Buy or build? The decision you can't afford to get wrong

Buy or build? The decision you can't afford to get wrong

Innovation doesn't fail because the technology isn't ready. It fails when the organization isn't. In this episode of In Other Words, host Jason Hemingway sits down with Elaine Barsoom, former Nike AI innovation lead and Venture Partner at Silicon Foundry. Together they examine the decisions that define how global brands scale technology, manage partnerships and embed AI into everyday operations. From build vs buy to ecosystem fragmentation to AI adoption, Elaine draws on twenty years inside some of the world's most recognized consumer brands to share what most leadership teams only learn the hard way. Drawing on her time building Nike's first AI Center of Excellence and earlier ventures at American Express and Airbnb, Elaine explains why the build vs buy decision is fundamentally an ownership question rather than a technology one. When you build, you own every decision the software touches. The governance, the compliance, the workflows that grow around it, and the people maintaining it years later without the context of why it was built that way. Most leadership teams plan for what they're building. Almost none plan for what maintaining it will cost them. The conversation also covers why organizations struggle to adopt AI even when everything is in place, how to tell the difference between a deployment that is running and one that is actually working, and why when ecosystems fragment inside a global brand, the root cause is never the technology. What You’ll Learn: * Why organizations struggle to adopt AI even when the technology is ready * What the build vs buy decision really costs over time * How global brands balance consistency with local market freedom * Why fragmentation always starts with leadership * Why human judgment is the one thing you cannot automate Elaine Barsoom is the former Global Head of Tech Innovation Partnerships and Strategy at Nike, where she built and scaled the company's first AI Center of Excellence across product, retail, marketing and HR. She now works as a Venture Partner at Silicon Foundry, advising enterprises and startups on partnership-led growth across organizations including BP, Deutsche Telekom and Estée Lauder. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Podcasts. Instructions on how to do so are here [https://www.fame.so/follow-rate-review]. Highlights and YouTube Chapters: * 00:00 Introduction * 04:08 The Technology Was Never the Hard Part * 06:45 A $2B Playbook That Didn't Translate * 10:09 Partnerships Fail When They’re Treated Like Transactions * 11:54 Can Your Team Navigate the Ecosystem Without a Map? * 15:28 Customers Experience the Moment * 17:18 AI Feels Simple Until It Meets Your Infrastructure * 19:31 When You Build, You Own Everything It Touches * 23:34 What Leaders Are Really Buying When They Buy a Platform * 25:31 The Highest Price Isn't the Money. It's the Years. * 27:34 Value Shows Up in Behavior, Not Dashboards * 28:07 The Real Human-AI Question * 30:37 Think in WAVES, Not Launches Episode Resources: * Elaine Barsoom [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ebarsoom/], AI Transformation Advisor, Former Nike AI Leader  * Silicon Foundry Website [https://sifoundry.com/] * Jason Hemingway [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonhemingway/?originalSubdomain=uk], CMO at Phrase  * Phrase Website [https://phrase.com/]

Bolt-On or Built-In? Rethinking International Growth

Kevin O'Donnell has built his career around a persistent gap in SaaS. Companies invest heavily in product and growth, yet struggle to replicate that success internationally. Across more than two decades at Microsoft, Nitro, and Dropbox, where he served as VP of International Growth, he watched companies build exceptional products but fail to adapt their go-to-market strategy for global markets. Now, as founder of Global10x, he works with leadership teams to improve how they scale globally In this conversation with Jason Hemingway, Kevin outlines the decisions that shape international performance. He explains why expansion needs to be designed into the operating model from the start, how leadership ownership changes priorities across product, marketing, and sales, and why market tiering is essential for focusing  investment. The discussion also looks at how AI is changing what is possible. Teams can now create targeted content for specific markets and audiences in ways that were previously too costly or complex. Kevin is equally direct about what doesn't work, from reporting on word volumes to maintaining bespoke tooling for problems platforms have already solved to  expecting a U.S. go-to-market playbook to land the same way in Seoul or São Paulo. What You’ll Learn: * Why treating global expansion as a final step limits revenue growth * The role of a dedicated international leader in driving company-wide alignment * How to prioritize markets without spreading teams too thi * Where AI creates new demand through hyper-local content * How to define high-stakes content and manage risk at scale * Why localization teams need to connect their work to conversion, activation, and retention Kevin O’Donnell is an expert in international growth strategy, AI-powered localization, and driving revenue at scale in global markets. He has spent over two decades leading international expansion at major companies, including Microsoft, Dropbox, and Nitro, and now, as the Founder of Global10x, he helps B2B companies modernize their localization processes and optimize their global go-to-market strategies. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. Instructions on how to do so are here [https://www.fame.so/follow-rate-review]. Highlights and YouTube Chapters: * 00:00 Introduction * 02:05 From Microsoft to Global10x * 04:50 The Bolt-On Trap * 05:56 What a Global-First Mindset Actually Changes Day to Day * 07:13 The Case for a C-Level Head of International * 08:10 How to Avoid the Scattergun Approach * 14:20 Where AI Is Driving Real Advantages * 16:48 Where Humans Still Matter * 21:24 Platform vs. Build Your Own * 27:03 Moving Localization from Release Time to Design Time * 30:08 How to Tell the Story That Matters * 33:03 The International Dashboard Nobody's Looking At * 34:55 Why a Copy-Paste Go-to-Market Will Fail Episode Resources: * Kevin O'Donnell [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinodirl/], GTM & Global Growth Advisor * Global10x Website [https://global10x.com/] * Jason Hemingway [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonhemingway/?originalSubdomain=uk], CMO at Phrase  * Phrase Website [https://phrase.com/]

The 5Bs of modern branding with David Aaker

Few people have shaped how we think about brands more than David Aaker. He spent three decades building the frameworks that CMOs and marketing students worldwide still reach for today. His latest work revisits those ideas for a world he describes as fundamentally more hostile to brands than ever before. In this episode of In Other Words, host Jason Hemingway sits down with David to discuss how branding has evolved since the scanner-data-driven 1980s, why the pressure for short-term results keeps undermining long-term brand investment, and what it takes to build trust in an era of rampant skepticism. They also get into how brand meaning holds or doesn't as companies scale across markets and organizational boundaries, and why the challenge of managing a brand across languages, geographies, and internal silos is one of the least discussed but most consequential problems in global marketing. David introduces his new 5Bs framework and explains why treating branding as a single dimension is one of the most costly mistakes an executive can make. He also makes the case for branded energizers, signature social programs, and the kind of long-term commitment that turns a bar soap into a six-billion-dollar brand. The conversation covers disruptive innovation, the art of framing a market before competitors do, and why the companies that win at category creation are the ones that understand branding is doing most of the work. What You’ll Learn: * How to apply the 5Bs framework to move beyond awareness and build brand equity that holds at scale * Why signature social programs and branded energizers build authentic trust without sacrificing short-term results * The role branding plays in disruptive innovation and why most books on the subject miss it entirely * Why brand communities generate the kind of engagement that paid media cannot buy * How to protect brand investment from the short-termism that analytics and AI are quietly accelerating * Why brand coherence across languages, markets, and organizational silos is where global strategy succeeds or fails in practice David Aaker is Vice Chairman of Prophet, Professor Emeritus at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, and the thinker Phil Kotler called the Father of Modern Branding. Over more than three decades he has written 18 books that became the foundational texts for a generation of CMOs, including his seminal work on brand equity, which gave marketing a seat at the executive table when it had none. His frameworks have shaped how companies from Fortune 100 giants to fast-growing challengers think about brand vision, portfolio strategy, and the role of branding in driving growth. His latest book, a revised edition of Aaker on Branding, revisits those ideas for a world he argues has become fundamentally more hostile to brands than at any point in his career. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Podcasts. Instructions on how to do so are here [https://www.fame.so/follow-rate-review]. Highlights and YouTube Chapters: * 00:00 Intro * 00:02:17 How Brand Equity Became Essential to Business Strategy * 00:07:52 Breaking Through the Hostile Communication Environment * 00:10:07 The Five B's Framework: Beyond Awareness and Loyalty * 00:17:27 Proving Long-Term Brand Building Drives Short-Term Sales * 00:21:40 Signature Social Programs: How Barclays Built Trust Through Action * 00:29:00 Authenticity Over Performance: Four Commitments to Real Impact * 00:32:52 Framing the Conversation to Win Market Positioning * 00:39:21 Essential Principles for the Next Generation of Brand Leaders * 00:42:52 Key Takeaways & Final Thoughts Episode Resources: * David Aaker, Father of Modern Branding & Vice Chairman, Prophet LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidaaker/] * David Aaker’s Books [https://www.amazon.com/stores/David-A.-Aaker/author/B000APVZQI?ref=ap_rdr&shoppingPortalEnabled=true] * Prophet Website [https://prophet.com/] * Jason Hemingway [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonhemingway/?originalSubdomain=uk], CMO at Phrase  * Phrase Website [https://phrase.com/]

The leadership gap holding back enterprise AI

Your competitors aren't just experimenting with AI anymore. They're using it to make faster strategic decisions, enter markets first, and reshape how they compete. So why are most enterprises still stuck chasing efficiency gains? In this episode of In Other Words, host Jason Hemingway talks to Raf Postepski, Senior Director at Alvarez & Marsal, about a leadership gap that's widening fast. Most C-suite teams have declared an AI ambition. Few have translated it into something their organization can actually execute. Raf shares what happens when he walks into workshops and mid-level leaders say, "We know the CEO has a vision. We just have no idea what it means for us." From there, the conversation moves to where the real value sits. Raf argues the AI model itself is rapidly commoditizing and introduces his "Build for Advantage, Buy for Parity" principle, drawing on a pharmaceutical case study where AI-driven decision intelligence created a first-mover advantage measured in billions. Jason and Raf also tackle the question that should be on every Board agenda. If AI turns your core business systems into interchangeable infrastructure, what's actually left to compete on? The answer has implications for how leaders think about acquisitions, market entry, product strategy, and where they place their next big bet. For organizations competing across languages and markets, where the orchestration layer determines whether AI scales or stalls, the stakes are even higher. What You’ll Learn: * Why AI should be treated as a strategic business pillar, not an IT initiative * The “Build for Advantage, Buy for Parity” principle for AI investment decisions * How one pharmaceutical company turned AI into a billion-dollar first-mover advantage * Why your data architecture matters more than building your own AI models * How to turn vague AI goals into a documented strategy and actionable roadmap * The emerging role of causal machine learning in executive decision-making * Why AI governance changes when your strategy has to work in multiple markets and languages Raf Postepski is a Senior Director at Alvarez & Marsal, where he leads the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Practice within Data & Intelligence. With more than 20 years of experience advising Fortune 500 organizations, Raf partners with C-Suite leaders to unlock strategic opportunities and drive sustainable competitive advantage through AI-enabled transformation. His expertise spans enterprise AI strategy, operating model design, governance and risk management, digital business model innovation, and advanced decision science. Raf has led global transformation programs delivering measurable improvements in revenue growth, operational efficiency, and market position. He is known for helping organizations turn AI strategy into operating reality. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Podcasts. Instructions on how to do so are here [https://www.fame.so/follow-rate-review]. Highlights and YouTube Chapters: * 00:00 Intro: Raf Postepski’s Unconventional Journey Into AI  * 06:44 Why AI Must Move Beyond Tech And Become A Business Pillar * 11:05  Turning AI Vision Into Action Across The Organisation * 13:33 Mid-Market Agility Vs. Enterprise Legacy In AI Adoption * 17:44 Why Efficiency Is the Wrong Goal * 21:27 Navigating Global Governance, Regulation, And Cultural Nuance In AI * 25:22 Build For Advantage, Buy For Parity: Where Real AI Value Lives * 33:40 Quick-Fire: Netflix, Curiosity, And Two Books Every Leader Should Read." * 37:02 The Next Frontier: Using AI For Better Strategic Decisions Episode Resources: * Raf Postepski [https://www.linkedin.com/in/raf-postepski-5744a8b/], Senior Director at Alvarez & Marsal * Jason Hemingway [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonhemingway/?originalSubdomain=uk], CMO at Phrase  * Phrase Website [https://phrase.com/]

Aarron Spinley on CX's $10 trillion blind spot

Service failure costs businesses over $10 trillion globally, yet most organizations are still relying on shortcuts, surface-level metrics, and technology-led assumptions to manage their customers. As they scale, many lose sight of what a customer base actually is, how it behaves, and what truly drives long-term value. In this episode of In Other Words, host Jason Hemingway sits down with Aarron Spinley, co-founder of the Field Bell Institute and author of The Customering Method, to challenge some of the most widely accepted ideas in CX, marketing, and growth. From the questionable science behind NPS to the way marketing automation quietly degrades customer value, Aarron explains how most CX strategies end up oriented to channels and messaging KPIs rather than genuine customer need. He lays out what changes when you treat a customer base as an asset governed by the same principles of scientific management and quality systems that apply to every other asset a business owns. What You’ll Learn: * Why asking customers questions to understand behavior is scientifically invalid * How NPS became the most dangerous corporate shortcut in modern business * How to reframe customers as an asset * The critical difference between marketing strategy and customer management * How to measure what actually matters to the Board without surveys or shortcuts * Why automation and AI amplify bad decisions at scale Aarron Spinley is the Co-founder of the Field Bell Institute, Principal at SPINLEY.CO, and Author of The Customering Method, one of the most provocative and evidence-led critiques of modern customer experience thinking in decades. Aarron’s work spans customer science, marketing strategy, risk, and leadership, challenging long-held assumptions about CX, growth, and how organizations actually create (or destroy) customer value. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Podcasts. Instructions on how to do so are here [https://www.fame.so/follow-rate-review]. Highlights and YouTube Chapters: * 00:00 Introduction * 02:20 The Career Path That Shaped Aarron’s View of Customer Value * 04:38 The myth of "just ask your customers" * 08:58 The Hidden Influence of Technology Vendors on CX Thinking * 09:35 Why Customer Bases Should Be Treated Like Business Assets * 14:23 What Makes The Customering Method Different * 19:04 NPS: the most dangerous corporate shortcut  * 22:24 Why Measurement Should Come at the End * 26:50 The One Thing Aarron Would Automate * 27:25 How Automation Can Degrade Customer Value * 31:34 Why the Wrong Incentives Keep Damaging Customer Relationships * 34:48 The AI shopper myth * 39:24 What CMOs, COOs, and CIOs Need to Get Right First * 43:17 Why Fundamentals Matter More Than Tools * 44:51 The One Book Every Executive Should Read * 45:37 Final Thoughts Episode Resources: * Aarron Spinley [https://www.linkedin.com/in/aarronspinley/], Co-Founder at Field Bell Institute * Field Bell Institute Website [https://www.fieldbell.co/] * SPINLEY.CO Website [http://spinley.co] * The Customering Method Website [https://www.amazon.com/Customering-Method-Aarron-Spinley/dp/1032823089] * Jason Hemingway [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonhemingway/?originalSubdomain=uk], CMO at Phrase  * Phrase Website [https://phrase.com/]