Category: Strategy

Directional signpost with multiple arrows pointing different ways, representing the challenge mid-market companies face in choosing the right AI strategy
Artificial Intelligence, Digital Transformation, Execution, Management, Strategy

AI Is Everywhere. Mid-Market Impact Is Not. You May Be Following the Wrong Playbook.

Most mid-market companies are doing AI. Pilots are running, vendors are engaged, and budgets have been committed. But when you step back and look at the business as a whole, the impact is not there. The problem is not the technology. It is the playbook. This post explains why the enterprise AI playbook does not work at mid-market scale, what a different approach looks like across three critical zones, and where to start.

Aerial view of a complex highway interchange representing the challenge of AI project prioritization and building a structured AI portfolio
Artificial Intelligence, Executive Overviews, Innovation Management, Management, Strategy

AI Project Prioritization: Building an AI Portfolio That Delivers

Building an AI portfolio that delivers enterprise impact requires a prioritization methodology that is significantly more rigorous than most organizations expect. This article explains what effective AI project prioritization actually requires, how to move from a ranked list to a deliberately constructed portfolio, and what separates organizations that treat prioritization as a discipline from those that treat it as a meeting.

Aerial view of a highway interchange representing the complexity of AI project prioritization and portfolio management across an enterprise.
Artificial Intelligence, Digital Transformation, Executive Overviews, Innovation Management, Management, Strategy

Your AI Projects Are Competing Against Each Other. You Just Can’t See It.

AI is everywhere. Enterprise impact isn’t. The gap between the two is not a technology problem but a structural one. Most organizations manage AI as a collection of one-off projects, missing the synergies, wasting resources, and blocking their own highest-value initiatives. This post makes the case for AI project prioritization and portfolio thinking as the operating discipline that changes that.

Geometric architectural panels with interlocking faceted structure illustrating the interconnected layers of an AI operating model
Artificial Intelligence, Digital Transformation, Execution, Innovation Management, Management, Strategy

How the Right AI Model Translates Into Decisions, Strategy, and Results.

Knowing where your organization stands across nine layers of AI capability is the beginning, not the end. Part 2 of our enterprise AI framework series moves from diagnosis to action: how the SoT AI Operating Model drives build-buy-partner decisions, use case prioritization, market research, and AI strategy, and the questions every operational and technology leader should be asking right now.

Structured grid of repeating architectural panels illustrating the layered, systematic design of an enterprise AI framework
Artificial Intelligence, Digital Transformation, Strategy

The Secret to AI Success Isn’t the Right Tools. It’s the Right Model.

Eighty-eight percent of organizations use AI. Only 31 percent have scaled it enterprise-wide. The gap is not the technology. It is the structure surrounding it. The SoT AI Enterprise Reference Model is a nine-layer enterprise AI framework that maps every capability an organization needs to build and sustain AI at scale, from infrastructure through strategy, technical and organizational dimensions treated as one inseparable system.

Business leader overlooking a vast landscape at sunrise, representing strategic AI perspective
Artificial Intelligence, Digital Transformation, Executive Overviews, Innovation Management, Management, Strategy

Are Your AI Investments Building a Competitive Advantage or Just Cutting Costs?

AI tools are not an AI strategy. Most mid-market companies are investing in AI that makes their existing operations faster or cheaper. While it is real value, it is rarely the kind that changes a competitive position.

This post discusses how the companies that are pulling ahead are thinking about it differently.

AI infrastructure investments are moving faster than most organizations can manage. Platforms are fragmenting. Vendors are pivoting. Regulatory requirements are tightening. For mid-market companies, a wrong bet is not just expensive. It is a setback there is no easy budget to recover from. This post introduces a practical framework for future-proofing your AI infrastructure: a continuous lifecycle management strategy that helps CEOs, COOs, and CAIOs protect their investments, maximize flexibility, and manage change deliberately. Includes a self-assessment diagnostic and five action steps you can apply before your next AI investment decision.
Artificial Intelligence, Best Practices, Executive Overviews, Innovation Management, Management, Strategy

Future-proofing your AI Infrastructure

AI infrastructure investments are moving faster than most organizations can manage. Platforms are fragmenting. Vendors are pivoting. Regulatory requirements are tightening. For mid-market companies, a wrong bet is not just expensive. It is a setback there is no easy budget to recover from.

This post introduces a practical framework for future-proofing your AI infrastructure: a continuous lifecycle management strategy that helps CEOs, COOs, and CAIOs protect their investments, maximize flexibility, and manage change deliberately. Includes a self-assessment diagnostic and five action steps you can apply before your next AI investment decision.

IoT build, buy, partner
Artificial Intelligence, Best Practices, Execution, Product Management, Strategy

The AI Build–Buy–Partner Decision: A Strategic Framework for Executives

AI enables organizations to transform their operations, enhance responsiveness, resilience and facilitate customer experience. While the decision to adopt AI is straightforward, organizations are faced with a “build, buy, partner” decision – build it themselves, buy and integrate technology, or partner with another organization to co-develop it together.

This article discusses some of the key management considerations involved in making a decision.

Artificial Intelligence, Digital Transformation, Strategy

Your AI initiatives may be dead on arrival

Eighty percent of AI projects fail. One of the reasons is the lack of data to train the AI model. Many enterprises underestimate getting the right data from the right places they need to support AI-enabled systems and operations. Without this foundation, AI initiatives stall, underdeliver, or fail to scale.

This blog explores why data and connectivity are critical to enterprise AI success and outlines practical steps leaders should consider.

Generative AI for IoT risks
Artificial Intelligence, Executive Overviews, Internet of Things, IoT, Strategy, Technology Review

The Generative AI opportunity for IoT (Internet of Things) Part Two

Generative AI for IoT provides significant value and transformational benefits for adopting businesses. However, generative AI is still an emerging and evolving technology, and its adoption brings a variety of challenges and risks to businesses considering its use.

This article provides business leaders with an overview and understanding of some of the key generative AI for IoT risks and possible mitigation approaches.

Artificial Intelligence, Best Practices, Executive Overviews, Internet of Things, IoT, Strategy, Technology Review

The Generative AI opportunity for IoT (Internet of Things) Part One

The use of generative AI for IoT is poised to revolutionize business operations, automation, and decision-making. By combining structured and unstructured data, generative AI for IoT brings new capabilities and intelligence to enhance processing and analysis of operational data.

This article provides business leaders with an understanding of what generative AI for IoT is, and five opportunities that it provides businesses who adopt it.

Artificial Intelligence, Best Practices, Executive Overviews, Strategy, Technology Review

The key to successful AI projects: Start with the right problem

Four out of five AI projects fail. One of the top causes of these failures is related to the problems AI is asked to solve. If you fail to specify the problem correctly from the start, you’re setting yourself up for failure before the first algorithm is even written.

This article provides business leaders with best practices and practical guidance on finding and selecting the right problems that lead to successful AI projects.

smart buildings in the age of covid-19
COVID-19, Digital Transformation, Economic Impact, Internet of Things, IoT, Safe Spaces, Smart Buildings, Smart City, Smart Communities, Strategy

How COVID-19 clarified the necessity and value of smart buildings

Smart buildings transform the spaces in which we work, live, shop, and relax. They implement innovations that change what we do, how we do it, and where we do it. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted how we used indoor spaces, and despite our progress in combatting the disease, scientists believe it will persist. What then becomes the role of smart buildings?
This blog updates the definition of today’s smart buildings and describes its evolved roles.

Safe Space office picture
Best Practices, COVID-19, IoT, New Normal, Safe Spaces, Smart Buildings, Smart City, Smart Communities, Strategy, Urban Planning

Creating COVID-19 Safe Spaces for Reopening and Return to Work (Part Two)

COVID-19 Safe Spaces are key to reopening buildings and facilities for in-person activities. Technology is a critical component of the COVID-19 safe space. There is no one technology that makes a space safe. A variety of technologies, working in tandem, is used in safe spaces.

This blog, Part 2 in a series, discusses the role of technology and IoT in the operation of a safe space. Key considerations, from the use case, operations and maintenance, and technology are presented.

Best Practices, COVID-19, New Normal, Safe Spaces, Smart Buildings, Smart City, Smart Communities, Strategy, Urban Planning

Creating COVID-19 Safe Spaces for Reopening and Return to Work (Part One)

The discovery and regulatory approval of two COVID-19 vaccines in late 2020 has made reopening and return to work initiatives top priority for business and community leaders in 2021. Despite the vaccine, COVID-19 isn’t going away and many people are concerned about a return to in-person activities.

This blog introduces the concept of safe spaces to support reopening and return to work. A framework describing the elements of a safe space is discussed, along with ten best practices for planning safe spaces.

covid-19 safe spaces facilitate reopening and return to work
Best Practices, COVID-19, Innovation Management, Product Management, product-market fit, Smart City, Smart Communities, Strategy

Responding to COVID-19 – a framework for smart cities

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted cities and communities worldwide. As the number of infections and deaths surge, governments are turning to technology and innovative approaches for help. However, current efforts to engage the innovation communities are reactive, piecemeal, and have limited effectiveness.

This blog describes a Smart Cities COVID-19 Collaboration framework. It provides a structured way to identify the collaboration opportunities between cities, public health systems and the technology community.

smart buildings in a smart city
Digital Transformation, Industrial IoT, Internet of Things, Smart Buildings, Smart City, Smart Communities, Strategy

Smart Buildings – What’s In It for Cities? (Part Two)

Smart buildings bring new and significant value to tenants, building owners and operators. These benefits range from increased tenant productivity and safety, lower operating costs, and higher satisfaction. But what value do smart buildings bring to cities?

This article, the second of two parts, describes a framework used to identify areas of value creation by smart buildings for the benefit of cities. A sample set of benefits, and a format for presenting these in a consumable format well suited for city leaders, is presented.

smart buildings - credit to Beau Swierstra
Digital Transformation, Industrial IoT, Internet of Things, Smart Buildings, Smart City, Smart Communities, Strategy

Smart Buildings – What’s In It for Cities? (Part One)

Smart buildings bring new and significant value to tenants, building owners and operators. These benefits range from increased tenant productivity and safety, lower operating costs, and higher satisfaction. But what value do smart buildings bring to cities?

In order to understand how cities (and smart cities) benefit from smart buildings, Part One (of two) of this article provides a background understanding of the things that cities care about (outcomes), and how these outcomes are viewed the four civic priorities and perspectives.

Business Models, Digital Transformation, Innovation Management, Internet of Things, Smart City, Smart Communities, Strategy

Building the Smart Region: an opportunity for electric utility companies

While smart cities represent a major business opportunity for utility companies, they are better suited to co-lead the building of the “smart region”. Utility companies have the regional focus, infrastructure, resources, operational and execution capabilities to support the largest metropolitan areas to the smaller cities and regions.

This article discusses some entry level smart region opportunities for utility companies, as well as some of the key gaps they must address.

smart city trust
Industrial IoT, Innovation Management, Internet of Things, Smart City, Smart Communities, Strategy

Smart City Trust – think beyond cybersecurity and privacy

While a smart city is powered by technology and data, it is enabled and sustained by trust. Many people equate trust with privacy and cybersecurity. However, these are only two elements of many that create trust in a smart city. Trust must be embedded into the processes, policies and technology that create the city services. It must be integrated into its creators, users and beneficiaries from the very beginning.

This article introduces a holistic framework for building trust in a smart city for smart city planners and architects to consider.

Smart City Ecosystem Framework
Digital Transformation, Internet of Things, Smart City, Smart Communities, Strategy

Planning Sustainable Smart Cities with the Smart City Ecosystem Framework

The smart city is a complex ecosystem of people, processes, policies, technology and other enablers working together to deliver a set of outcomes.

Despite this, many planners today are not taking an ecosystem approach to smart city projects. This article introduces the smart city ecosystem framework, a more holistic and multi-dimensional approach, to building more sustainable, scalable and relevant smart cities.

IoT build, buy, partner
Execution, Industrial IoT, Internet of Things, Product Management, Strategy

Build, buy, partner? Strategic options for creating smart solutions

IoT enables vendors to create an entirely new line of “smart” solutions for its existing and new markets. While the decision to go “smart” is straightforward, the decision of how to go “smart” is less obvious. Vendors are faced with a “build, buy, partner” decision – build it themselves, buy and integrate technology, or partner with another organization and go to market together.

This article discusses some of the key management considerations involved in making a decision.

5 IoT Lessons Learned from dot-com mistakes
Best Practices, Execution, Internet of Things, Strategy

Five “dot com” mistakes that IoT companies must avoid

We are in a modern day gold rush, sparked by the Internet of Things (IoT). Thousands of companies, new and established, are planning “smart” solutions.

Amid all this, what IoT lessons learned from the past can today’s IoT companies apply to avoid mistakes of previous “gold rushes”? Are we smarter now, or are we making the same mistakes? The answer is yes and yes. This articles identifies five major mistakes made by dot-companies and five Iearnings for today’s IoT companies.

IoT innovation is not in the solution, but in how it is used
Best Practices, Digital Transformation, Innovation Management, Internet of Things, Strategy

IoT innovation is not in the technology, but in what it can do

Don’t confuse IoT with innovation. The real IoT innovation is not in the technology, but in what it can do and what it allows organizations to become – intelligent, agile and adaptive, in creating new value for its customers.

This article describes five innovation paths with IoT solutions to consider when planning digital transformation projects, along with advice to get started on turning the Internet of Things into the Innovation of Things.

management considerations for IoT subscription models
Best Practices, Business Models, go-to-market, Internet of Things, sales, Strategy

Six Management Considerations for Planning IoT Subscription Models

One common monetization approach for today’s IoT solutions is the subscription model. While it provides an attractive recurring revenue stream, subscription models require major investments in resources, time, capital and management commitment.

In this blog, we’ll highlight six key strategic and critical considerations managers must address when planning and building IoT subscription models. These considerations will determine whether the IoT subscription service is successful or not.

8 things to stop doing if you want to sell more IoT
Best Practices, go-to-market, Internet of Things, IoT, Product Management, sales, Strategy

Selling IoT? Eight Things To Stop Doing If You Want To Sell More

Despite the disruptive and transformative potential of IoT, selling IoT solutions is today’s emerging marketplace is challenging. Buyers face many barriers, ranging from a lack of awareness to fears of early obsolescence.

In this blog, we’ll share the eight things IoT solutions vendors must stop doing right away. Instead, we’ll share eight alternative best practices and strategies that they should be doing instead to drive market adoption.

Best Practices, Innovation Management, IoT, Product Management, Strategy

Future-proofing your IoT Infrastructure

Buyers face a dilemma with buying IoT solutions today. Buy an immature solution now and risk obsolescence in the near future, even if the solution has value for them today, or hold off buying until things become clearer.

In this blog, we will share common causes of obsolescence and a framework for futureproofing your IoT infrastructure. We will list some tactical practices to put in place to maximize the useful life of your IoT solution.

Best Practices, Digital Transformation, Execution, Innovation Management, Internet of Things, project management, Strategy

Ten best practices for making your first IoT projects a success

A recent study by Cisco found that three quarters of IoT projects were not successful. The reasons included long completion times, poor data quality, lack of internal expertise, integration and budget overruns.

In this blog, we will share ten best practices, from project planning to implementation, to help managers and project planners overcome common mistakes made with projects implementing emerging technology solutions.

Best Practices, Execution, go-to-market, Innovation Management, Internet of Things, Partnerships, Product Management, sales, Strategy

The secrets to successful partnerships in the fast changing IoT market – Part 2

Today’s IoT market is very dynamic, continuously evolving, and fragmented. No single vendor has a connected IoT stack. Partnerships are a critical business capability that IoT vendors must develop in order to be relevant in this type of marketplace.

This post, the second of two parts, describes ten best practices that vendors should use when forming and managing partnerships with other IoT partners.

Best Practices, Execution, FAQs, go-to-market, Innovation Management, Internet of Things, Partnerships, Product Management, sales, Strategy

The secrets to successful partnerships in the fast changing IoT market – Part 1

Today’s IoT market is very dynamic, continuously evolving, and fragmented. No single vendor has a connected IoT stack. Partnerships are a critical business capability that IoT vendors must develop in order to be relevant in this type of marketplace. This post, the first of two parts, describes the basic partnership types, the relationship models and key engagement scope parameters.

execution options for IoT projects
Execution, Innovation Management, Internet of Things, Product Management, Strategy

Planning IoT Pilot Projects: Execution Options

You’re sold on the Internet of Things (IoT) and its benefits for your organization. But how do you get in the IoT “game”? Where do you start?

While there is a lot of information on the technology behind IoT, case studies, and visions of what it can do, there is not a lot of practical content on what you need to get started today.

This post discusses five options that managers have for executing pilot IoT projects.

IoT as a service
Best Practices, Business Models, Execution, go-to-market, Internet of Things, sales, Strategy

Selling IoT as a Service – 7 Best Practices

IoT or Internet of Things solutions, built on a cloud-based infrastructure, create opportunities for new business models and value delivery methods. While many IoT solutions are usually sold as a “product”, many vendors are now beginning to offer IoT “as-a-service”.

Selling a recurring revenue solution is not the same as selling an “one time” sale product. This post presents seven best practices for selling IoT as a service.

iot buyers
Best Practices, FAQs, go-to-market, Internet of Things, sales, Strategy

Selling IoT – Who Is Your Real Buyer?

You found product-market fit and built your Internet of Things (IoT) solution. But do you know who your buyer is?

IoT solutions create value that cut across organizational boundaries. Identifying a single buyer or owner in today’s traditionally structured organizations is difficult. Unlike IT where there is a centralized buyer, IoT buying is decentralized.

This post describes the reasons for this, and provides six best practices for selling IoT solutions into corporate organizations.

Buying IoT from startups
Best Practices, Internet of Things, Strategy

Buy smart: best practices for sourcing IoT solutions from start-ups

A lot of the innovation around Internet of Things (IoT) is coming from start-up companies. But how do you buy a solution when the technology is still evolving, the use cases are emerging, and the company selling it may not be in business a year from now? Your “tried and true” sourcing practices that you use with your more established suppliers will actually increase the risks for both you and the start-up company that you are buying from.

This post describes the three main risks and highlights ten new strategies for buying IoT solutions for start-up companies.

Digital Transformation, Internet of Things, IoT, Strategy

Five things managers should do first in an emerging IoT market

There is no lack of IoT platforms, business models, and innovative products in the market today. However, today’s products are still immature point solutions. From technology standards, to business models, IoT will evolve over the next few years.

Given the immature state of IoT, what should transformation, business and IT managers do today?

This article discusses five things that managers should do now as they plan and deploy IoT strategies and projects.

5 types of innovation
FAQs, Innovation Management, Strategy

Innovation is not just about technology – the five types of innovation all managers must know

Recently, I met with key executives from an industry trade group to discuss disruptive innovation in Silicon Valley.

One key concept I shared with them is that although many people equate innovation with technology, there are actually five types of innovation and that some or all may occur at the same time.

This post describes the five types of innovation, and provides managers with three takeaways to guide their innovation strategy.