Try firing yourself on December 31st

Where does your organization already know it needs to change, but hasn't?

Sit with that for a second.

Every CRO in the room is responsible for creating value. But value has an enemy we don't talk about nearly enough. And that enemy is ignoring change. That's what I call the other ROI: the risk of ignoring change. We're living through one of the greatest periods of disruption in business history, and AI is accelerating that change in ways we're only beginning to understand.

I've spent my career leading transformation, both before AI and now in the age of it. And while the technology has changed dramatically, the biggest challenge has never really been about adopting the right tools. It's been about helping organizations realize what they can become next.

A mentor of mine put it well, years ago, and I've carried it with me ever since: brands don't get tired. Their rules do. Your customers don't care what's getting in the way inside your company. They simply experience the result.

So let's talk about those rules.

The same pattern, three different companies

I've had the privilege of helping reinvent three iconic companies across very different industries, different business models, different customers. But when I look back over 25 years, I don't see three different transformation stories. I see the same pattern repeating itself.

At Hasbro, where I was president of global brands, the invisible rule was: we're a toy company. The breakthrough wasn't the first blockbuster Transformers movie. It was realizing that we weren't a toy company at all. We were an IP company that happened to make toys. That single shift unlocked an entirely different future.

At Foot Locker, where I was chief customer officer, the rule was just as clear: double down on Nike. And that worked, until it didn't. The customer changed, new brands emerged, and the strategy that had created so much success became the very thing limiting growth.

Then there was Tupperware, where I was chief commercial officer. An iconic 80-year-old company built on the Tupperware party. For decades, direct selling wasn't just the business model; it was the identity of the business itself. But while the customer evolved, the rules didn't.

AI isn't revealing friction

Here's something worth sitting with. In most organizations today, AI has become the elephant in the room. But AI isn't actually creating organizational friction right now. It's revealing friction that was already there.

Slow processes? AI makes them obvious. Poor data? That's obvious too. Low trust? Obvious. A culture that doesn't reward experimentation? AI will surface that faster than any consultant ever could.

And all of that friction carries a real cost. Gallup estimates that employee disengagement costs the global economy nearly 10 trillion dollars a year. Gartner tells us that 73% of employees are experiencing change fatigue. That's a business problem, not just a people problem.

Our job as leaders is to remove the unnecessary friction, the kind that slows down our people and our customers, while still protecting what genuinely matters. There's a difference between governance and drag. We need to be clear-eyed about which is which.

Revenue is the last signal

Here's how the pattern usually plays out. Something changes. Your customer behaves differently. Signals begin to appear. But inside the company, the rules stay the same. Friction grows. Customers notice. And eventually, revenue follows.

As CROs and growth leaders, we often have a unique vantage point. We're among the first people in an organization to see the signals of change. We can see what's happening with customers, where the commercial model is starting to strain, where the assumptions are cracking.

That's a significant responsibility. You can see tomorrow's revenue risk before it shows up in the numbers. And that's really what the risk of ignoring change means in practice. Change happens regardless. The risk is in seeing the signals and being slow to respond.