 |
|
|
|||||
Enterprises are on track to pour $307 billion into AI in 2025more than $35 million dollars every hour. Yet most of that cash will never see daylight: an S&P Global survey found that 42 percent of companies scrapped most of their AI projects this year. The problem isnt funding or ambition; it is a failure to see that the moonshots need to be balanced by sure things, the stretch goals by easy wins. AI’s true transformative power emerges not from any single initiative but when leaders orchestrate a portfolio of projects that runs the gamut from the revolutionary to the routine. The organizations that will thrive in this new era are those that pursue both the audacious bets that can redefine their industry and the mundane victories that provide the resources to fund the journey. These modern alchemists understand that transformation requires both vision and groundwork, both aspiration and application. And they know that going all in on a single idea offers an almost guaranteed path to failure. The Innovation Portfolio Just as financial portfolios balance risk and return across diverse investments, organizations approaching AI need to develop what we call an “innovation portfolio”a carefully curated collection of AI initiatives that offer multiple paths to transformation while effectively managing risk. This portfolio approach responds to a fundamental truth about innovation: long-term success requires a pipeline of projects that vary in their size, scope, risk, and transformative power. The portfolio and financial management approach allows organizations to maintain a comprehensive view of potential AI projects and to systematically manage their development. Think of it as the difference between a chess grandmaster who sees the entire board versus a novice fixated on individual pieces. The portfolio approach enables leaders to understand how different AI initiatives interact, where synergies might emerge, and how risks in one area might be balanced by stability in another. Crucially, it also lets leaders orchestrate a combination of big and small bets, long- and short-term plans, that fit the businesss needs and resources. Some projects will deliver value immediately while others represent longer-term bets on emerging capabilities that might fundamentally reshape entire industries. By maintaining a portfolio that encompasses both time horizons and risk profiles, organizations create the conditions for sustainable innovation rather than sporadic breakthroughs. The CEO as Chief AI Orchestrator The transformative power of AI is so great that it demands a fundamental change in the role of the CEO. In this new landscape, AI strategy cannot be delegated to the CTO alone. The CEO must become the chief orchestrator of the AI portfolio, balancing competing priorities while maintaining strategic coherence. While a foundational AI tech literacy is essential for making informed decisions, this doesn’t mean that CEOs need to understand the technical minutiae at a highly granular level. Instead, they must excel in three critical areas: Vision Setting: The CEO must articulate how AI aligns with organizational purpose. When employees grasp AI’s significance beyond its ability to deliver financial gains, adoption accelerates and resistance diminishes. Resource Allocation: Making tough decisions about which AI initiatives receive funding and attention is vital. This demands the courage and authority to discontinue promising projects that don’t align with strategic priorities. Cultural Transformation: Most critically, CEOs must embody the shift in mindset that AI requiresembracing uncertainty, celebrating intelligent failures, and demonstrating continuous learning. When the CEO publicly shares their AI learning journey, including their mistakes, it empowers organizational experimentation. The Macro-Micro Balance A successful AI portfolio should operate on two levels simultaneously. At the macro level, you’re asking profound questions: How might artificial general intelligence reshape entire industries? What happens when AI agents take over most knowledge work? How should a company be reconfigured to make the most of a hybrid human-AI workforce. These aren’t philosophical musingsthey’re strategic imperatives that guide long-term positioning. But here’s where organizations often stumble: they become so intoxicated by grand visions that they neglect the micro-level victories that are necessary to fuel the journey. At the same time as planning for whole-of-organization transformation, you also need to ask what your company can do this quarter. Can you use an algorithm to optimize delivery routes? Is there a commercially available chatbot you can use to process customer inquiries? The mundane funds the miraculous. Strategic Priority Mapping Not all AI initiatives deserve equal resources. Comprehensive frameworks for harnessing AI’s potential and managing its risks, such as the OPEN and CARE frameworks, provide systematic tools for evaluating capacities and needs. For instance, the OPEN frameworks FIRST assessment provides a tool for rapid viability screening Feasibility: Can current technology deliver your vision? Don’t confuse science fiction with strategic planning. Investment: What’s the true costnot just dollars, but organizational attention and cultural capital? Risk/Reward: Map the potential downside as well as the upside. Remember, though, that the biggest risk might be doing nothing. Strategic Priority: How closely does this idea align with our core purpose? An AI initiative that is at odds with your organizations identity and goals is doomed regardless of its technical merit. Time Frame: Can you sustain investment long enough to see returns? Many AI projects fail not because they were wrong, but because they are too early. The Continuous Evolution Model Static strategies die in dynamic environments. Your AI portfolio needs built-in adaptation mechanisms: Regular Rebalancing: Quarterly reviews of project mix. Are you maintaining appropriate risk levels? Have new capabilities opened fresh opportunities? Learning Loops: Every experiment feeds strategic understanding. Failed projects often teach more than successful ones. Cultural Evolution: Organizations must embrace perpetual beta. Yesterday’s mindset won’t create tomorrow’s success. From Theory to Practice A financial services firm might simultaneously pursue: A moonshot project using AI to predict market movements with unprecedented accuracy A medium-risk initiative automating compliance reporting Several low-risk projects improvig customer service chatbots Each initiative serves distinct portfolio purposes. The moonshot could transform the business model entirely. Compliance automation delivers clear ROI within 18 months. Chatbot improvements show immediate returns while building AI capabilities. The CEOs role is to ensure that each initiative receives appropriate resources while maintaining portfolio balancenot picking favorites, but orchestrating the symphony. The Transcendence Factor Ultimately, successful AI portfolios recognize a profound truth: AI isn’t just about efficiency or cost reductionit’s about transcending current limitations entirely. But transcendence requires groundwork. Like alchemists purifying base materials before transformation, your AI journey begins with the mundanecleaning data, upskilling teams, running small experiments. These pedestrian activities build toward something greater: a point at which AI doesn’t just improve existing business operations but enables entirely new possibilities that were previously unimaginable. Who will win? The organizations that will thrive in the age of AI won’t be those that bet everything on a single strategy. The winners will be those who build diversified portfolios that balance transformational ambitions with incremental improvements, macro visions with micro victories, human wisdom with machine capabilities. For CEOs, this balancing act isn’t optional. Leaders who treat AI as just another type of new technology have already lost. Those who recognize its power to fundamentally transform both companies and markets are the ones who will write the next chapter in business history.
Category:
E-Commerce
The sun is out and your weekends are packed with plans to head to the nearest beach or pool. Now, you have to figure out how you’ll carry the piles of things you need for a day out, which might include towels, hats, drinks, a change of clothes, sunscreen, books, snacks, toys for the kids, and more. While you could throw all of these items into a cotton tote bag and call it a day, a well-designed beach bag can go a long way to improving beach time. For one thing, it needs to be easily washable, since you’re going to be in sand. Ideally, you want to have compartments to separate wet items (like a bathing suit) from dry ones (like your print copy of Fast Company). And if you’re planning to bring food or drinks, you want these items to stay cool. We’ve tested some of the best beach bags on the market today and identified five that are thoughtfully designed to improve your day out. [Photo: Yeti] Great For Picnics Yeti Backpack Cooler, $275 A day out in the summer usually involves a picnic of some kind. And if you want to keep your beverages and salads cold, this backpack cooler is a fantastic option. To give you a sense of its capacity, it can fit up to 20 cans. As with other Yeti products, food stays very cold inside, especially if you include an ice pack. The material is waterproof and repellant, which means anything you pack inside will stay dry even if water is splashed on it. I found it useful to bring a couple of pouches and wet bags to keep books and phones dry within this backpack. [Photo: State] Beach, But Make It Fashion State Wellington Cabana Tote, $165 So you want to be styling at the beach, but you don’t want to compromise on functionality? Do I have the bag for you. State has created a jelly tote, made of the same thick plastic you might find in jelly sandals. It’s enormous, with thick straps that won’t break, and comes in a very chic tortoise shell print (as well as other sophisticated colors, like caramel and latte). The material is very easy to clean, which is useful when you want to get the sand out. But it also comes with two nylon pouches inside: I use one to keep my phone and popsicle money out of sight, and the other to store wet swimsuits. [Photo: Bogg] Perfect For Large Hauls Bogg Bag, $100 (plus more to trick it out with accessories) There’s a reason the Bogg bag has become a phenomenon over the last few years. The original sized bag is ideal for the beach: It is made from strong, durable plastic, which is easy to clean, and can fit up to six large towels. Its large base means that it stands upright even in sand, making it easy to find items. But the bag has gotten even better thanks to a growing array of accessories that neatly clip onto the holes on the bag. There are holders for beverages and phones, keeping these items easy to reach. There are toppers that function like a little table, allowing you to keep drinks and snacks elevated while you’re in the sand. There are also dividers, to keep the cavernous space inside the bag organized. [Photo: Away] You Love Pockets Away Beach Tote, $125 I you’re an organization freak, the luggage maker Away has made the perfect beach bag for you. It has created a mesh bag with six exterior pockets for you to stash your keys, sunglasses, sunscreen, and novels. Everything is visible, so you can easily locate it. Inside, there is a large zip pocket that can keep your wallet and other items out of view. There’s a dedicated water bottle holder insider. And on the exterior, there’s a clever loop for you to store your towel. (Or yoga mat.) The bag is made of a durable, sturdy plastic that is easy to wash. And the mesh makes it easy to shake off sand. All in all, a very practical bag. [Photo: Leatherology] An Eco-Friendly Option Leatherology Canvas Beach Tote, $105 If you’re interested in a sustainable beach bag, consider Leatherology’s. It is made of organic cotton canvas that has been certified by both Global Organic Textile Standard and Organic Cotton Standard to ensure it has minimal impact on the environment. The trim is made from Italian leather that has been certified by the Leather Working Group. All of these materials are biodegradable, but it is designed to be very durable, so you will carry it for a long time. The bag is full of useful pockets, including three mesh pockets and three cotton pockets. There are also two large exterior pockets for stashing your phone and books for easy access. And since it is made from canvas, rather than plastic, it is slightly more versatile. It works well as a roomy everyday bag, even when it isn’t the summer. Leatherology also offers customization options, so you can add your monogram to the bag to make it more special.
Category:
E-Commerce
While Northern California is famous for its wines, it is also full of olive groves, many of which have been owned by the same family for generations. Since 2018, Aishwarya Iyer has devoted her life to persuading the world to appreciate American olive oil through her brand, Brightland. Her trick? Putting it in gorgeous glass bottles with art-adorned labels. “The bottles were a Trojan horse,” Iyer says. “They’re what pulls you into the brand, but what’s inside is magnificent. It was the tactic we used to convert Americans to using better-quality olive oil.” The strategy worked wellpossibly too well. The 375-milliliter bottles, which sell for $37, went viral on Instagram. People took pictures of them on their kitchen counters. They brought them out for their dinner parties. The bottles suddenly became the go-to hostess gift, and one of Oprah’s favorite things. Iyer was thrilled: Today, one Brightland bottle is purchased every minute. And in 2022, the company landed $6.83 million in venture funding to continue growing. But in some ways the beautiful bottles were also limiting. People saw them as precious objects, meant to be rationed for special occasions. And yet Iyers bigger goal is to get Americans to use California olive oil for all their cooking needsand in doing so, to support American farmers. To broaden Brightland’s appeal, Iyer has just launched a new line of products called the Everyday Set featuring an oil for cooking and an oil for dressing salads. They come in a different format: a plastic squeeze bottle. The products are slightly less expensive than those in the glass bottles ($65 for 750 milliliters), although this is still four or five times the price of many other bottles of olive oil on store shelves. But these new Brightland products will soon be sold at Whole Foods stores across the country, allowing the brand to better compete in the olive oil wars. [Photo: Brightland] We love squeezing our olive oil Over the past three years, the squeeze bottle has become the vessel for olive oil. This is partly thanks to Graza, an olive oil brand founded by Andrew Benin in 2022 that has raised $2.8 million in VC capital, which stood out for selling its products in forest-green squeeze bottles. The squeeze bottle format allows you to better control how much oil comes out of the bottle and to squirt it more precisely into frying pans or salads. This is why chefs and home cooks have decanted olive oil into squeeze bottles for decades. (Many brands, including OXO, sell squeeze bottles for this purpose.) It has also been widely used in adjacent food categories, like hot sauce. Graza’s innovation was selling its oil in these bottles wrapped in fun, modern branding. But Graza couldn’t copyright the bottles, since they were already commonly used. And it’s become clear that consumers love the format, as many other brands have started selling their oil in squeeze bottles, including California Olive Ranch, O Olive Oil, DeLallo, and Pompeian. Brightland is among them. In 2023, it launched a pizza oil in a squeeze bottle that was a hit. The company sold out of its first 10,000 units within hours of launching. (Graza’s founder wrote an angry LinkedIn post about how Brightland had created a copycat product, but quickly apologized; Brightland did not comment on the incident.) From this pizza oil launch, Iyer realized that different bottles work in different contexts. “In this case, the squeeze bottle was a little more casual and playful, which is what you want on pizza night,” she says. [Photo: Brightland] The New Olive Oil Aisle For Iyer, it’s been interesting to observe how the format of the bottle has shaped people’s perception of the oil inside. With the glass bottle, people saw Brightland as a luxury or art object. But Iyer wants consumers to reach for high-quality California olive oil whenever they’re cooking or making a salad. “I live in California, and I feel really passionately about supporting these farmers who are just a couple of hours north of us, and who have had these farms for several generations,” she says. “If we don’t cultivate demand for their oil, it won’t exist much longer.” Iyer also points out that California has the highest quality standards when it comes to olive oil. As has been well-reported, many olive oils in the grocery store are adulterated with cheaper ingredients, like palm or canola oils. Some olive oil that is purportedly made in Italy actually comes from other countries, like Morocco and Tunisia. But the California Department of Food and Agriculture has high standards, and products made here are regularly tested to ensure they are pure. Iyer wasn’t sure she would be able to get the prices any lower, since domestic olives oils are higher in quality and the cost of labor here is higher than it is overseas. But she found a farm that was able to manufacture at scale for Brightland, which helped bring down the price a little bit. At $65 for the pair of bottles, this olive oil is much more expensive than the average American is used to spending. Graza’s oil bundle, for instance, which comes from Spain, costs $37. Iyer believes there are some consumers who will recognize the value in Brightland’s offering. The brand is trying to tell a story about how much frsher this oil is, and how it contributes to the livelihoods of American farmers. And ultimately, she believes that what is likely to convince them is the taste. That’s why she works with farmers to create a very specific flavor profile, much like winemakers do with wines. “It all comes down to flavor,” she says. “We’re blending varietals to be the right deliciousness right out of the bottle.”
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||