Nancy Goebel, President of the Digital Workplace Group, hosted me for a conversation about why digital transformations fail, and more importantly, what to do about it.

Listen to the full podcast HERE. They also include a full transcript.

In this conversation we explore how to be successful with generative AI, how to avoid the traps of vague missions, and

Digital transformation is an interesting term as a category of technology. But it’s a really hard operating model to attach to. Amazon’s thinking has always been start with the customer, what they’re trying to get done their problem and work backwards into. What do we think our unique perspective is in helping to solve that customer need or that customer problem? I always have the same approach in any circumstance, which is start with the problem, start with the end in mind, work backwards, and then apply a combination of approaches, whether it’s simplifying, or incentives, or communication or the technology, in order to accomplish an integrated outcome. And so our mission was never to be a disruptive company. Our mission was never to compete against anybody. Our mission was always to serve a customer. The impact turned out to be very disruptive in nature. But that wasn’t our mission. That wasn’t what drove us. What drove us was serving customers with approaches that delighted them. I think that’s really made all the difference. And when you consistently, deeply, not just care about your customer, but are curious about your customer, right, like, what’s the job they’re trying to get done and be willing to look upstream and downstream into what they’re trying to accomplish, the struggles they have, what happens on a good day, what happens on a bad way, and how could we help them with that?  — John Rossman