Posts

Showing posts with the label C-level

The year AI took the busywork, nonprofit burnout jumped 16 points

Image
What actually got taken Ask what AI absorbed first in a small nonprofit, and the list is consistent. First drafts of donor letters. Grant report boilerplate. Meeting notes. Volunteer scheduling emails. Social copy. The intake summary nobody wanted to write. Look at what those have in common. Every one of them is a task with an edge. You start it, you finish it, and you can point at the thing you made. The letter exists. The report is submitted. The notes are in the folder. Those tasks were tedious. They were also, for a lot of people, the only proof they had that they did anything that day. A program coordinator does not go home holding an outcome. Outcomes take months and belong to the whole organization. What she goes home holding is the twelve things she finished. When AI takes the twelve things, the tedium leaves and the proof leaves with it. Nobody planned that. It is a side effect, and side effects are the hardest thing to notice because no line item shows them. Why it la...

78% of companies use AI. Almost none of them feel it in their results.

Image
McKinsey just published one of the most honest things about AI adoption in years. Nearly 8 in 10 companies report using AI, and nearly the same number report no significant impact on earnings. They called it the "gen AI paradox." Companies are everywhere on AI. And almost nowhere on results. Here's what the data actually shows (McKinsey State of AI, 2025): → 88% of companies deploy AI in at least one function → Only 6% of companies see more than 5% of EBIT directly attributed to AI → Nearly two-thirds have not begun scaling AI across the enterprise → Fewer than 30% of CEOs personally sponsor their company's AI agenda The technology is not the problem. The leadership approach is. The real diagnosis Most companies bolted AI onto existing processes. Copilots on top of old workflows. Chatbots next to manual work. Assistant tools that assist nothing at scale. McKinsey calls this "horizontal" adoption. Wide, visible, and nearly impossible to connect to reven...

How Turnover Can Tank Your Company's Valuation (And What Top Leaders Do About It)

Image
Before we talk about solutions, let's look at the numbers. Replacing an employee isn't just a cost, it's a serious risk to your business. For C-level executives and investors, the math is sobering: The cost of replacing a single manager or technical professional can be as high as 200% of their yearly salary . But what if it also killed your company's valuation? According to a recent study by Russell Reynolds Associates, CEO turnover at big companies is at an all-time high ( Russell ). This kind of churn, which often points to bigger problems inside a company, is a major red flag to investors. It signals a lack of stability and a potential failure to deliver on promised growth. Your best employees aren't just assets; they are the foundation of your company's value. Why Your Best People Leave Why do people leave? It's not usually just about one thing. Here are the top problems that drive away your best people. Bad Management. Poor managers are the number one...