A strategy has to be more than buzzword-deep.
In 2017, a publicly traded beverage company called the Long Island Iced Tea Corp. announced that it was renaming itself Long Blockchain Corp. They gave no justification for the pivot.
But based on the name change alone to replace “iced tea” with “blockchain”, their stock price surged 380%. Temporarily, that is – their stock was later delisted.
That’s an extreme (and silly) example of a company of claiming to be “buzzword-first,” using the hype of a new technology without connecting the dots to how that technology might uniquely further the company’s strategy.
I’ve been thinking about Long Island Blockchain in the flurry of announcements from companies claiming to be “AI-First.” Some are only as deep as the press release.
That’s not to say that a “something”-first approach isn’t valuable. It can give clarity on what to focus on, and, perhaps more importantly, what not to.
When I worked with HotelTonight in the early to mid 2010s, a “mobile-first” lens helped unlock a novel strategy for last-minute travel. Travelers could book a hotel room in “3 taps and a swipe” on their app, hotel options were curated, and deals were same-day only.
Being mobile-first helped enable that strategy. But it wasn’t a replacement for the strategy itself.
When every company can claim to be “buzzword-first,” you can only go so far on the buzzword alone.
Adam Brotman of Forum 3 (previously chief digital officer of Starbucks) had this to say about being AI-first:
“At some point it just becomes table stakes to be AI-first. It’s possible that there’s not going to be a need for these kinds of memos by this time next year…you’ll almost be feeling a little silly if you’re saying you’re AI-first.”
Here are few related cartoons I’ve drawn over the years:
