Episodes

70% of technology transformations fail. Not because of the technology, but because of the gap between a strategy set in the boardroom and the work that actually gets executed. In this episode, Donna P. Mitchell sits down with Noel Sobelman, Partner at Accel Management Group and author of Innovation Portfolio Management: Linking Strategy to Execution. For more than two decades, Noel has helped the world's largest enterprises, including Medtronic, BD, Siemens, Kimberly Clark, Honeywell, and Whirlp...

Most technology investments don’t fail because the technology is broken. They fail because leaders measure activity instead of outcomes — logins, usage, dashboards full of green — while the business itself never changes. In this episode, veteran operator Kurt Uhlir breaks down why that gap exists and how the best leaders close it. SUMMARY Donna P. Mitchell sits down with Kurt Uhlir — a CMO and operator behind an $880M IPO and 60+ funding rounds — to examine the difference between technology that...

It was never the technology. In this solo author read, host Donna P. Mitchell reads Chapter 1 of her book Pivoting to Technology Adoption: Mind the Gap — the case for why 70% of technology transformations fail, and what the 30% do differently. Deployment is an event. Adoption is a process. The distance between them is where organizations lose millions and billions of dollars every year. Drawing on 49 years across five industries — from the Bell System to US Airways to Johnson & Johnson — Donna n...

Technology is over-glorified in transformation. Change is not spoken enough. That's the message from Rohit C. Nambiar — former Group CEO of Tune Protect, now Co-Founder & COO of SabaiHealth — in this conversation about why most transformations fail before they even start. In this episode of Pivoting to Technology Adoption, Rohit C. Nambiar joins host Donna P. Mitchell to break down the simplicity trap — the pattern where leaders chase complexity, defer hard decisions, and lose sight of the peopl...

System first. Tools second. That is the framework Greg Grand brings to AI sales leadership — and the reason most sales transformations fail. In this episode of Pivoting to Technology Adoption, Greg Grand — founder of G Squared Advisors and creator of the AI Sales Leader certification suite — joins host Donna P. Mitchell to break down why most executives are getting AI sales transformation wrong from the start. With 30 years of enterprise sales leadership including building the Google and Apple a...

Most digital transformations fail at the people layer, not the technology layer. After 25+ years and 400+ clients, Dusty Gulleson, CEO of Tectonic, has seen the same pattern repeat: organizations start with the platform, force the processes and the people to follow, and watch the transformation collapse. In this episode of Pivoting to Technology Adoption, host Donna P. Mitchell sits down with Dusty Gulleson — CEO of Tectonic (formerly eResources), 25+ years of enterprise transformation leadershi...

Messaging is not the same thing as meaning. And until executives understand that, 70% of technology transformations will keep failing for the same reason. In this episode of Pivoting to Technology Adoption, host Donna P. Mitchell sits down with Will Leach — founder and CEO of Mindstate Group, behavioral science professor at SMU Cox School of Business, and bestselling author of Marketing to Mindstates — to expose what most CIOs, CTOs, and C-suite leaders miss when rolling out AI and enterprise ch...

The best system is not the most advanced one. It is the one your team will actually use. Host Donna P. Mitchell goes inside the MEST Africa AI Startup Program in Accra, Ghana — where 30 entrepreneurs from 7 West African nations are building AI companies with fewer resources than most US enterprises spend on a single pilot. Joined by Paul Crafer, Emily Fiagbedzi, Desmond Kwaku Coffie, and Chidinma Judith Akunwa this conversation challenges how executives think about adoption, talent, and where AI...

In 2025, I said the AI adoption crisis would not be a technology problem. It would be a people problem. In 2026, BCG, McKinsey, MIT, and Gartner confirmed it with their own data. In this solo episode of Pivoting to Technology Adoption, host Donna P. Mitchell walks through the three calls she made in 2025 — and the independent data that confirmed every one of them. Then she names the three patterns she is watching for the next 12 months. TOPICS COVERED: • Why the 70% transformation failure rate h...

Three financial services leaders. 77 combined years across fintech, insurance, and commercial banking. They have never met, never compared notes, and never coordinated a message. And they all arrived at the same conclusion: AI adoption in financial services fails when governance, people, and experience are treated as afterthoughts. In this compilation episode of Pivoting to Technology Adoption, host Donna P. Mitchell brings together the sharpest moments from three conversations that independentl...

Adoption gaps are not technology problems. They are leadership gaps and experience gaps in disguise. In this episode, Bryant Richardson, ICMI Top 25 CX Thought Leader two years running, explains why organizations keep failing at transformation — and why the answer is not more training. TOPICS COVERED: • Why adoption gaps are really leadership gaps and experience gaps in disguise • The CRAFT Agilities Framework™ — the leadership system behind CX transformation • What a real enterprise platform fa...

70% of technology transformations fail. In this panel episode, two Oracle leaders explain why the AI adoption gap is widening — and what enterprises must fix before the next investment cycle. TOPICS COVERED: The adoption gap: why the technology works but organizations still fail The gap between boardroom AI strategy and ground-level execution Why LLMs need business context — and how data integration provides it Healthcare AI challenges: state-level compliance and data silos Convergence architect...

Why do 70% of technology transformations fail? Six experts. Six gaps. Mind the Gap. In this special compilation episode, Donna P. Mitchell brings together six of the sharpest voices from Pivoting to Technology Adoption to answer the question every C-suite executive is asking — and most are getting wrong. TOPICS COVERED: Shadow AI is already inside your company — and your best people are using it AI cannot be your strategy — AI is part of your strategy The banking CEO who asked the wrong question...

Integration is not a back-end IT function — it is a business foundation. In this episode, Oracle's Pradyumna Kodgi explains why enterprises that skip integration strategy before adopting AI are setting themselves up for failure. WHAT'S COVERED: Why integration should be driven by business requirements, not technology How data silos are the biggest barrier to AI adoption Why healthcare has the most challenging integration landscape How agentic AI will transform healthcare operations Why you shoul...

Why do 70% of enterprise AI transformations fail? Because organizations chase tools instead of strategy. In this episode, Donna P. Mitchell speaks with Rupali Kumbhani — Global Strategic Transformation Executive who has led enterprise-wide change at Revantage (Blackstone) and University of Chicago Medicine — about why the biggest barrier to AI adoption isn't the technology. It's leadership mindset, data readiness, and organizational trust. TOPICS COVERED: AI cannot be your strategy — AI is part ...

How does a news photojournalist covering crime scenes become a med tech storyteller funding nonprofit impact? In this episode, Donna P. Mitchell speaks with Jason Ellinger, Co-Founder of Beard & Bowler Productions, about how covering an 11-year-old's funeral made him rethink his entire career — and how his company now uses the HERO Grant model to fund nonprofit storytelling through corporate revenue. TOPICS COVERED: The StoryBrand 7-part formula: why you're the guide, not the hero How the HERO G...

The FREE AI governance framework most organizations don't know exists

Chris Majer has generated $4 BILLION in documented results for clients like Microsoft, Intel, and AT&T. Here's what executives keep getting wrong.

AI reduced FinTech development from 125 hours to 25 hours. But it will never replace commercial lenders. In this episode, Donna P. Mitchell speaks with Walt Postlewait — 30-year commercial banking veteran, CDFI leader who deployed $600M+ to underserved communities, and co-founder of Portfolio Watch — about why AI will transform some lending but never replace the human judgment required for commercial credit decisions. TOPICS COVERED: Vibe coding: how AI cut development from 125 hours to 25 hours...

Why do so many enterprises fail at AI adoption? The technology works — but the governance doesn't. In this episode, Donna P. Mitchell speaks with Srinath Chandramohan — Senior Manager at Ernst & Young with 17+ years driving enterprise transformation — about why AI projects fail in regulated industries and what executives must understand about governance, human expertise, and ROI. TOPICS COVERED: Why governance is the key player in AI adoption How 30 years of expertise can't be replaced — but can...

Your AI is making decisions in your name right now. But can you prove why? In this episode, Donna P. Mitchell speaks with Allen Martinez — founder of Noble Digital and creator of the BXAI-OS framework — about why 84% of AI failures are leadership failures, not technical ones, and why the hidden liabilities in every ungoverned AI system are compounding daily. TOPICS COVERED: The Shadow Ledger: hidden liabilities accumulating in every ungoverned AI system The Three Gaps killing your AI strategy — ...

Did you know 70% of students who visit a university website never enroll? In this episode, Donna P. Mitchell speaks with Jason Sherman, Founder of Vengo AI and Campus Pixel, about how AI is transforming enterprise operations — from university admissions to Fortune 500 bottlenecks — and why proprietary AI infrastructure is the only way to protect client data from Big Tech. TOPICS COVERED: Why 70% of university website visitors never enroll — and how AI changes that How AI admissions counselors ar...

Why do 70% of technology transformations fail? It's not the technology — it's the adoption. In this episode, Donna P. Mitchell speaks with Jeff Mahony, a technologist with three decades of experience building scalable financial systems, about why mass AI adoption is premature and why human oversight isn't optional — it's hyper-necessary. WHAT'S COVERED: Why "pitching features" loses executives — and what wins instead The 70% failure rate: it's adoption, not technology Why "agency equals bias" wh...

Why do 70% of AI projects fail? In this milestone Episode 100, Donna P. Mitchell sits down with Diganta "Digs" Sen Gupta — Forbes Technology Council member, IEEE AI Governance Committee member, and Oracle enterprise architect with 25+ years of experience — to break down what executives must understand about data readiness before any AI initiative. WHAT'S COVERED: Why "everyone from bedrooms to boardrooms" talks AI but most projects fail The data silo problem destroying enterprise AI initiatives ...