Lane 03 · 18 essays

Direction at scale.

Portfolios, platforms and organizational change in large companies, AI included. Written for executives who have to move something big without stopping it.

Five different houses on one street, all fed by a single main pipe underground while a plumber works on a joint

Who this is for

CEOs, product and operating leaders, and boards at large companies, financial institutions and the public sector.

the metaphor
Five houses, one set of plumbing. Each acquisition keeps its front door. What changes is everything behind the walls.

Questions this lane answers

  1. Q1How do you make one platform out of many acquisitions?Read →
  2. Q2What should AI change about the organization, and what should it leave alone?Read →
  3. Q3Which number are we chasing that only stands in for value?Read →

Essays

In this lane

Narrow by industry or size
A man in a saffron exoskeleton lifting a tall stack of file boxes in an open-plan office
Enterprise StrategyAI should be a supersuit, not a severance packageA suit on a rack lifts nothing. Build AI around what each person is great at and what drains them, and the headcount math stops being the whole plan.6 min read
Five different houses on one street, all fed by a single main pipe underground while a plumber works on a joint
Enterprise StrategyOne platform out of five acquisitionsAt Wiser, several products were pulling the same prices from the same sites, separately. Turning that into one platform meant treating the data as the product, and letting the roadmap do the moving.6 min read
Stalled traffic on a city boulevard beside a saffron bike lane with one cyclist, a man with a clipboard watching from the sidewalk
Enterprise StrategyTraffic was a stand-in for valueCount cars and a traffic jam looks like a great day. Visits are heading where impressions went, and the human visits that remain are worth more.6 min read
A nurse adjusting a dial on a neonatal incubator in a hospital ward at night, a nursery of empty cribs through the window behind her
Enterprise StrategyAn innovation lab is not an incubatorLabs are good at making new things. Incubators are good at keeping new things alive until they can breathe on their own. Big companies tend to build the first and skip the second.6 min read
A row of office workers whispering down a long line of desks, the last man puzzling over a crumpled note
Enterprise StrategyThe game of telephoneStrategy said in the boardroom arrives at the team as something else, and nobody lied along the way. Pass the reason with the words, then go ask the far end of the line.4 min read
A pruner on a wooden ladder in a winter orchard, cut branches piled on the ground below
Enterprise StrategyPruning the orchardOld trees still bearing a little fruit take the sun from young ones. Before you plant again, get the full harvest from what's already growing, or cut it.5 min read
A family eating dinner under plastic sheeting among sawhorses and paint cans while a builder measures a stripped wall in the next room
Enterprise StrategyRenovating while you live in the houseTransformations stall when every room gets torn up at once. Stage change so people can still cook dinner, and move them into each finished room before you start the next.6 min read
A quiet gym with a pegboard of unused membership cards and one small group working out with a coach
Enterprise StrategyA gym membership isn't a workoutHanding out AI licenses changes almost nothing by itself. What got one design team further in three weeks than in the six months before.6 min read
A college quad crossed by worn dirt paths, a groundskeeper paving the most worn one
Enterprise StrategyYour company is about to have a thousand apps nobody ownsYou told everyone to build with AI. They will. How to govern a thousand homemade internal apps without banning them or waiting for the first leak.5 min read
Two neighbors cutting up a storm-felled oak across the street while a man on the curb holds a hand-drawn map and points down the block
Enterprise StrategyShipping under constraintDuring COVID, the obvious move was to build our own contact-tracing app. We didn't. On deciding what not to build, and why coaching teams beat building expertise.5 min read
A harbor weather station at dawn, storm flags on the signal mast, a brass barometer by the hut door and a slate board chalked with forecast marks
Enterprise StrategyPlan like a weather forecastNobody calls the forecaster a liar when the ten-day outlook changes. Plan in three horizons, say how sure you are about each, and update them on a schedule.5 min read
A cook working through one dish at a plain counter, a recipe card propped up beside him and a small bell hanging from the shelf above the stove
Enterprise StrategyG.I.V.E. on one real decisionFrameworks are easy to explain and hard to use. Here's one concept run all the way through G.I.V.E. (goal, insight, value, expectations), failure criteria included.6 min read
A switchboard operator moving one cord to a new jack on an old telephone switchboard
Enterprise StrategyLet them change how they payAt Meta, a business chose how it paid for ads on day one and couldn't change it without starting over. Fixing that had a ten-figure impact.4 min read
A desk stacked with ledgers and statements, a mobile phone lying on the open ledger and a long receipt curling to the floor
Enterprise StrategyOutsourcing is a loanOutsourcing gets you the capability now. You pay interest on it for as long as you don't own it. At PenFed, the interest was a mobile app that shipped about once every 14 months.5 min read
A restaurant with a busy lamplit kitchen and a blank sign above the door, its tables empty while passers-by walk on
Enterprise StrategyThe brand is the product's first screenPenFed's old name told most of the people it wanted to serve that it wasn't for them. A year as interim CMO: a new name, year-round campaigns, and analytics that turned marketing into an investment.5 min read
A desk covered in small folders tied up with string, one thick folder lying open in the lamplight
Enterprise StrategyTwo out of three should failA fund where every bet pays off is taking no risk. Declare how each AI pilot will succeed and how it will fail before it starts, then review them as a portfolio.5 min read
A carpenter on a ladder fitting a heavy timber beam through a half-demolished wall while a worker with a sledgehammer pauses to watch
Enterprise StrategyCut the layer, keep the decisionsAI can take over a lot of what management layers relay. It can't take the decisions they hold. Find those before you cut, or they land on someone by accident.5 min read
A cook finishing a plated dish at a butcher-block counter as a smiling guest steps in from the hall with his coat over one arm
Enterprise StrategySixty, twenty, twentySixty percent of any experience should be the pattern people already know. Twenty is yours. Twenty is the moment. Where to follow the pattern, and where to break it on purpose.5 min read

Moving something big without stopping it? I'd like to hear about it.

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