Move First, Align Fast

Author's Note

Most books open with a single foreword. This one opens with three. The choice is deliberate and reflects a fundamental reality: organizational readiness for AI transformation cannot be assessed through a single lens.

Alignment spans strategy, technology, and operational culture—each requiring distinct measurement and management approaches. That is why this book begins with perspectives from three leaders under whom I had the privilege to work, and whose leadership fundamentally shaped my understanding of transformation:

• Murli Buluswar, who taught that analytics and strategy demand clarity and discipline to move from aspiration to coordinated action across enterprise functions.
• Mike Brady, who demonstrated that technology nearly always works, but organizational conviction and adoption require deliberate cultivation—lessons learned while working within his global technology organizations.
• Dayton Semerjian, whose transformation leadership showed that cultural readiness and customer trust are the ultimate measures of whether change initiatives create lasting enterprise value.

Each leader I deeply respect for their ability to navigate complexity at scale. The frameworks in this book—the ACT+M™ Readiness Index and HAAS™ Score—grew out of patterns I first recognized while working under their leadership.

Their insights form the foundation of this work: the true determinant of AI transformation success is not technological capability alone, but organizational readiness ...