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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.

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.


AI is transforming governance: Six key Boardroom priorities

London | Published in AI and Board | 10 minute read |    
The image shows a futuristic boardroom with diverse professionals engaged in discussion around a central table, surrounded by holographic AI displays showing analytics and decision metrics, set against a bright cityscape and greenery, symbolizing collaboration, innovation, and ethical AI governance. (Image generated by ChatGPT 4o)

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing the velocity of business decision-making and how organisations operate, compete, and create value. With AI, boards are moving from overseeing hundreds of decisions made per day to millions made per second - and they must be confident that each of those decisions is transparent, explainable, and correct.


The enterprise data advantage: Turning information assets into strategic value

New York | Published in AI , Board and Data | 15 minute read |    
The image features a sophisticated office setting with futuristic holographic data displays and digital streams. In the background, there are subtle visuals of historical newspapers and documents, including folded stacks and old headlines, seamlessly integrated with the modern tech environment. The image uses vibrant blue and white tones for the tech elements and sepia accents for the newspaper visuals, symbolizing the convergence of past and present in digital transformation. (Image generated by ChatGPT 4o)

In 1998, I walked into the headquarters of our newly acquired newspaper group in Leeds, a result of a private equity-backed management buyout of United News & Media’s regional newspaper and magazine titles. Tasked with ‘doing the internet’, I found a small semblance of online activity in the form of a basic advertising website for the Yorkshire Post. A couple of weeks of getting my feet under my desk yielded a digital goldmine - 271 years of content waiting to be transformed into digital assets.


Introducing the AI Stages of Adoption: A framework for understanding AI readiness in your business

London | Published in AI , Board and Data | 15 minute read |     

Earlier this week, I got the opportunity to speak at our Amazon Web Services (AWS) office in London, to an audience of Private Equity firms and their portfolio company executives about driving value creation through AI and data. The presentation focused on how Private Equity firms and their portfolio companies can drive value creation through AI and data. I also took the opportunity to introduce a new concept called the AI Stages of Adoption (AISA), which is designed to help organisations assess their maturity and readiness for AI adoption.