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Tagged with: #value-creation

Posts tagged with #value-creation demonstrate how to realise the full potential of technology initiatives through comprehensive value management.

Why Boards Need to Watch the EU's General-Purpose AI Code of Practice

London | Published in AI and Board | 15 minute read |    
Abstract visualisation of regulatory divergence between EU and US AI approaches, showing two paths splitting from a central board decision point. (AI-generated)

The EU’s General-Purpose AI (GPAI) Code of Practice, effective August 2025, signals a new era of regulatory divergence. While the EU sets transparency and systemic risk guardrails, the U.S. accelerates through deregulation. For Boards, the challenge isn’t choosing sides but mastering dual-track governance — turning regulatory complexity into strategic advantage.


From Print to Web to AI: Creating Sustainable Value in the AI Era

London | Published in AI , Board and Data | 12 minute read |    
A futuristic data ecosystem visualisation: traditional newspaper archives transition into flowing digital streams that connect to modern AI interfaces and autonomous agent networks. Sustainable value exchange pathways illuminate the connections between data creators, AI platforms, and users, symbolising the evolution from print to web to AI-powered value creation.

AI answer engines like Claude, ChatGPT, and Perplexity are fundamentally reshaping how value flows through information ecosystems. Unlike the web era’s simple traffic exchange, these systems synthesise and enhance proprietary data, creating entirely new possibilities for value creation. Bloomberg and the Financial Times demonstrate how organisations can transform this shift into competitive advantage through innovative AI models and sustainable value exchange frameworks. This article explores how Boards can leverage these lessons to build ecosystems where data owners, AI platforms, and users all benefit from the extraordinary value being created.


AI’s Hidden ROI: Measuring Second and Third-Order Effects for Board Decisions

London | Published in AI and Board | 11 minute read |    
A photorealistic corporate boardroom at sunrise with a panoramic city skyline visible through floor-to-ceiling windows. A holographic display on the glass wall shows interconnected golden and blue nodes branching outward in a chain-reaction pattern, symbolising AI’s second and third-order effects. Warm sunlight blends with the cool glow of the digital network, reflecting on the polished conference table. (Image generated by ChatGPT 4o).

Traditional ROI calculations capture the obvious: cost savings, faster processes, fewer errors. Yet AI’s most powerful returns often emerge much later, as cascading second and third-order effects transform capabilities, business models, and competitive position. In this article I explore how Boards can identify and measure these hidden gains using leading, lagging, and predictive indicators, while ensuring governance frameworks balance opportunity with risk.


AI Centre of Excellence: Your First 90 Days With Well-Advised Value Focus

Washington DC | Published in AI and Board | 15 minute read |    
A dynamic command centre where AI CoE teams coordinate their first 90 days. Multiple screens display pilot portfolios, value metrics across Well-Advised dimensions, and capability progress indicators. Teams work at different stations whilst a central dashboard shows the journey from quick wins to strategic initiatives. (Image generated by ChatGPT 4o).

This sixth article in my AI Centre of Excellence (AI CoE) series transforms theory into practice with a comprehensive 90-day implementation roadmap. Moving from capability building to value delivery, it introduces the AI Initiative Rubric - a systematic pilot selection tool that ensures your first initiatives deliver Well-Advised value whilst strengthening Five Pillars capabilities. Complete with sprint portfolios, stakeholder engagement strategies, and common pitfall avoidance, this article provides the practical guidance needed to demonstrate tangible AI CoE value from day one.


Rethinking Business Cases in the Age of AI: Building Your AI Business Case

London | Published in AI and Board | 18 minute read |    
A professional team collaborates around a conference table reviewing an AI business case document. Digital displays show multi-dimensional value metrics, ROI projections across different time horizons, and strategic alignment graphics. The scene conveys analytical rigour combined with strategic vision in building a compelling AI investment case. (Image generated by ChatGPT 4o).

Organisations are demanding disciplined, comprehensive business cases for AI initiatives that balance traditional financial rigour with frameworks capturing AI’s unique value creation patterns. In this fourth article in my series on AI business cases, I provide a step-by-step guide to building AI business cases that secure approval and set the foundation for successful implementation.


Rethinking Business Cases in the Age of AI: Finding High-Value AI Opportunities

Llantwit Major | Published in AI and Board | 15 minute read |    
A diverse executive team in a modern boardroom reviews a large digital screen displaying a network map of interconnected business processes, with glowing nodes highlighting high-value AI opportunity areas. Surrounding dashboards present analytics on process complexity, strategic alignment, and implementation feasibility. Team members are engaged in discussion, each with laptops showing performance data. (Image generated by ChatGPT 4o).

Finding high-value AI opportunities requires looking beyond the obvious. While most organisations gravitate toward trendy applications like chatbots, the most impactful AI initiatives often lie in less visible but more strategically significant processes. By applying a structured evaluation approach that examines process characteristics, strategic alignment, and implementation feasibility, boards can identify AI investments that deliver transformative value across multiple business dimensions. This systematic method ensures scarce resources target opportunities with the greatest potential impact rather than those with merely the highest visibility or short-term appeal.


Rethinking Business Cases in the Age of AI: Creating the Foundation

Seattle | Published in AI and Board | 14 minute read |    
A business team collaborating around a modern table with holographic displays showing five interconnected building blocks that form a complete AI business case evaluation structure. (Image generated by ChatGPT 4o).

Building on my previous thoughts about why traditional business cases fail for AI investments, this article explores what I consider to be the essential building blocks for a more effective evaluation approach. This foundation provides boards with the tools to assess AI’s unique value creation patterns while maintaining financial discipline - helping leaders confidently navigate investment decisions that conventional models simply cannot adequately evaluate.


Rethinking Business Cases in the Age of AI: What Boards Need to Know

London | Published in AI and Board | 11 minute read |    
A group of business professionals in a futuristic Boardroom analyse AI investment data, with glowing holographic charts, ROI metrics, dollar signs, and an upward-trending arrow pointing toward a central “AI” node, symbolising growth and financial impact in the age of artificial intelligence. (Image generated by AI).

In today’s AI-driven landscape, traditional business case methods fall short when evaluating AI investments. Drawing from my experience developing AWS’s cloud business case tools, I explore why conventional ROI models struggle with AI’s parallel, multi-speed adoption patterns. Unlike cloud’s sequential journey, AI initiatives exist simultaneously across different maturity stages, creating valuation challenges that standard metrics can’t capture. Boards need new evaluation approaches that account for AI’s diverse cost structures, varying timelines for returns, and how investments in one area often enable value in entirely different parts of the business.


From Shadow AI to Strategic Asset: Building Your AI Centre of Excellence

London | Published in AI and Board | 16 minute read |    
The image shows a modern business setting where AI is seamlessly integrated into operations, enhancing productivity while being governed by ethical guidelines. Executives collaborate with a digital assistant, with subtle guardrails symbolizing responsible AI use in a professional and balanced environment. (Image generated by ChatGPT 4o)

In my previous articles about the AI Stages of Adoption and the Five Pillars of AI maturity and capability, I briefly touched on the role of the AI Centre of Excellence (AI CoE). Since publishing those pieces, I’ve spoken with numerous Boards and business leaders about AI adoption and the importance of board-level AI governance. A recurring question emerges in almost every conversation: “What are the practical steps to establishing an AI CoE in our business?”


Demystifying data monetisation: Insights for private equity portfolio companies

Spring, London | Published in AI , Board and Data | 3 minute read |    
Mario Thomas presenting to private equity portfolio company executives on data monetisation and driving exit value through digitisation.

Last night, I had the pleasure of returning to the Chief Wine Officer event series on behalf of AWS, this time addressing leaders from private equity portfolio companies on a topic close to my heart: turning organisational data into strategic value. The evening, hosted at Spring at Somerset House, brought together executives eager to explore how to accelerate value creation through data monetisation within PE timeframes.