The Business Case for IoT

by | May 22, 2015

Businessman-top-view

What’s the business case for IoT? Maybe there isn’t one.

I don’t mean companies shouldn’t invest in it; I mean trying to make the business case may be futile.

Not that long ago, I was getting phone calls from colleagues who wanted advice on how they could help their companies make the business case for mobile. Many forward thinking people saw how critical it was, but couldn’t make enough of a case that the revenue increase or expense savings would outweigh the investment cost. Their executives were leery. Oops!

We all know the stories. I don’t choose my bank anymore because of the relationship with the banker at the nearby branch (sorry Mike, I do think it’s nice you call me every couple months). I choose Chase because of how I can interact with them via text, their app, and their website. And, I’m sure they save money in the way they interact with me, but technology is the reason they have me as a customer. It is make or break.

IoT is just the next wave and the stakes are even higher. We’ve learned from internet and mobile investments that we don’t know what we don’t know. We also know that the speed of technology change is only increasing. Many companies are now paying attention, which makes technology an even bigger weapon (or threat).

At this point, my Apple watch is a fun little toy, but it isn’t hard to imagine that in a year or two, it (or something similar) will be so important that I’ll be making buying decisions based on it. Maybe I will choose my doctor based on who can integrate with my health data. Maybe as a business owner I will only want to work with an insurance company that tracks the data (health, wellness, safety) of my employees.

I interviewed an executive yesterday as part of a technology innovation process design. When I asked which technology areas were most likely to drive his company’s strategy he said, “I don’t know – and that’s exactly why we need this process.” Awesome answer. Because of that approach, his company is more likely to be around in five to ten years.

So, you can put together a business case to justify moving forward on IoT initiatives at your company, but the numbers will never look convincing enough to the sticklers and the curmudgeons, as is the nature with most innovation. And by the time you get through the business case process you’ll only be that much further behind.

 

READ MORE

The Magic of Mortals

The Magic of Mortals

Daily we wake up to new developments in automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML). Across sectors and industries, automated solutions prove highly successful in surpassing the capacity of the human brain for certain tasks, improving...

read more
Leveling Up: How to Hone Your Skills at Home

Leveling Up: How to Hone Your Skills at Home

Leaders have been trying to crack the code on talent development for years. Recent studies have shown, however, that strength-focused leadership [read: intentionally elevating the qualities that already come naturally to us] is the clear winner for developing talent...

read more
Fake Case Study: Jack of all trades vs. Master of One

Fake Case Study: Jack of all trades vs. Master of One

  Listen to any earnings call or executive presentation and you will likely hear the terms “top line” and “bottom line.” These are words used to describe a business’s performance. According to Investopedia, the words are defined as follows: Top line refers to the...

read more
Your Personality Is Showing

Your Personality Is Showing

There I was, minding my own business one evening, digging into my organization's SEO performance (as one does), when I came across something interesting. Search terms related to "MBTI" — or the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, developed by Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel...

read more
Lessons From a Change Manager Who Hates Change

Lessons From a Change Manager Who Hates Change

Hello. My name is Monique, and I’m a change manager who hates change.   After years of receiving “consulting therapy” from various mentors, I am now able to say these words out loud and proudly. But for a long time, it felt more like an admission of guilt. I mean, who...

read more
Creativity as a Cure

Creativity as a Cure

The topic of creative solutioning has been front and center these days as we talk more and more about organizational adaptability in the face of dynamic and uncertain times. For example, I recently read about a project that got me thinking about specific priorities...

read more
Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company — Why Now?

Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company — Why Now?

Big news over here as we close out the year - we have been acquired by Pariveda, a 750-person consulting firm in 12 markets across North America! We are now “Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company” and I’ll be serving as the Managing Vice President continuing to lead...

read more
Thought Ensemble Joins Pariveda Solutions!

Thought Ensemble Joins Pariveda Solutions!

Dallas, December 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pariveda, a leader specializing in solving complex technology and business problems, announces the acquisition of Thought Ensemble. With the addition of Thought Ensemble, Pariveda now provides holistic business strategy,...

read more
Thoughts on Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act

Thoughts on Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act

It was about a year ago that we first started hearing about Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (SB19-085) and I knew it was going to be national news. We’d just gotten past the “Rocky Mountain High” jokes, and our lovely state was trying to break new ground...

read more