I wrote a three-part series for Boardman’s International Blog on what separates technology transformations that succeed from the ones that fail, drawn from 22 years leading, delivering and selling them. This first part is about the why: the role technology should play in your strategy before you commit to anything.
Most transformations fail before they start
The first point of failure isn’t execution. It’s never being clear, in plain qualified and quantified terms, about what actually counts as a game-changing technology for your business. Does it fundamentally change how your customers produce, deliver or sell? If a technology is merely interesting but doesn’t bring a real competitive advantage in the near term, it isn’t the one to bet on.
I’ve watched companies chase not one or two, but dozens of “game-changing” initiatives at once. When there are that many candidates on the list, competitors already know about most of them too, so there’s no real advantage left to capture.
Back to basics, not back to the future
The question that cuts through the noise is the oldest one in strategy: what’s your core business, and is it healthy? If it is, the only question that matters is which technology accelerates that core fastest and simplest. If it can’t move fast, drop it, however impressive it looks. If your core is dying, the same logic applies to finding the next one: find the fastest, simplest path, not the most complex.
My take: keep the strategic question simple, because execution is complex enough on its own. Transformation means change, and change means resistance. Plan for that complexity from day one instead of overengineering the strategy to compensate for it.