Fractional CISO Takes Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Author: Rob Black

The Fractional CISO team escaped the chilly New England weather and snowstorm for a quick trip to Orlando for another Annual Business Review! It was our second time holding the event, and it made for a fantastic few days.

Resiliency

We talked a lot about my “theme” for Fractional CISO in the coming year: resiliency. Right now, there are too many processes at the company that:

Only exist inside our heads (they aren’t documented).
Only one person knows how to do them.

This is not sustainable for a growing business. We could be left scrambling if this knowledge is not documented and shared by the time employees leave us. A big part of next year will be identifying these practices, documenting them, and training each other.

Should the Product Team train Sales and Marketing?

Yes!

This was another big focus of the event. Everybody on our service delivery team (our vCISOs and cybersecurity analysts) gave presentations about various security and compliance topics. I think this served two great purposes.

It’s a good refresher for the cybersecurity team members who may not always get exposure to certain topics. (We like to have our team members develop some specializations so they can better serve clients with certain needs.)
It helps our sales and marketing teams to better understand the services we are providing, so they can better represent them to prospective clients.

I was very pleased with how the “business review” part of the event went, but it wasn’t my favorite part!

Fun and Games

We capped the trip off with a team visit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom! (See us in front of Expedition Everest above.)

Meghan, our Administrative Specialist, did a fantastic job organizing the day and getting us lightning lane passes for the most important rides. I think everyone had a great time at the park.

“But Rob,” I hear someone ask. “Why take your team to Orlando and Disney World when you could have the same meetings in Boston?”

All-day meetings are not fun. They require a lot of mental energy and focus, and tend to leave people exhausted. Being in a nice location with good weather helps keep people sharp and in a good mood, allowing us to make the event more effective.

I also think it’s good fun. Fun things are worth doing, even in business!

I’m sure this trip will help us have a great 2024!

Rob Black, CISSP

Rob founded Fractional CISO in 2017 and has helped dozens of companies improve their security posture as a vCISO. He consults, speaks, and writes on IoT and security. Rob has held product security and corporate security leadership positions at PTC ThingWorx, Axeda and RSA Security. He received his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and holds two Bachelor of Science degrees from Washington University in St. Louis in Computer Science and System Science and Engineering. He is also a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).