12 M C K I N S EY Q UA RT E R LY - - - - - Outlook 6. Speed is the defining organizational advantage. Businesses are in an innovation race with companies that have access to the same technologies. Companies win that race when their operating model redeploys resources more rapidly to important opportunities, empowers teams to act without excessive dependen cies, and reduces the “latency” from insight to decision and decision to action. Speed requires embedding AI engineering and other functional talent directly in the business, maximizing technology and data reuse through platforms, and governing with clear business outcomes and sustained funding tied to results, not projects. This shortens cycle times dramatically. With out it, no company can truly innovate with technology and AI at scale; they will simply be too slow. What are you doing to increase the metabolic rate of your organization? 7. Tech platforms are strategic assets; invest in them that way. Platforms determine a company’s execution speed, drive down its unit costs through reuse, get tech nology and data into the hands of the people who need them, and enable AI to scale responsibly. They provide standardized, safe, and shared tech and data capabilities that teams can access. Leading companies manage their platforms strategically with dedicated teams, road maps, budget, target service levels, and users whose needs shape how the platform evolves. As a senior executive, under standing your technical architecture, the latitude it gives you, and how it drives competitive differ entiation is now as essential to leading a modern company as knowing your profit and loss. Are platforms understood and discussed as strategic assets? Speed requires embedding AI engineering and other functional talent directly in the business, maximizing technology.