Say no to shiny objects

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Last month, a CEO told me his team had evaluated 25 different AI tools in six weeks. Twenty-five. When I asked how many they implemented, he said, "Three. And only one actually works."

This is the modern executive's dilemma. Every day, another vendor promises to transform your business. Every conference showcases the next must-have technology. Every trade publication warns you'll be left behind if you don't act now.

The problem today isn't that there are too many bad options...its’s that there are too many good ones.

The Paradox of Choice in Technology

Most executives approach technology evaluation like they're shopping for groceries. They make lists. They compare features. They negotiate prices. They buy what looks best.

But technology decisions aren't grocery decisions. When you buy the wrong breakfast cereal, you eat it for a week and move on. When you buy the wrong technology, you live with it for years. Your team builds processes around it. Your data gets locked into it. Your culture adapts to it.

The grocery store model fails because it assumes all options are roughly equivalent. They're not. Some technologies will accelerate your business. Others will slow it down. And most will do neither...they'll just exist, consuming resources and attention while delivering marginal value.

The Hidden Cost of "Yes"

Every technology you say yes to carries three costs:

• Implementation cost is obvious. You pay for licenses, setup, training, and integration. You can budget for this.

• Opportunity cost is harder to see. While your team learns the new system, they're not improving the old one. While they attend training sessions, they're not serving customers. While they wait for integrations, they're working around problems instead of solving them.

• Attention cost is the killer. Every new tool fragments your team's focus. Every additional dashboard demands mental bandwidth. Every extra login requires cognitive overhead.

I've seen companies with 200+ software subscriptions wondering why their teams feel overwhelmed.

The answer is simple: they never learned to say no.

The Three-Filter Framework

Before you evaluate any technology, ask three questions:

Does this solve a problem we can clearly articulate? If you can't explain the problem in one sentence, you don't understand it well enough to solve it. Vague problems ("we need better visibility") lead to vague solutions that solve nothing.

Will this decision still make sense in 18 months? Technology moves fast, but your business moves faster. The tool that solves today's problem might create tomorrow's bottleneck. Think through your growth trajectory, not just your current state.

What are we willing to stop doing to make room for this? Nothing is free. Every new technology requires time, attention, and resources. If you can't identify what you'll sacrifice to accommodate the new tool, you're not ready to implement it.

These filters aren't perfect, but they eliminate 80% of the noise. Most vendors can't answer the first question clearly. Most tools fail the 18-month test. And most executives aren't prepared to make trade-offs.

The Discipline of Strategic Boredom

The best technology leaders I know are strategically boring. They use fewer tools, not more. They solve problems completely instead of partially. They say no to good ideas so they can say yes to great ones.

This discipline requires confidence. When your competitor announces their new AI initiative, you need the conviction to stick with your plan. When vendors show you impressive demos, you need the strength to walk away from solutions to problems you don't have.

Strategic boredom means choosing depth over breadth. It means getting 10x value from three tools instead of 2x value from fifteen tools. It means building capabilities instead of collecting features.

Making Better Technology Decisions

Good technology decisions start with clear business decisions. Before you look at any tools, define what success looks like. Be specific. "Increase efficiency" isn't a goal. "Reduce time from lead to quote by 50%" is a goal.

Once you know what you're trying to achieve, evaluate options based on outcomes, not features. Don't ask what the tool can do. Ask what it will help you accomplish. Don't compare specifications. Compare results.

Most importantly, involve the people who will actually use the technology. The CEO who loves the demo might not be the manager who struggles with the daily workflow. The CFO who approves the budget might not be the analyst who lives in the reports.

The Strategic Advantage of Saying No

Companies that master the art of saying no create a compounding advantage. Their teams become experts in fewer tools. Their data stays cleaner. Their processes stay simpler. Their decisions move faster.

Meanwhile, their competitors accumulate technology debt. They spend more time managing tools than using them. They hire people to integrate systems instead of serving customers. They measure activity instead of results.

The executive who can say no to shiny objects is able to create focus. And in a world full of noise, focus is the ultimate competitive advantage.

This is the kind of strategic clarity I help executives develop. If you're drowning in vendor pitches and struggling to separate signal from noise, let's talk: ericbrown.com

If you found this post helpful, consider sharing it with another executive grappling with AI, technology, and data. If you want to explore AI and other Technology strategies, grab some time on my calendar, and let's chat.

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