Getting Out in Front of the Next CEO AI Memo

The AI memos from CEOs are coming from all directions.

Each time a new one hits the headlines, you know your CEO is seeing it too.

So how can you get out in front of the next one?

How can you show your boss, listen, I got this, I don’t need a memo.

And who sends memos anyways?

What is this?

1950?

Hi, I’m Courtney Baker, and this is AI Knowhow from Knownwell, helping you reimagine your business in the AI era.

As always, I’m joined by Knowwell CEO, David DeWolf, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Mohan Rao, and NordLight CEO, Pete Buer.

We also have a discussion with Jeff McKay of Prudent Pedal about the impact AI is having on org structures and team configurations in professional service firms.

But first, Pete Buer and I unpack just the latest CEO note about AI to make headlines.

This one from Amazon’s Andy Jassy.

Pete Buer joins us as always to break down the business impact of some of the latest and greatest AI news.

Hey Pete, how are you?

I’m good Courtney, how are you doing?

I’m doing good.

Pete, another day, another CEO memo on AI that has gotten lots and lots of attention.

This time it’s Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s turn.

What did you make of his recent blog post on how generative AI is being deployed at Amazon?

So the TLDR on Jassy’s memo, he begins by highlighting Amazon’s significant bets on generative AI.

And if I’m being honest, it’s a good list, right?

From the personal assistants, Alexa, Alexa Plus, that we’ve all come to know and love, to shopping assistants that are in fact useful to both buyers and sellers alike, to AI infused all throughout their AWS offerings.

And importantly, he goes on to describe how liberally AI is being used and will be used more in making Amazon’s own internal operations more efficient going forward.

Describing the power of agentic AI in particular, and painting a picture of how agents will power the future of work at Amazon.

At first blush, the whole thing feels like kind of Jassy’s moment to communicate his foundational belief that AI is a transformational rather than incremental force, a once in a lifetime technological advance.

Now that my TLDR has become TL, I’ll get to the, oh, it is for me the bottom line, and I say that literally because it’s buried in the last paragraph before he says so long and thanks for all the fish, that in all likelihood and innocent by its nature, AI will bring about a reduction in Amazon’s total workforce.

In a world of well-funded talk track machines that have taught CEOs to say AI is not coming for your jobs, here’s a guy saying AI is coming for your jobs.

On the one hand, kind of refreshing that he would be so direct and honest about it.

We need more of that, right?

On the other hand, a little disappointing that he doesn’t convey any particular devotion to stewardship of the team in the process.

So he encourages people to get smart about AI, kind of the implication being do it on your own time.

But there’s no mention of upskilling or enablement or support of any other kind.

We all know enough about leadership over time at Amazon and not to expect that sort of thing.

But it doesn’t mean that needs to be the case for the rest of us, right?

Companies and leaders elsewhere may find this to be a place where their employment brand can benefit by distinguishing themselves in a competing market for talent.

Worth a thought.

I love that thought.

Very wise.

Couldn’t agree more.

Pete, thank you as always.

Thank you, Courtney.

I couldn’t wait to get David and Mohan in the studio to get their advice on a burning topic.

How should all of our loyal listeners proactively prepare for the next CEO memo to drop?

Hey, Mohan.

Hey, Courtney.

Today…

How come Mohan?

I don’t get a hello?

No, no, no.

Yeah.

This episode, this episode, we get to talk about the CEOs.

And we will get David’s opinion, but this is an exciting one because everybody listening, David’s actually never in his life felt the pain of a CEO memo because he has always been the CEO.

That’s not true.

I had a real job.

Of course you had a real job.

But when were, have you, I mean, when was the last time you weren’t a CEO, David?

Uh, 2005.

Okay, that is a 20 year old.

I sound really old when I said that.

I’m not that old.

Okay, so today we are going to get ahead of the CEOs.

This is what we’re going to talk about.

We are going to get David’s help on helping us all get ahead of the CEO memo that they’re coming.

They’re like wildfire.

So it started, you know, as everybody probably recalls Shopify’s CEO wrote, and now, gosh, it just went viral.

Internal memo calling AI non-optional.

Then Amazon’s Andy Jassy followed with a letter revealing 1,000 plus gen AI initiatives that Amazon was taking in forecasting headcount cuts.

So CEOs everywhere are basically really encouraging their teams like, hey, you’re not going to get extra funding or you’re not going to be able to hire these roles until you do X by Z with AI, which is awesome in a lot of ways, but also for the people that have got to execute that, can leave some people with question marks like, where do I get started here?

So today, that’s what I want to talk about.

What practical moves can leaders who aren’t the CEO take to prove they’re thinking a few steps ahead?

We want to get you all ready.

So when the memo drops, you’ve already got some things that you’ve been thinking about and are ready to be deployed in your own memo back.

So I joked at the beginning, I started right with Mohan.

But actually, David, I want to get your take first.

I want to hear what you guys think I’m going to say, because then I’m going to just pull the rug out from under your feet.

No, I don’t like that.

I’m in control on this podcast.

We’re going first.

Tell us what would you love?

You’re the CEO of a professional service firm.

What would you love to see from the leaders that report to you?

Once your big mandate comes out, hey, this is what we’re going to drive with AI.

Help us get a few steps ahead here.

So I think the whole frame of the question needs to shift a little bit.

You know what?

I’m not shocked right now.

That is, wow, really?

Do you want to reframe my question?

I do think that memos are not only yesterday in terms of the name, but it is what happened already with AI.

It was this call to action of, hey, everybody pay attention, like that’s what a memo is.

I actually think the next action is transformation, and it’s actually alignment of the organization against the action we’ve already called for.

And so when I think of alignment, I think we’re talking, and I’m going to guess it’s going to happen as the budgeting season starts to approach, right?

September is typically when leadership teams start their budgeting for the new year, if you’re on a calendar year, right?

So we’re a couple months away, and it’s going to be budgets, KPIs, talent, performance management, goals.

It’s the alignment of the management system to the activity that I’ve already requested.

So I’m not convinced it’s going to be a memo.

Maybe some CEOs are just going to put out memos and say, this is what you’re going to do.

I think it’s driving change saying, all right, you’ve had your time to experiment.

You’ve had some fun implementing it.

You’ve heard me say, we’re going to do this.

Now it’s time to put our money where our mouth is.

Let’s put the KPIs in place.

Let’s put the budgets in place.

How are things going to change in the organization and aligning around that and getting ready for next year to execute on it?

Okay, Mohan, over to you.

You can totally pretend David’s not here.

And what’s your advice on how to kind of like practically get ahead?

Like what are the practical steps that we need to take?

You know, we’re joking about the CEO, whether talking in tweets or, you know, putting out Slack messages, but actually there is a serious purpose to it, which is, you know, you, the CEOs are in the best position, actually in a singular position, nobody else can do it, to provide the direction and strategic intent for the entire organization.

And obviously, it has to be backed up by budget, personnel, resources.

And the strategic intent doesn’t clash with like three other things, which is like the other sort of mistakes CEOs do, right?

So which is, it’s got to be clear, it’s got to be pure, it’s got to provide a direction, and you have to back it up, right?

So those are all of the prerequisites.

But what is really important from that point on is to have executive alignment, and I’ll call it narrative discipline, right?

So for the entire organization, especially for the executive team, to take it down further, right?

The narrative discipline is super important because that’s how we change teams and organizations through good storytelling, right?

So that’s got to be really important.

Then after that, I think comes sort of, I’ll call it a modular composable operating system.

This could be about teams, it could be how you organize your sprints, it’s about clear ownership of who does what, it is how things get done in an organization.

It’s really kind of the process of how things get put into action.

That is really important.

Then as you’re implementing this, getting real-time feedback from the front lines, people who are actually using these tools.

Those are all sort of the how and strategic intent becomes a reality.

There are a few other things that are important.

The data AI infrastructure, as we know, is very critical in larger organizations.

Talentry alignment is important.

Then there is governance that enables, that doesn’t stifle is important.

These are all the elements of what gets done, but I’ll highlight the first three things, which is having executive alignment, having a good narrative discipline, having a composable modular operating system.

That to me just means that you can take things and put them to action and see stuff come out because you took actions.

It’s actions now sort of thing.

And then you start getting feedback.

And then based on that, you improvise.

That’s how the narrative that was put out by the CEO, the direction that was provided by the CEO starts become reality.

And it’s really important to have those types of organizational discipline and processes in place.

Okay, so Mohan, that’s really helpful.

And, but I would love to hear from you.

Let’s just pretend my CEO has not yet put out anything yet.

We haven’t started really, we’ve talked about at some of our leadership team meetings, but there hasn’t been like a clear direction.

What should I be doing now knowing that, you know, apparently all the CEOs are following the same Twitter threads?

I don’t know.

You know, what should I be thinking about and doing right now so that I am ready?

I’m not caught totally flat-footed, you know, when I need to really accelerate kind of the things that you just talked about.

Yeah.

You know, if, it depends on who you are in the organization.

If you’re an executive, for example, you should have a conversation with the CEO that, hey, this is really important, this is really changing.

Our competitors are going to win if we don’t do something about it.

Can we start the dialogue with the CEO and within the executive team to start championing this change, right?

If you’re somebody who is super smart and you see a very painful problem and just take the initiative to just do it, right?

These tools are not that expensive.

I can bet you that if you solve a problem that was chronic and it was hurting the organization and you’ve solved it in a way, everybody is going to appreciate you.

They may start taking credit away from you, but that’s okay.

But you’ve affected the change because that’s how you know when everybody starts owning the idea is when your ideas are winning.

So whoever it is, whether it’s more starting to galvanize action or taking actions is where you would start.

You know, Courtney, I just say from my perspective, I think the last thing the CEO actually wants to do is to have to say, oh my gosh, I have to write a memo because nobody’s doing this.

Like that initiative that Mohan talks about and having other load-bearing beams that are going to carry the organization forward and help to push the organization forward and take initiative is a relief, right?

So just from the other side, it couldn’t agree more, right?

Like that’s what we want to see.

That’s how we try to build our teams, is full of people that take that type of initiative.

You’re going to be closer to the actual problem and be able to diagnose it and fix it much easier than a CEO is going to be by just declaring something from the top.

And so when that happens, it’s a phenomenal thing and I’d encourage people to do it.

The reason why we have to end up writing memos is when we see this massive opportunity that poses a huge threat or a huge opportunity and other people aren’t taking it.

That’s when you have to rally people, right?

And so I think Mohan’s advice is really spot on.

Really interesting conversation.

Hopefully for people listening, this gives you some fodder to be thinking about.

And you can just be really thankful that this isn’t five years ago, which I had a CEO five years ago turn to me and say, hey, let’s do this with AI.

And at the time it was like, well, I mean, you know, sure, you know.

That’s a great response, Courtney.

Well done.

You know, and that’s why I’m crushing it.

Yeah, I mean, but truly at the time, you know, those are huge technology initiatives with a lot of, you know, like we have so much more today, like at our fingertips than we had five years ago.

And so it’s at least now, it’s a challenge, but it is one that-

A doable task.

Very doable.

Yeah, there’s so much out there, so many resources.

In some ways it might be the opposite problem.

There’s like too much at our fingertips to like figure out what’s the thing I go really, I tackle.

And so just a little encouragement for everybody out there.

David, Mohan, thank you for helping us get ahead.

Of all the CEO memos that are flying, you know.

Circa 1984.

Circa 1984 with, man, if I get a, I can’t even say that word, manila envelope with the little string tied.

Do y’all remember those?

Oh yeah.

And then you had to write the department and the, you know, and then you had to put it in the…

And then you scratched away somebody’s name and wrote it on the roadside.

Wrote it next to the next person.

I’m barely older than that.

I don’t remember that.

I’ve never used that in my life.

You guys must be older than I am.

That is for the record.

Not true.

It’s just that we have served some legacy clients as well.

Oh, God.

There’s still one that uses it.

No, no, no.

I know we’re ending this episode, but true story.

I did work in a company that had those, and I was actually the Google floor leader moving as away from Lotus Notes.

You remember that one?

I remember Lotus Notes.

Yeah.

Okay.

David, Mohan, thank you as always.

Thanks.

Thanks.

Bye, guys.

The new era of commercial intelligence for professional service firms is already here.

Seriously, if you’re interested in having real time objective intelligence on the health of your portfolio, you might be interested in actually seeing your data on the Knownwell platform.

So if you’re interested in stopping flying blind, tired of making gut decisions and start sprinting ahead, go to knownwell.com and talk to our team.

We’d love to show you what your company’s data looks like on the Knownwell platform.

Jeff McKay is the founder and CEO of Prudent Pedal.

He recently sat down with Pete Buer to talk about how AI is changing org structures and team configurations.

Jeff McKay, long time no see.

Welcome to the program.

Thanks for having me, Pete.

I wonder if you wouldn’t mind helping the audience to place you in context, your role in organization and where professional services and AI fit in.

Sure.

I am founder and CEO of a firm called Prudent Pedal.

Started this, wow, this would be my 13th year doing this after life in some large, global consulting firms and marketing leadership.

Prudent Pedal is a fractional CMO and marketing strategy firm that specializes in professional services.

So tell us about the IC Triad and how AI is changing the way it operates.

For lack of a shorter description, it really is the integration of sales, marketing and delivery.

The IC Triad is one of three systems in my growth model.

The first system is something I call the GPS system, but essentially lays out for the firm where are you going?

Where is the puck going to be that you skate to?

That’s the GPS system.

The IC Triad, and IC stands for Intellectual Capital, Triad, is really the mechanism by which the organization skates to where that puck is going to be.

And the Triad is made up of three elements in my model.

They are insights, which are a deep understanding and point of view on your client’s issues, solutions tied directly to those insights and an ideal client.

Those are kind of rudimentary and straightforward, but the way and the reason they exist is each one of those is driven by one of those functional areas.

Marketing drives insight, delivery drives solutions, sales drives towards the ideal client.

The reason they’re set up that way is the whole model’s predicated on building brand preference for the firm, of making the firm, the firm of choice.

And in order to become the firm of choice, there’s three things, research, brand research, after brand research, after brand research tells us.

There’s three things that drive choice.

The first one is expertise.

You have to be really smart and understand my business as a client.

Two, you have to apply that smarts in a relevant way to produce the result that I want as a client.

And then the third is something I call Sympotico.

It’s about this human connection and being in sync with your client.

Of deeply understanding them and being easy to do business with.

And when you think about it, that IC triad and those three elements of insights, solutions and ideal client perfectly aligns in my mind with what you’re doing at Knownwell.

You probably were thinking that already.

You know, here are the insights coming from our AI engine that are informing this IC triad.

That’s why I love Knownwell.

Because you’re building the thing that I need for my clients to really skate to where the puck is going to be.

Thank you for the compliment, by the way.

Are leaders putting energy into the question of what becomes of the people?

Yes, I think they are.

But it’s a difficult conversation for people to have.

Unlike, say, .com and the transition to the cloud, which, you know, to me, were very rational B2B decision making and actions to take, AI is so emotional because there is so much impact on human beings.

Now, I have clients that were in the AI space and in the automation space.

They begin, I don’t know if it’s as wholesale as you’re kind of hinting at in your question, but it is a real kind of re-engineering of the whole business.

I don’t know if you saw it, but this was kind of a funny side story.

Somebody threw out, well, Accenture’s winning because they have a billion dollar in AI revenue.

I had to chuckle at that because I used to work for Anderson.

I’m like, that is not AI revenue.

They’re just coding that stuff as AI.

Then the next week, they come out with their, they’re changing the name of their consulting to re-invention.

That got a lot of guff on when it was announced, but I don’t know, maybe I’m too Pollyanna about it, but the thought of bringing together the human and the technology capabilities to rethink how work gets done, I mean, that feels right.

Everyone just says it’s a lofty rebrand and an attempt to stand out in a market that’s clogged right now.

But how do you feel about that?

Well, I have a bias, because I have that Anderson DNA in me.

And I think if anybody is going to figure it out, it will be Accenture, because of that DNA.

I think they hit the ball out of the park when they did the whole high-performance rebranding.

And that high-performance was not just an ad campaign with Tiger.

That was predicated on a whole methodology of what it takes to be high-performance.

So there was a lot of intellectual capital that undergirded that.

So I think if reinvention is where they’re going to reposition, they’re going to be having the methodologies and the intellectual capital that undergird, just the way I like the way you described that, you know, that blending of machine and human for the optimal performance.

I think they will do it.

I think it will be a good campaign.

It will be just like the name Accenture.

Everybody laughed at that name when it first came out.

And now it’s a household name.

Yeah.

So a question for you, and maybe this is a good place for us to wrap, kind of similar to where we started when we come back to professional services and think about that tiny teams model.

Professional services historically has been predicated.

Its success has been predicated on the notion of the human out there in the field doing the hard work and delivering and it’s hard to scale humans.

Are there limitations to the model going forward or do you believe that professional services can learn a lot from the tiny teams?

I think professional services can learn a lot from the tiny teams.

It’s going to be a painful transition for some professional services firms.

Those that have fallen in love with the billable hour or high profit margins and the other luxuries that go with that model.

I think it will be fundamentally redeveloped in many different ways.

I think that IC triad for one will morph.

Do we really need big thinkers if marketing can rely on AI to be the thinkers for the firm?

Or if the doers have AI, do they really need marketing to do anything?

I don’t know.

I do know the one thing that won’t go away will be the customer intimacy and the relationships.

I think that will be elevated even more because that will be the non-AI element that will be critical.

And one of those brand preference drivers is Simpatico.

You don’t, well, some people develop Simpatico with AI.

But most humans, I don’t think, will want that type of relationship, but that could exist.

But then even outside of that, there’s been some talk of this for some time, and I think we may be moving in that direction because I, as a solopreneur, can create a business and magnify it and produce so much as a result of AI and compete head to head with other larger firms.

What does that mean?

Or if I specialize in something really core, maybe I, and this happens already, maybe I’m a part of a larger team that’s pulled together just for a major engagement, kind of like a movie, where you bring in a director and a producer and some actors and some lighting people, the best of, and produce the movie, and after the movie’s done, you go back to wherever you’re from and you start on the other movie with another group of people.

Yeah.

That could be the model.

Who knows?

It’s exciting.

Whichever way it goes, and the beauty of the technology is it both can help us save operating costs and make us more effective in our roles.

And it’s all about getting the right architects to build the right systems now going forward.

Yeah.

Well, you and the Knownwell team, I’ve said it before, and I’m not just saying this because you invited me on as a guest.

I really do think you’re at that very important fulcrum point for the changes that are going to happen, because you’re going to empower those thinker-sellers and doers inside that IHC triad that is going to be responsible for driving that brand preference attributes.

And I think that’s critical, and I love what you guys are doing.

I’ll give it a plug, because I know you wouldn’t do it on your own.

You’ve got a podcast that’s well attended and loved.

You want to mention that too?

Oh, yeah, thank you.

You know, I need to learn to fold that into my intros.

Yes, I have a podcast with a very talented co-host, Jason Malicki, called Rattle and Pedal.

We’ve been doing it for, I think, seven years now, specialized in around issues of growth that professional services firms face.

It’s a mix of Jason and I beating one another up and some incredible, very talented guests coming together and having conversations about the things that are most important to CEOs and C-level execs in professional services firms.

Nice.

Highly recommended for those listening.

Jeff, I know we’re at time.

I feel like we could have gone twice as long had we been allowed.

So I will say apologies to do what feels like cutting a short and express gratitude for the time that you spent.

Thank you so much.

Thanks for having me.

Thanks as always for listening and watching.

Don’t forget to give us a rating on your podcast player of choice.

At the end of every episode, we like to ask one of our AI friends to wait in on the topic at hand.

Hey, DeepSeek, today we’re talking about getting out in front of the next CEO AI memo.

Any recommendations?

Hey, I’d say keep it simple.

Focus on clear proactive messaging that highlights your AI strategy before the memo drops.

Maybe throw in some quick wins or upcoming features to show momentum.

Also, stay tuned to industry trends so you can tweak your talking points if needed.

Being adaptable always helps.

And now, you’re in the know.

Thanks as always for listening.

We’ll see you next week with more AI applications, discussions and experts.