Daniel Blanchard says he was a “typical tech geek” at the beginning of his career at Boeing, where he was manager of systems administration. There he worked on programs for the Army, Navy, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
These days he’s chief technology officer at IHG Hotels & Resorts, where he leads the vision and strategy for an organization with more than 6,000 hotels globally. They include InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, and Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants. As CTO, he ensures that technology runs well with service-level agreements and tracking other metrics. Prior to IHG, he spent more than 25 years in IT business management, strategy, transformation, architecture governance, and program management.
“As you would expect, there are similarities and differences between running technology for an airline and a hospitality company,” Blanchard says. “On one hand, both organizations leverage solutions for reservation systems, loyalty systems, operational systems, and so on. And both organizations’ technology strategies focus on providing systems and support for travelers and for colleagues to help them keep the business up and running.”
In an email interview, Blanchard talks about his career as a tech leader and his strategies on everything from cloud migration to maintaining agility and a growth mindset.
From Transportation to Hospitality
Blanchard has worked in multiple industries, from airlines to manufacturing to government and hospitality.
Before IHG, Blanchard worked at Delta Air Lines as vice president for IT infrastructure and reliability. He led IT reliability transformation across Delta worldwide. Before that, he worked for more than 20 years at Marriott International.
“At Delta, I always took very seriously the role I played in helping people travel for big life events like an interview for a new job, a business opportunity, a relative’s graduation, or a long-saved trip of a lifetime,” Blanchard says. “The trust people put in us to get them where they needed to be inspired me to do my best to provide high reliability and consistent IT services to get them there.”
Throughout his career, Blanchard has taken an interest in planning and control systems, from defense contracting to mission-critical IT management in airlines and now the relationship management and strategic deployment of the advanced technology in hospitality.
“All are great industries and challenges filled with opportunities to learn and be a better leader,” Blanchard says. “I really would not change my experience working in a variety of industries for anything.”
Overseeing the Tech of Multiple Hotel Chains
Blanchard supports more than 100 applications globally throughout IHG. He started at the company in February 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold of the world. He oversaw the tech strategy for the company’s hotel chains during the health crisis.
Recently Blanchard oversaw IHG’s cloud migration, moving the organization’s entire environment to the cloud. He was mindful to complete the work at a pace that keeps guests and owners happy. Now he’s worked on rolling out IHG’s Guest Reservation System and Revenue Management System to the organization’s hotels globally.
Dan Blanchard
“I can’t tell you how proud it makes me when a potential owner actually wants to migrate to our technology because they can see the value to their business,” Blanchard says. “That is a great feeling.”
These days, Blanchard is busy overseeing control metrics that keep IHG running smoothly. Some of the metrics are industry standard, and others he and his team have developed over the years.
“While these metrics are critical, the most important thing I’ve found is to have a single person responsible for each of them — whether they are control metrics (where a more junior member of the staff may be accountable) or results metrics (where one of my direct reports will lead),” Blanchard explains. “Sometimes there are inputs and dependencies that are out of an individual team member’s control. But in a dynamic and fast-paced environment like the hospitality industry, a clear and single accountability model is critical to developing leaders who understand how to navigate these difficult situations while still achieving the overall objective.”
At IHG, Blanchard has instituted an “asset-light model,” in which his team doesn’t control day-to-day operations, policies, or procedures of the franchised hotels. However, they still work closely together to deliver a “consistent brand experience for guests.”
Blanchard cites four key areas that are integral to his role: working with the chief information security officer to keep systems reliable and secure, communicating a viewpoint throughout the organization on architecture and innovation, building a technical environment to deliver products rapidly throughout the company, and focusing on organizational and business management.
In hospitality, Blanchard sees the role of IT in helping hotel staff address customers’ preferences. IHG recently signed a deal with Genesys, which offers an AI-powered, cloud-based experience orchestration platform, to boost the guest experience. IHG’s largest-ever customer experience center transformation consisted of migrating thousands of guest services agents as well as thousands of toll-free numbers across eight global sites.
“Some guests want a touch-free transaction where they can pass the desk and go straight to their room without talking to anyone,” Blanchard says. “Others want a high-touch approach where their every need is taken care of by staff that has the information and systems available to deliver superior customer service.”
Agility and a Solid Digital Experience
Key skills and challenges as an IT leader include maintaining a high level of agility and effective communication.
“The bigger challenge is to maintain a high level of agility — and not just in the sense of adopting an agile development methodology but rather being light on your feet and nimble to provide solutions to evolving business needs,” Blanchard says.
For Blanchard, he bases his IT decisions on how hotel owners can drive revenue and provide a solid digital experience for guests. In addition, he plans to build on his deployment of cloud-based property management systems and improve the organization’s One Rewards loyalty program, for which the organization uses data and analytics to understand ever-changing guest needs.
“There is real potential to capitalize on our enhanced focus on data and analytics, and to better understand and leverage changing guest behaviors to improve guest experiences,” Blanchard says.
The Next Generation of IT Leaders
Blanchard advises that future IT leaders maintain a “growth mindset” and focus on having fun in their roles as they provide value to the organization.
He cites the late Colin Powell, former secretary of state, who said, “Optimism is a force multiplier.” He explains, “This applies to you, and it applies to the people you surround yourself with. You will simply be more effective if you embrace this.”
He stresses that understanding the perspective of colleagues is key.
“The perspective you bring, and your expertise, is important, but people, particularly new leaders, tend to focus on their own perspectives too much,” Blanchard says. “Spend time trying to understand the motivations and needs of the people around you. You will likely discover that they see very valid challenges and perspectives you might not see from your vantage point. Once you are both on the same page, you can start working together to solve problems for them and for you.”
For leaders, business goals are more important than technology, according to Blanchard.
“My advice: Don’t get too enamored with the shiny, new tech and forget the mission,” he advises. “I certainly learned that lesson along the way, but I still remain a proud tech geek at heart.”