Prioritize Based Efforts on Business Case

Focusing on consistent growth means allocating investment wisely using a solid business case process
Matt
Ross
April 29th, 2026
Pursuing consistent growth means investing in those opportunities most likely to produce it. Companies that don't collect or evaluate business cases can't do that. Those seeking to stand up a business case process encounter a small set of common avoidable pitfalls. Once they have a business case process that separates low risk from high risk efforts, they can evolve to a process that separates high risk innovative efforts from high risk bad ideas.
Editorial cartoon of process stopping good ideas

Too Much Resistance to Non-Disruptive Innovation

Companies with rigid or stagnant compliance policies won't tolerate or manage the disruption innovation naturally causes
Matt
Ross
April 29th, 2026
Companies aren't ready to seek nonlinear growth or respond to disruption in their markets if they have a rigid approach to their existing policies. Companies that use existing internal policies as an excuse not to change stifle innovation and ironically expose themselves to more (not less) compliance risk. Good internal policy requires constant review and tailoring and is a prerequisite for managing the disruption that innovation will require.

AI Can be Misused in DevOps Standardization

AI Isn't the Right Answer for Everything
Matt
Ross
April 22nd, 2026
AI helps us address novel problems in new ways. But it tempts us to use it for everything--even things it's not good at. AI is nondeterministic--it gives different answers at different times even when we keep our inputs the same. If we want standardization, as we do in DevOps pipelines, there's a way AI can get that wrong.

Intro: We’re Not Set Up for the Innovative Business Case

Matt
Ross
March 4th, 2026
Companies grow incrementally when they demand expenditure be justified through business cases, which predict near-term cash inflows resulting from the expenditure with high certainty. When they do, companies eliminate expenditures unsure of their future cash results, which typically include: 1) bad ideas and 2) critical new ways of doing things with hard-to-predict return timelines. To achieve breakout growth, companies need a business case process that allows innovative ideas while still deprioritizing the bad ideas. Most don't.
Balkanization of Resources Cartoon

Innovation Hypothesis Intro: Balkanization of Resources

Matt
Ross
June 2nd, 2025

Companies grow nonlinearly and respond to disruption primarily through innovative efforts.  Innovative efforts require diverse resources--primarily talent and various types of funding.  An innovative effort lacking any one required resource will fail.  When companies divide management of those required resources among various managers, any one manager can stop any particular innovative effort.  And if all innovative efforts receive all but one necessary resource, even if each effort fails to obtain something different, no innovation will take place.

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