounds. Opportunities pass. Modernization backlogs grow. Operational friction becomes “normal.” Risk accumulates. By the time the business feels it in revenue, customer experience, or resilience, the catch-up effort is far more painful.
My core point is simple: in a world of constant disruption, the biggest risk is refusing to take any risk. If you’re building a strategy right now, what’s one area where you believe “doing nothing” is the most expensive option? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I’ll post the full long-form whitepaper in a few weeks, and as always, I self-publish to my Substack – https://craighamill.substack.com/

“The Risk Of Inaction: A New ROI For Tech Leaders.”
https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbestechcouncil/2026/02/20/the-risk-of-inaction-a-new-roi-for-tech-leaders/https://lnkd.in/gGZi-4sy

 

Lessons on innovation can come from unexpected places, even your neighborhood hair salon. I published my extended whitepaper on Substack titled “Getting a Good Business Haircut: Why a Refresh is Key to Innovation.”

You can read it here: https://lnkd.in/gBpQ4jP6.

I welcome thoughts and feedback.

January set the tone for the year with steady progress across thought leadership, product-building, and career momentum. I’ve stayed close to the work, shared what I’m learning, and kept my focus on the real-world challenges leaders face in innovation, technology strategy, and execution.

Thought leadership and writing

One of the month’s biggest highlights was publishing a new article in Forbes, “Getting A Good Business Haircut: Why A Refresh Is Key To Innovation.” It’s always energizing to put ideas into the market at that scale, especially on a topic I care deeply about: helping leaders turn technology into measurable outcomes, not just activity.

I also submitted another Forbes article, “The Risk of Inaction: The New ROI for Tech Leaders,” which continues the thread. I’m leaning into practical insights that help teams make clearer decisions, reduce risk, and move faster, while still building the foundations required for scale, resilience, and trust.

Long-form writing on Substack

I’m also expanding where I write. LinkedIn is great for quick insights and conversation, but some topics deserve more room: what actually works in transformation, how to build operating models that deliver, and how to lead through ambiguity without losing momentum. I’ll be publishing longer-form articles on Substack. This will be a place for deeper dives, frameworks, lessons learned, and real examples drawn from building and leading technology organizations.

Substack link: https://substack.com/@craighamill

Building a web app

January also included steady progress on a web app I’ve been developing. I’m keeping the details tight for now, but the mission is simple: remove friction from a common process by connecting people more effectively around a real pain point. After years of working on the program and project management side of web development, it’s been rewarding to apply that experience directly, end-to-end, across the full development lifecycle. 

Career momentum and interviews

On the career front, interviews have continued with strong momentum. I’m grateful for the quality of conversations and the alignment I’m seeing around roles where I can drive growth and performance through technology strategy, digital transformation, and teams that execute. It’s been a strong reminder that the market values leaders who can connect vision to delivery and consistently measure outcomes.

Media and conversation

I also recorded a podcast episode with Innovate, Disrupt or Die. It was a thoughtful conversation about innovation in practice, what disruption really looks like inside organizations, and how leaders move from idea to impact. Danny Nathan is a great host, and I genuinely enjoyed the discussion. I’m looking forward to sharing it once it goes live.

What’s next

February is already shaping up to be another strong month: more writing, more building, and more conversations with leaders who are serious about outcomes, not buzzwords. If you’re hiring for a senior technology or innovation leader, building something ambitious, or interested in collaborating on content, product, or advisory work, I’d love to connect. And if you want the deeper long-form pieces as they publish, follow along on Substack as well.

My first Forbes article.
‘Getting A Good Business Haircut: Why A Refresh Is Key To Innovation’

Lessons on innovation can come from unexpected places, even your neighborhood hair salon. A fresh haircut can give you renewed confidence and perspective, signaling the start of something new.

https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbestechcouncil/2025/12/26/getting-a-good-business-haircut-why-a-refresh-is-key-to-innovation/

We’re midway through December, and I wanted to share a quick update on my job search and professional momentum heading into 2026.

Thought leadership: I contributed a Forbes Technology Council expert panel insight on the cultural impacts of technology innovation. Two additional FTC articles are currently in editorial review, “Getting a Good Haircut: Why a Refresh Is Key to Innovation” and “The Risk of Inaction: The New ROI in Executive Leadership,” expected to be published soon.

Industry Engagement: I delivered a keynote at the Design & Simulation Summit on harnessing cloud HPC for safety science and joined two CampIT panels on Enterprise Architecture and AI. I’m also lined up for additional AI and cybersecurity discussions in early 2026 to keep expanding my network and visibility.

Podcasts & Media: I recorded two podcast interviews this quarter on emerging tech, AI in research, and leadership lessons (episodes pending release), and I’m scheduled to guest on the Innovate, Disrupt or Die podcast in the new year.

Continuing Education: I’ve been sharpening hands-on fluency in DevOps, Lean Six Sigma, AI, and cybersecurity through LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, edX, and MIT OpenCourseWare.

Selected impact highlights: In recent roles, I led multi-year IT strategy and operating model design across governance, portfolio management, budgeting, vendor management, and risk/compliance. I delivered $2.3M in cost avoidance and accelerated provisioning by 75% using infrastructure-as-code (Terraform/Azure). I also improved service performance by reducing incident resolution time from 48 hours to 8 hours through ITIL practices, and successfully led a 500+ employee IT separation with zero downtime while strengthening NIST/FedRAMP-aligned security posture.

What I’m targeting: I’m focused on senior technology and transformation roles where I can build strategy and operating models, modernize platforms and cybersecurity, and deliver measurable business outcomes. Ideal scopes include VP or Director-level leadership across research-intensive, healthcare, industrial/manufacturing, and innovation-driven organizations in the Chicago area or hybrid/remote.

Job search: Over the last 45 days, I’ve pursued several senior leadership opportunities and have seen encouraging traction, including multiple interviews.

How you can help: If you come across opportunities or leaders who are building modern cloud/data platforms, standing up security-by-design programs, scaling enterprise architecture, or transforming IT operating models, I’d be grateful for an introduction. The best referrals are to CIO/CTO/VP leaders, transformation executives, or hiring managers looking for a strategic, hands-on technology leader who can execute, communicate clearly, and build strong teams.

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Wishing you and your families a very Happy Holidays and a strong start to 2026. Thank you for your continued support.

Best,
Craig Hamill

I am working on a whitepaper discussing ‘The High Cost of Doing Nothing’. I was encouraged by Tom Kuczmarski to continue on this topic from my presentation capstone Fellowship with Northwestern University – Kellogg School of Management and Chicago Innovation. I wanted to share an abstract and get the thoughts of the community around this topic.

Abstract: Redefining ROI in an Era of Disruption

Return on Investment (ROI) has long been the guiding star for business decisions a calculation of value gained for resources spent. Today, however, executives face a new kind of ROI: the Risk of Inaction. In a business landscape defined by rapid technological change, market disruption, and evolving customer expectations, inaction carries a cost that can far outweigh the upfront expense of bold moves. Focusing only on the short-term returns of an investment while ignoring the long-term peril of standing still is a dangerous trap. As one analysis puts it, “the cost of doing nothing” can silently erode an organization’s value through missed opportunities, efficiency losses, and fading market relevance. In simple terms, failing to act is an action one that can undermine even the mightiest of companies. The premise of this whitepaper is clear: in a world of constant disruption, the biggest risk is refusing to take any risk. Leadership must urgently reframe how decisions are made, factoring in the high price of playing it safe. The chapters that follow explore why inaction has become the ultimate threat to enterprise longevity and how forward-looking leaders can respond with urgency, accountability, and strategic foresight.

via Linkedin – Craig Hamill Nov 5 2025

A few weeks ago, I sat down with Kenneth Wong and the Digital Engineering 24/7 team to share the scale to a cloud-based HPC to support safety science. The talk covers the decision framework, burst capacity for spiky workloads, and what changed for time-to-insight and cost control once we scaled. The full Design and Simulation Summit is now on-demand: https://www.digitalengineering247.com/summit25

Dawn at Grant Park starts quietly. You feel the air cool off the lake, hear the radios check in, and sense the focus settle in. Athletes scuttling like cattle to their respective corral, and the occasional lost tourist wondering where they need to be. As a bike marshal for the women’s wheelchair division, the work begins long before the starter’s horn. The role is part guardian and part guide: scan the asphalt for hazards, keep intersections clear, alert the eager onlookers, relay course conditions, and hold a steady line so the athletes can race theirs.

What never gets routine is witnessing the blend of strength, strategy, and composure these athletes bring. Wheelchair racing is not just power; it’s precision. Wind direction matters. When to surge matters. From behind the handlebars, you notice the micro-decisions that add up to a race: a glance to gauge the pack, a subtle shift to find clean pavement, a decisive move when the road opens, and when to push before a climb. The effort is visible and relentless, built one rotation at a time.

Perseverance is the thread that runs through everything on race day. It’s athletes who train through winters, spring rain, and summer heat. It’s volunteers who show up before sunrise and stay until the last finisher. It’s the neighborhoods that bring music, hand-made signs, the buzz of vuvuzelas, the clattering of bells, and voices that don’t quit. Perseverance looks like grace under pressure, the ability to focus on the next meter when the last one hurt, the choice to keep moving forward when no one would fault you for easing up. It’s rallying the crowd to give the athletes as much energy as possible.

There’s also a quiet choreography to the operation that appeals to the technologist in me. Radios calls, route planning, medical readiness, traffic timing, and on-the-fly adjustments all come together like a living system. It’s a masterclass in coordination and communication where every role matters. When it works, you feel it; the course flows, the city breathes, and the athletes get a fair, fast race.

The crowd noise builds as you approach the turn on Roosevelt after that long stretch on Michigan, up that cruel mountain before the finish pulls everyone forward. By the time we turned off before Columbus, you catch the final surge and the last reserves of strength. The privilege of riding alongside this level of determination changes what you think is possible on and off the course.

Thank you to the Chicago Marathon organizers, course marshal coordinators, fellow marshals, CPD and first responders, medical teams, and the thousands of volunteers who make a major city feel like a connected community. Most of all, thank you to the athletes for their trust and for reminding us that excellence is a habit, not a moment.

If you’ve considered volunteering, consider this your nudge. There’s a place for you on a bike, at an aid station, in gear check, or guiding runners, and you will leave with a deeper appreciation for accessibility in sport and the power of people working together.

Digital Engineering 24/7 will host its annual Design & Simulation Summit on Thursday, October 30, 2025. This virtual event convenes practitioners and technology leaders for a day of online sessions spanning design, simulation, additive manufacturing, engineering computing, and the digital thread, with timely coverage of AI’s growing role across these domains. I will be giving a talk on “Harnessing Cloud-Based HPC for Safety Science” offering practical takeaways for building and accelerating HPC workloads in Microsoft Azure with TotalCAE. IIf you are interested at the summit page here.

I had the pleasure to present at a recent Microsoft’s HPC Friday Funday, I shared how UL Research Institutes is using high-performance computing to accelerate safety science research. My keynote walked through UL Research Institutes journey of building secure, scalable HPC cloud environments that integrate modeling, simulation and digital twin technologies. I emphasized how these platforms shorten time-to-insight, enable advanced simulation and modeling, and connect researchers across institutes to tackle complex safety challenges. The talk closed with real examples of impact from empowering labs to collaborate more effectively, to demonstrating how digital transformation can modernize research and bring ideas from the lab into the real world faster.