IN PRACTICE / SELECTED STORIESPEOPLE × AI × REALITY
Making change real. A closer look.
Envision the future of a company. Step into new areas of growth. Evolve systems people have long relied on. Change the work of every day. Four practices in which people and AI move from questions to implementation through sustained dialogue.
01 / STRATEGY × TRANSFORMATIONMajor integrated facilities management company
From a future vision to strategic choices.
Envision the future with the people who will lead the company. Work back from that vision to define a path for growth and transformation.
FROM
How far can the existing business grow?
TO
How should the company itself change?
01 / MANAGEMENT MODELTurn a future vision into a path forward
A future vision. A strategy ready to move.
What value will the company create?
BUSINESSBusiness & CustomersWhere, for whom, and what will we deliver?
PEOPLE × AIPeople & TechnologyWhat capabilities will it take?
ECONOMICSGrowth & EconomicsUnder what conditions will the business work?
↑ Revisit the strategy through the conditions needed to make it realENVISION / TEST / ACT
Work back from the future vision to connect business, organization, and technology. Refine strategic choices while testing what it will take to realize them.
The challenge
Discussions about the future kept returning to an extension of the present when it was time to plan. The company needed more than a statement of aspiration: it needed to connect that vision to changes in its business and organization, and to the conditions required to make them happen.
What people and AI connected
An intensive off-site with potential next-generation leaders shaped a vision of the company's desired future. Working backward from that vision, the team clarified strategic initiatives and priorities for transformation.
In parallel, the team built a quantitative model to support the strategy. What organization and investment would this growth require? AI-assisted simulations responded to the discussion, making the strategy more concrete while testing the conditions needed to realize the vision.
Connecting strategy to action
Compare business options in terms of both growth potential and what it would take to realize them. Test the effects of changing assumptions, and make it possible to discuss priorities and where to begin.
What we built
A future vision and growth and transformation strategy
A quantitative model underpinning the strategy
Simulation-based comparison of options
An implementation roadmap
The moment the discussion becomes concrete
“If that is the future we want, what must change—and what capabilities will we need?”
02 / STRATEGY × BUSINESS DESIGNMajor pharmaceutical company
Build on your strengths. Find new ground for growth.
Who else could benefit from what you do best? Explore new customers and markets, and chart the next path for growth.
FROM
What should we do with each project?
TO
How should we grow the portfolio?
02 / BUSINESS DESIGNConnect strengths with market opportunities
Reconsider your strengths. Connect them to new growth.
01 / STRENGTHEstablished strengthsLook again at technology, knowledge, and assets through the value they create
02 / OPPORTUNITYNew customers & marketsExplore people not yet reached and new ways to deliver value
Expand possibilities from strengths → ← Re-examine strengths through market needs
Connect hypotheses about new domains to the overall business strategy. Broaden the possibilities while testing the conditions for a viable business.
The challenge
The company needed to identify its next pillars of growth while assessing the potential of multiple businesses. Rather than simply extending existing businesses and customer relationships, it needed to ask where, for whom, and how its accumulated strengths could create new value.
What people and AI shaped
The team re-examined the company's strengths and customers' challenges, exploring different customer relationships and ways to deliver value. It developed a strategic narrative connecting growth in existing businesses with expansion into new domains.
At the same time, the team built a quantitative model to test growth and profitability. What kind of business would emerge if we delivered this value to these customers? AI-assisted simulations varied the assumptions, refining the strategy by moving between new possibilities and the conditions for commercial viability.
Connecting strategy to action
Connect the assessment of individual businesses with a growth narrative for the portfolio. Clarify what to develop, what to combine, and where to expand, then translate that into priorities and an approach to investment and execution.
What we built
An overall business strategy including expansion into new domains
A quantitative model for testing business viability
A portfolio assessment
An approach to investment and business development
The moment the discussion becomes concrete
“How would reaching new customers change both the growth potential and the economics of the business?”
03 / PEOPLE × AI IMPLEMENTATIONInformation systems department
Bring new intelligence to systems that endure.
How can AI become part of the systems people rely on? A former athlete turned engineer connects an understanding of the work with implementation.
FROM
How should we integrate AI?
TO
AI becomes usable in everyday work.
03 / AI INTEGRATIONBuild on existing assets
Create a point of connection for AI within established systems.
○USEREveryday workUnderstand what users want to accomplish
✳ASSISTANTAI assistantShape an approach that fits the work
▤EXISTING SYSTEMExisting systemsBuild on accumulated functionality and assets
UNDERSTAND THE WORK → DESIGN → IMPLEMENT → TEST IN USE
A former athlete turned engineer takes responsibility from understanding the work through design and implementation. Client dialogue and development inform one another, refining the result to fit practical needs.
The challenge
Long-established systems hold functionality and knowledge that support people's work. Bringing AI into them required more than technical knowledge: it required an understanding of what users wanted to do and how the existing systems helped them do it.
What people and AI implemented
A former athlete turned engineer led the work from understanding operations through design and implementation. By investigating existing functions and considering what to delegate to AI and where people should decide, the engineer shaped an assistant for everyday use.
Listen to the work before building. Show people something that runs, deepen the understanding, and build again. People and AI repeated this cycle together.
Connecting it to everyday work
Test how the assistant is used in real work, and turn user responses into the next improvement. Build on existing systems while making AI usable within the workflow.
What we built
An AI assistant connected to existing operations and systems
At the heart of the work
Understanding the work and building something that runs. The same engineer moves between the two.
04 / AI × EVERYDAY OPERATIONSMajor restaurant group
Change the work beyond the reading.
AI reads the information. We connect what follows—verification, judgment, and document preparation—into a coherent workflow.
FROM
Compare documents by eye.
TO
Connect extracted information to the work that follows.
04 / DOCUMENT WORKFLOWConnect information to the work beyond it
Turn information into work that can move forward.
01 / READOrganize informationGather the information and evidence you need from multiple sources
02 / REVIEWPeople verifyIdentify what needs judgment, then check and correct it
03 / CREATEMove work forwardPrepare information for use and connect it to the next task
Using informationRoles for people and AIConnections across the workflow
Re-examine the workflow with people and AI. Build a system that connects not just extraction, but the verification and work that come afterward.
The challenge
Read documents, gather the necessary information, reconcile it, and prepare it for the next task. Faster extraction alone does not reduce the overall burden if manual work remains afterward. The surrounding steps needed to be reconsidered too.
What people and AI are building
Trace the actual workflow and design a system connecting information intake, verification, and use. Combine AI processing with human checks to create screens and flows that fit real operations.
Show prototypes to the people doing the work, test how they use them and handle exceptions, and improve. People and AI refine not only whether processing is possible, but whether users can work confidently and move on to the next task.
Connecting it to everyday work
Test individual processes together with the work before and after them. Refine day-to-day usability so people can see what needs checking, understand the status of the work, and proceed to the next step.
What we built
A system connecting information extraction to practical use
Operational screens supporting verification, judgment, and document preparation
What change feels like
From “the information was extracted” to “I know what to check next and how to proceed.”
Next, start with your question.
Start with a few words about what you want to change. Talk to us about a challenge we could work on together in Boot Camp.