Search...

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

Tag: blog

June 2, 2025 | 5 Mins Read

How Alcon is Strategically Approaching AI in Field Service (and Beyond)

June 2, 2025 | 5 Mins Read

How Alcon is Strategically Approaching AI in Field Service (and Beyond)

Share

By Sarah Nicastro, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Future of Field Service

In a recent podcast, Kenny Brown, the Senior Director of Global Surgical and Vision Care Franchise Business Technology at Alcon, shared the story of Alcon’s service overhaul. This journey was one that included the transition from viewing service as a cost-center to seeing its strategic value, an organizational restructuring to align to this new vision, global standardization centered around greater customer centricity, and the modernization of core technologies.

While Alcon’s achievements in this large-scale business transformation are impressive, the company’s journey is far from over. Like any organization with a mission to thrive in today’s world of nonstop change, Alcon is shifting gears to understand how best to navigate the next phases of digital transformation while maintaining its focus on customer experience and value. Kenny shares, “I’d love to say that the heavy lifting is behind us, but the next chapter is just going to be a different type of work than what we’ve done so far. As we move ahead, we rely on our three pillars to guide what we do: make the best products in the market, be the best service organization out there, and embrace cutting-edge digital innovation.”

4 Initial AI Use Cases to Level Up Service Innovation

Alcon’s next chapter centers around applying the power of AI to its successful service-centric business transformation. Kenny, who is leading Alcon’s GenAI Go-To-Market Strategy, is focusing first on practical use cases that demonstrate clear value to employees. The initial four areas Alcon is looking to leverage AI are:

  1. Creating Smarter Customer Interactions. “We are aiming to personalize that touch,” Kenny explains. “We have a lot of data around our customers; I think GenAI can really help us to put that data to work. We have on what customers need, what their previous experiences have been, and so on, and GenAI will allow employees to tailor recommendations, offer more engaging experiences, and more.”
  2. Moving Toward Proactive Service. “We don’t want to wait for a customer to call us and tell us their equipment is down,” says Kenny. “We know there’s an opportunity to look at issues before they pop up – to understand the trends that can create potential downtime. Sending data from our devices into a rules-based approach that feeds suggestions to the action takers, or even back into the equipment, can help us increase customer satisfaction.”
  3. Automating Routine Tasks. “I’m not sure if this is GenAI or just traditional AI, but by automating routine tasks we free up teams to focus on more complex and high-value work,” says Kenny. “The engineer's least favorite thing about their job is entering in information into the service management system; let’s automate that task for them.”
  4. Gaining Deeper Insights. “The fourth area is around using AI to create advanced analytics,” explains Kenny. “Using the intelligence to spot trends, optimize processes, and make smarter decisions as a business – faster.”

5 Areas of Focus for Effective AI Execution

To ensure Alcon achieves success in its incorporation of AI, Kenny is calling on his experience with the company’s global service transformation. Alcon has set its sights first on using GenAI within the business before taking it customer-facing. “The idea of our go-to-market at this point in time is for the enterprise; determining how we bring GenAI to life at Alcon,” says Kenny. “We have a lot of strong pilots and use cases that are already offering value. But, in a company of 25,000 people, we need to make sure the approach doesn’t feel fragmented.”

Here are Alcon’s five areas of focus for AI execution:

  1. Governance. “On the AI journey, I think you have to start with governance,” urges Kenny. “Building that framework of governance clearly defines who is responsible for what, and ensures efforts are safe, ethical and aligned to our values. We have a dedicated AI team to oversee this and ensure they are the center of any innovation, building that framework and those parameters around what we do and what we don’t do.”
  2. Start Small, Learn Fast. “We've had some pilot projects in very focused areas,” says Kenny. “We want to test those, learn from those, refine them, and build up scale from there. If we go tackle every single idea and problem that are out there, it won't build the experience enough to build advocacy and really get it going.”
  3. Value Tracking. “We must ensure we track each of these use cases in a way that we can monitor our return on investment,” explains Kenny. “This is important to build excitement with our leadership, to continue to get investment in this space, and ultimately to return the value back to our business.”
  4. Dedicated Ownership. In our podcast discussion, Kenny explained the creation of a role of an RPO (regional process owner) to own the transformation in each region of the business – he envisions something similar for AI. “We’re not there yet, but we could use the same RPO idea for GenAI,” says Kenny. “This helps to build the community of super users and create best practices in the regions.”  
  5. Strong Communication. “We need a robust communication plan with regular updates, giving people tips and tricks, sharing what's coming,” says Kenny. “It’s important to keep everyone informed and engaged in a creative way, but it can also be overwhelming. We need it to be useful and relevant; effective communication is a big lever for us to focus on as we continue this journey.”

On the topic of communication, I asked Kenny if they’ve experienced any fear from employees of AI taking their jobs and, if so, how they’ve managed that. He explained that he echoes the sentiment of the quote, “GenAI won’t take your job, but those who know how to use GenAI will.” He believes its important to help employees see how the use cases can help them, train them on new functionality being introduced, and be open in your communication. “We’ve begun to see the guard coming down by addressing concerns and introducing use cases relevant to their roles,” says Kenny. “When you make it applicable to their life, suddenly they’re like – ‘OK, I’m in. I want some of that!’”

Stay Connected

Related Content

The Untold Truths of Service Leadership: Part One – Navigating Business Complexities 

What Role Do AI Agents Play in Your Field Service Talent Strategy?

The Value of a Service “North Star” & Creating a Strategy to Achieve It

Most Recent

The “Fail Fast” Mantra: Empowering or Anxiety-Inducing?

The Untold Truths of Service Leadership: Part One – Navigating Business Complexities 

What Role Do AI Agents Play in Your Field Service Talent Strategy?

May 26, 2025 | 4 Mins Read

How the Risks of Technical Debt are Compounding in the AI Era

May 26, 2025 | 4 Mins Read

How the Risks of Technical Debt are Compounding in the AI Era

Share

By Sarah Nicastro, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Future of Field Service

Technical debt is an issue that is rapidly growing in importance – an issue that many businesses have avoided for far too long but must begin to reconcile. Gartner defines technical debt as “work that is ‘owed’ to an IT system when teams ‘borrow’ against long-term quality by making short-term sacrifices, taking short cuts, or using workarounds to meet delivery deadlines.”

MIT Sloan Management Review states that, “technical debt is an anchor, dragging down business leaders’ efforts to run a tight ship. The accumulated costs and effort from IT development shortcuts, outdated applications, and aging infrastructure sap a company’s ability to innovate, compete, and grow.” They point out that a degree of technical debt is inevitable, which I think is important to note – and possibly another challenge to overcome, in determining exactly when debt becomes “too much.”

Anecdotally, I’ve had numerous conversations with leaders who bemoan the situation of knowing their existing technology stack isn’t aligned with what their business needs. Many of these leaders feel they have no choice but to “make do” for now (and often now ends up being years).

While ripe with risk, technical debt exists for many reasons that are easy to understand – I’m sure each of you can imagine a handful of reasons the need to “make do” arises (and often persists). With the rapid evolution of the digital landscape that’s taken place over the last decade, many business – and even IT – leaders have been left, heads spinning, to digest the reality that world they once knew and loved – where systems could statically service their purpose for five, eight, even ten years – no longer exists.

The Realities of Today’s Digital Ecosystem

But not only has the reality of the digital ecosystem changed, the AI era that has taken the world by storm is creating a compound effect of technical debt. Technical debt forces a compromise of what’s most effective versus what “will do.” It means contorting what your business has become into the limitations of a system that was created for what your business was a handful of years ago, if not more. But moreover, if your business is inching by on a legacy foundation that should have been replaced by now, you are constricted in your ability to modernize at the pace innovation is demanding – you are not able to properly step into the AI era.

Now, many will try to force band-aids on the problem, versus addressing root cause – some of that is delusion, some born of necessity. But these band-aids are nothing more than more short-term solutions. To truly thrive not only in today’s landscape, but to be prepared for what comes next, you need to dig in and do the hard work of ensuring a strong, capable, modern foundation. Try as one might, there simply are no shortcuts or workarounds that will make an outdated platform fit for purpose in today’s fast-paced landscape – and layering even more passable-but-not-ideal solutions upon a shaky foundation is a recipe for disaster.

Meanwhile, the world isn’t waiting for you to catch up – your customers are already expecting you to somehow match the experiences they get from leading consumer brands. Many of your competitors are already delivering these experiences. Your employees are demanding a more modern employee value proposition, one that is nearly impossible to offer if their workdays are fraught with the burdens of outdated technology. And none of these variables are staying still, so it isn’t enough to catch up; you must determine how you modernize your systems, your processes, and your governance to be what today’s businesses have to be to succeed: agile.

U.S. Air Traffic Control Grapples with Technical Debt

A very real and especially scary example of technical debt is what’s currently happening as a result of the antiquated technology in use by the United States air traffic control. I flew through Newark earlier this month in the midst of its “multi-day meltdown,” and the far reaching and potentially detrimental impact of these issues weighed very heavy on my mind. While there are additional factors beyond the technology, the systems in place are decades old and rely on things like copper wires and floppy disks.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has spoken to the fact that outdated technology is a major factor in the issues affecting the nation's air traffic control systems, saying “What we have right now is the old-school flip phone. You can't update the flip phone.” In the same article, Paul Rinaldi, Vice President of Safety and Operations at Airlines for America and a former traffic controller, agrees with Duffy, referring to the existing system as “archaic.”

Duffy has proposed a four-year plan, estimated to cost more than 12.5 billion, to modernize the nation’s air traffic control system. He says in this article that “A lot of people have said: This problem is too complicated, too expensive, too hard.” All adjectives that those grappling with extreme technical debt have likely felt the weight of.

While many of the reasons technical debt persist can be valid, the risk of continuing to delay addressing it is simply too significant. This Gartner article lends some further insight on how technical debt hinders an organization and advice for how to manage it. And this MIT Sloan Management Review piece calls attention more specifically to how technical debt prevents organizations from deploying AI solutions that could reshape how they compete and what do to about it.

If you have a story to share about how your organization has handled the management or reduction of technical debt, I’d love to hear from you!

Stay Connected

Related Content

As AI Democratizes Knowledge, The Duty of Leadership Evolves

Future of Field Service Nashville + IFS Connect Highlights

Ecolab’s Remote Service Strategy

Most Recent

The “Fail Fast” Mantra: Empowering or Anxiety-Inducing?

The Untold Truths of Service Leadership: Part One – Navigating Business Complexities 

What Role Do AI Agents Play in Your Field Service Talent Strategy?

May 19, 2025 | 4 Mins Read

Wisdom of a 56-Million-Year-Old Culture

May 19, 2025 | 4 Mins Read

Wisdom of a 56-Million-Year-Old Culture

Share

by Sarah Nicastro, Creator, Future of Field Service

I’m just returning from a four-day retreat hosted by Natalie Kuhn at MEA outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico. MEA is a retreat center founded by Chip Conley, TED speaker and New York Times bestselling author of Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder. The Santa Fe campus is on Rising Circle Ranch, a regenerative horse ranch that spans nearly 2,600 acres of wildlife, hiking trails, winding arroyos, ancient petroglyphs, and awe-inspiring beauty. 

As part of the experience, we were ushered by the Ranch Manager, Lee Johnson, to an experience with the ranch’s horses. I have never spent a lot of time with horses, so I learned quite a bit throughout the afternoon and was struck by how much of what I was taking in correlates to today’s business landscape: what makes for an effective leader, how crucially important culture is, and the many forms resilience can take.

Lee and his colleague Maryann began by sharing some facts about horses, including that horses have existed for 56 million years, which is just incredible to ponder. They explained some of the facets that make it possible for a species of prey animals to have existed so long, one of which is the way horses herd. As they explained the relational nature of the herds, they shared that horses have a very specific culture that is centered around five key tenets:

  1. Safety
  2. Connection
  3. Peace
  4. Freedom
  5. Joy

How incredible is it that horses find crucial these very things that we as humans do, too? Moreover, that these tenets have served as the foundation for how these herds have engaged and lived for millions of years. Learning about how central culture is to how horses live got me thinking quite a bit about the growing significance of company culture. When we consider resilience, whether of the horse species or of a business, having these core principles to anchor around is vital. But the principles can’t simply exist; they must be genuinely and consistently embodied. I know nearly every business today has cultural values they can point to on a wall or on their website, but I do question how many are weaving those values into the fabric of how the business is run and how its people are treated.

Leaders Create Power with Teams

Another very specific point I found powerful is when Lee shared that the herd leader, which is almost always a mare, focuses on creating power with – not over – the other members of the herd. If that doesn’t perfectly summarize what’s needed from leaders today, I don’t know what will. Gone are the days of command-and-control leaders; what’s required today are those who can expertly curate a team of diverse and well-honed skills and then empower that team to rally around the company’s values and objectives.

Finally, Lee spoke at length about the almost inconceivable perceptiveness of horses. He explained that when horses interact with humans, they don’t respond well to incongruence. Meaning, if you’re fearful of a horse, that’s OK – but if you’re pretending not to be, the horse senses that incongruence with unease. This brought to mind the importance of authenticity; leaders who create influence by being themselves and by connecting with their teams in a genuine manner are far more effective than those who are guarded, overly poised, or have thinly veiled motives.

During the retreat we not only spent time with the horses but also exploring the beautiful land of New Mexico and learning about its native people and rich history. While there’s certainly value in reading leadership books and attending seminars, it can also be quite profound to tap into some of these other sources of insight for not only leadership lessons, but really life lessons.

Taking the time away from my family and from work to attend this retreat reminded me of my recent conversation with Laurie Battaglia after her keynote at Field Service Palm Springs, driving home the importance of leading yourself first. It can be quite challenging to invest the time, but we need to nurture our inner selves if we want to create external energy that will benefit our loved ones and also our teams, our customers, and the wider communities beyond. Doing so is also key to resilience. However you disconnect, unplug, and reconnect with yourself, continue to invest in your peace and your perspective; it will pay dividends.

Stay Connected

Related Content

As AI Democratizes Knowledge, The Duty of Leadership Evolves

Future of Field Service Nashville + IFS Connect Highlights

Ecolab’s Remote Service Strategy

Most Recent

The “Fail Fast” Mantra: Empowering or Anxiety-Inducing?

The Untold Truths of Service Leadership: Part One – Navigating Business Complexities 

What Role Do AI Agents Play in Your Field Service Talent Strategy?

May 12, 2025 | 4 Mins Read

Mental Health Matters: Resources to Support Wellbeing at Work

May 12, 2025 | 4 Mins Read

Mental Health Matters: Resources to Support Wellbeing at Work

Share

By Sarah Nicastro, Creator, Future of Field Service

May is Mental Health Awareness Month in the United States, and the focus may be more important now than ever. At Future of Field Service and the UNSCRIPTED podcast, we try to ensure that mental health and wellbeing are topics represented in our discussions often, not only in a certain month – but I will never pass up an opportunity to call attention to stories and resources that can help reduce stigma and improve awareness and understanding.

For 2025, Mental Health America is using the theme "Turn Awareness into Action" and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is focusing on the theme "In Every Story, There's Strength" (personally, I agree and I love that one). In the spirit of sharing powerful stories and helping to not only create better awareness, but inspire action, here is a compilation of some of conversations and resources I’d urge you to check out during this month of focus:

Smashing Stigma Around Mental Health & Prioritizing Well-Being at Work

In this podcast, Rob Stephenson, TEDx Speaker, Mental Health Campaigner, Keynote Speaker, CEO of FormScore®, and Founder of the InsideOut LeaderBoard® shares his motivation for evangelizing mental well-being and gives advice on how companies can make progress in normalizing mental health topics and promoting well-being at work.

Rob is deeply committed to mental health awareness and actively participates in efforts to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental ill-health in the workplace. He has managed bipolar disorder throughout his personal and professional life and shares his experiences and strategies for change through public speaking engagements.

Be sure to check out the work he does with FormScore and the InsideOut LeaderBoard as well!

Building Mental Strength as a Leader

Scott Mautz, author of The Mentally Strong Leader, is a former Procter & Gamble executive who successfully ran four of the company’s largest multi-billion dollar businesses. He has been named a "CEO thought-leader" by The Chief Executives Guild and a "Top 50 Leadership Innovator" by Inc.com.

In this podcast discussion, Scott shares his strategies for building mental strength and overcoming challenges as a leader. He also explores topics such as self-regulation, the "static trap," self-doubt, imposter syndrome, navigating stress, as well as the importance of creating habits that support mental strength, providing tools and frameworks for building resilience.

Tetra Pak’s Proven Ways of Supporting Field Force Wellbeing

While looking beyond just mental health, this podcast about the steps Tetra Pak has taken to support field force wellbeing touches on many important points, including the message of “it’s OK to not be OK.” Marco Hugo Guiterrez, VP of Customer Service Operations, EMEA at Tetra Pak, shares a detailed look at what the company has done to put more emphasis on employee engagement and promote and maximize field force wellbeing.

8 Facts About Mental Health at Work to Expand Awareness and Prompt Action

When Darcy Gruttadaro, former Director of the Center for Workplace Mental Health, part of the APA Foundation, and now Chief Innovation Officer at NAMI joined our podcast for an episode on six ways to address employee burnout, we had more than we could squeeze into one discussion. As a result, I wrote this article on eight facts around mental health that I feel we all need to better understand and urge action on.

Learn more about the resources that both the Center for Workplace Mental Health and NAMI provide.

Destigmatizing, Normalizing and Prioritizing Mental Health in the Workplace

When I recorded a podcast with Johnny Crowder, suicide/abuse survivor, TEDx speaker, touring musician, mental health and sobriety advocate, and the Founder & CEO of Cope Notes, a text-based mental health platform that provides daily support to users in nearly 100 countries across the globe, I was in awe of him. Listen as we discuss the criticality of prioritizing mental health in the workplace, and also be sure to learn more about Cope Notes.

Putting Focus on Employee Mental Healt‪h

I shared on LinkedIn how sad I was to learn that Jordan Argiriou, former Director, Service Solutions APEC at QIAGEN had passed away. I will always remember when I asked him (a burly, Australian man) what he’d like to talk about in a podcast and he responded with “mental health” how surprised I was! It was a topic that was very important to him, and his advice in this podcast centers around normalizing the conversations, leading by example, and creating relationships that give people a safe place to share. Wise words from a wonderful man.

Making Mental Health a Focus in Service Leadership

This podcast is an oldie but goodie from an incredible woman, Linda Tucci. Recorded in the midst of Covid when Linda was service as the Global Sr. Director of the Technical Solutions Center at Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, we talk about why it is critical to make mental health a priority in service leadership and how she’s done so, for herself and her team.

Stay Connected

Related Content

The “Fail Fast” Mantra: Empowering or Anxiety-Inducing?

The Untold Truths of Service Leadership: Part One – Navigating Business Complexities 

10 Success Factors for Complex, Global Service Operations  

Most Recent

The “Fail Fast” Mantra: Empowering or Anxiety-Inducing?

The Untold Truths of Service Leadership: Part One – Navigating Business Complexities 

What Role Do AI Agents Play in Your Field Service Talent Strategy?

May 5, 2025 | 5 Mins Read

4 Crucial Considerations for Defining Humanity’s Future in an AI-Enabled World

May 5, 2025 | 5 Mins Read

4 Crucial Considerations for Defining Humanity’s Future in an AI-Enabled World

Share

By Sarah Nicastro, Creator, Future of Field Service

In my opinion, we all have a quite serious responsibility at the moment to take part in creating an appropriate, ethical, and delicate balance between AI advancement and protecting what is uniquely human potential. Recently, I invited Faisal Hoque onto the podcast for an insightful discussion around what this delicate balance will take.

Hoque is a serial entrepreneur, business strategist, technology innovator, and best-selling author whose insights have been featured in CNN, Fast Company, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and Yahoo. He’s held corporate leadership roles at companies like GE, Pitney Bowes, and Dun & Bradstreet and he has built multiple companies focused on innovation and transformation. His latest book, Transcend, explores how organizations can harness AI's potential while protecting the human experience. As a dedicated philanthropist, Hoque donates all book proceeds to charity, and I found his uniquely balanced perspective on the AI revolution to be full of food for thought.

#1: Distinguish Enterprise AI from Consumer Applications

Hoque warns against conflating consumer AI tools with enterprise initiatives, as they serve fundamentally different purposes. Enterprise AI has been evolving for decades through automation, predictive modeling, and process optimization, while tools like ChatGPT that began as consumer AI represents just the visible tip of the iceberg for what’s now and next.

Business leaders must understand that enterprise AI will fundamentally reshape companies and work models as we move toward general intelligence systems that can think independently. As AI becomes a true "coworker" rather than just a passive tool, it will bring both unprecedented challenges and opportunities. This demands careful evaluation of where AI can remove inefficiencies, while preserving human value.

For us to do justice in preserving human value, Hoque suggests we must start by defining humanity. “Humanity is about freedom - freedom to be creative, freedom to pursue something, and it's love. It's love for your craft, love for your family, society, whatever. Love is driven by passion, because that's how you become fully fulfilled as a human being,” he says. Keeping these definitions in mind is how we set the stage to harness the potential of AI without risking what’s special about the human experience.

#2: Approach an AI-Centric Future with Neutrality

One of the aspects of our conversation that has stuck with me is discussing the power of neutrality when it comes to approaching an AI-centric future. I pointed out that, on one hand, it seems there are individuals and organizations that are overly excited to go all-in on AI with a hyperfocus on how it can cut costs and maximize profits; the risk here is being driven by greed.

On the other hand, there are leaders and businesses who are so hesitant to embrace this technology that is undoubtedly changing the way we work forever. The risk here is not only falling behind, but quickly becoming irrelevant. Perhaps the healthiest mindset is a more neutral one – welcoming and even being excited about what AI can do and how it will evolve businesses and work, but with a very keen eye on where caution need be applied and where the utmost risk to humanity lies.

Hoque agreed, bringing to light that this is how a Buddhist philosophy can be applied. “You have to develop this mentality of devotion and detachment in the sense that you have to be devoted to things that actually are helpful, that's regenerative in the sense that it's regenerating something that's helpful to humanity. You have to detach yourself from greed and from things that could be harmful, and also from fear,” he says.

He goes on to share a framework that is explored in Transcend, called the “open and care” framework to help provide a balanced approach to AI adoption. At its core, this framework promotes being radically open to possibilities while deeply caring about humanity and helps organizations identify opportunities while remaining mindful of risks and ethical considerations. Hoque reinforces that implementation should focus on augmenting human capabilities rather than wholesale replacement; the goal is transcending current limitations while protecting what makes us uniquely human.

“This divergent framework, Open and Care, is about being radically open to possibilities because there's so much good we can do with AI. But then, also, you have to be catastrophically focused on risk, and you have to care about humanity deeply if you want to maintain some level of balance,” says Hoque.

#3: Consider Reverse Innovation Risk

Hoque shared some thoughts around what we stand to lose if a balance isn’t struck between AI innovation and humanity. He spoke of the concept of "reverse innovation," describing how some technological advances can actually reduce human capabilities and critical thinking skills over time.

Business leaders must keep this in mind and be sure to evaluate whether automating certain processes might erode important foundational knowledge and skills their teams need. This requires maintaining core competencies even while leveraging advanced tools; I shared how this reminded me of our experience when our son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when the doctors insisted we learn manual calculations and care before relying on automated systems.

Careful consideration must be given to which activities truly benefit from automation versus which ones contribute to skill development and engagement.

#4: Prioritize Regenerative Leadership

So much of how AI’s impact will unfold in the coming years has to do with how it is approached by leaders, and how important they see it to strike a balance. Hoque speaks about regenerative leadership, which is focused on creating sustainable systems that help people reach their full potential rather than defaulting to automation.

Leaders must help employees develop new skills and capabilities as technology evolves, rather than simply reducing headcount. This approach views AI as a way to expand human potential and organizational capacity rather than just cut costs and centers the goal around multiplication of capabilities, not elimination of human contribution. "When I talk about regenerative leadership, I really mean that you have to be able to create ecosystem just like nature does, that regenerates resources. You have to do stuff as a leader that allows the resources to be regenerated so that they can live up to their full potential. If you're going introduce automation, you need to help people to regenerate their next level of contribution and skill set,” says Hoque.

Regenerative leadership relies heavily on empathy. "Greed is one risk factor, but a lack of empathy is another. If we have no empathy, then we don't really care about humanity. Empathy plays a huge role in terms of how you think about AI, how you design AI, and how you deploy and execute,” says Hoque. The successful integration of AI requires balancing technological capability with human empathy and mindful leadership; leaders must remain focused on how AI deployment impacts their people and organizational culture, not just efficiency metrics. This requires maintaining strong human connections and understanding while leveraging AI's analytical power. Organizations should evaluate AI initiatives through the lens of both business value and human experience. The key is finding ways to advance technology while strengthening rather than diminishing human relationships and purpose. "Think about a knife - you can use it in the kitchen, or you can use it to harm somebody. AI isn't any different, except it's million zillion times more powerful than a knife. It's up to you how you use it,” cautions Hoque.

Stay Connected

Related Content

As AI Democratizes Knowledge, The Duty of Leadership Evolves

Future of Field Service Nashville + IFS Connect Highlights

Ecolab’s Remote Service Strategy

Most Recent

The “Fail Fast” Mantra: Empowering or Anxiety-Inducing?

The Untold Truths of Service Leadership: Part One – Navigating Business Complexities 

What Role Do AI Agents Play in Your Field Service Talent Strategy?

April 28, 2025 | 3 Mins Read

A Plea to My Fellow Business Travelers

April 28, 2025 | 3 Mins Read

A Plea to My Fellow Business Travelers

Share

By Sarah Nicastro, Creator, Future of Field Service

I’ve had it on my mind to speak on this topic for quite a while, but coincidentally am writing this on a flight home after a hellish day of travel turned extra night away from my family turned into another day of travel. And sadly, that isn’t an experience that’s unfamiliar to me – or to many of you, I’m sure.

Over the last four or so years, I’ve traveled extensively. I have a handful of horror stories that would rival anyone’s and, if I’m being honest, have had a handful of full-on breakdowns in airports from the exhaustion and desperation to get home to my family. Not that it’s been all bad! I am incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to see different places and, more importantly, to meet and spend time with people face-to-face.

What I’ve observed over hundreds of flights and plenty in time at airports across the globe is behavior that makes me cringe. It’s interesting to watch how, when a flight is delayed, it’s almost always the most frequent fliers that are throwing fits, huffing and puffing, yelling, and treating airline employees like trash. I’ve witnessed some truly abhorrent behavior from the most experienced travelers.

It's important to remember that your 1K/Platinum Elite/Whatever Top-tier status may provide you with premium perks, but it does not guarantee a smooth experience every time because that simply isn’t possible. You may observe an airport’s inefficiency with keen awareness of how it could be done better, but that doesn’t give you the right to treat TSA employees who are simply doing their jobs poorly.

That family on vacation, with strollers and diaper bags that’s holding up the security line? They are simply trying to enjoy their lives; not make yours more challenging. The person who hasn’t flowed but once or maybe not at all who has 100 questions? They paid a ticket price to get the same place you’re going. The flight attendant who is required to follow specific guidelines to keep all passengers safe, when things go smoothly and particularly when they don’t, are doing a very hard job. The individual rushing from the back of the airplane to deboard before their row’s turn may be desperate to make their connection.

My plea is this: let’s try our very best, even in the situations that make you want to cry or scream, to see the human in everyone we encounter. Let’s please remember that your tax bracket, your title at work, your airline status do not make you any better than anyone else. Let’s remember how far a little kindness can go, and let’s try to be a pinch more patient, understanding, polite, and empathetic.

I understand the grind, deeply. I really do. At times it can be incredibly challenging to maintain composure. But the privileged, entitled behavior I’ve seen far too many business travelers exhibit is truly unacceptable, regardless of how frustrating a certain situation may be. So next time you find yourself in a circumstance that makes you want to roll your eyes or make a rude comment, I hope you’ll think twice and remember that it really won’t make things any better – it just makes you look like a jerk to everyone around you.

Stay Connected

Related Content

As AI Democratizes Knowledge, The Duty of Leadership Evolves

Future of Field Service Nashville + IFS Connect Highlights

Ecolab’s Remote Service Strategy

Most Recent

The “Fail Fast” Mantra: Empowering or Anxiety-Inducing?

The Untold Truths of Service Leadership: Part One – Navigating Business Complexities 

What Role Do AI Agents Play in Your Field Service Talent Strategy?

April 21, 2025 | 5 Mins Read

A Focus on Efficiency is Only the Tip of the AI Iceberg – Expert Advice for Considering What Comes Next

April 21, 2025 | 5 Mins Read

A Focus on Efficiency is Only the Tip of the AI Iceberg – Expert Advice for Considering What Comes Next

Share

By Sarah Nicastro, Creator, Future of Field Service

few weeks ago, I spoke with Amer Iqbal, a sought-after speaker who has spent the last 20 years leading innovation at some of the world’s top companies including as the Head of Digital Transformation, APAC at Meta and Director of Digital Strategy & Innovation at Deloitte Digital on the UNSCRIPTED podcast. The topic was around overall innovation, but of course AI came up.

What was interesting is Amer’s observation that everyone knows they need to be ‘doing something’ with AI, but the steps being taken by the majority are not as strategic as they could or should be, at least thus far. He explains that the AI investment he sees is being done because companies know they must take action and are focused on finding areas of low-hanging fruit by way of applying AI to inefficiencies.

While this isn’t bad in any way, his advice is to think bigger than just efficiency. “AI is absolutely the number one  topic that clients are asking us about these days. What we're seeing is a lot of the hype around AI is about how to do today's business better, how to do things more efficiently, find some cost savings,” Amer explains. “These are just examples of how we do exactly what we have been doing, but with a little bit of automation on top.”

Amer points back to the industrial revolution, when people would burn coal to create steam that spins a turbine to run factories. When electricity was invented and could replace coal and steam, it wasn’t until quite some time later that factories were redesigned to make use of the invention and really change the way of working. “It took a really long time between the innovation occurring and people actually harnessing it,” he says, “and that’s similar to what we’re seeing with AI right now.”

A 3-Phase AI Strategy

With that example in mind, the explosion of generative AI with ChatGPT is relatively recent – so it makes sense that companies are still grappling with exactly what to do with this technological innovation. “If I’m being honest, most of the requests that come in are from individuals saying, ‘I’ve been given a mandate that I need to spend 5% or 10% of my budget this year on something to do with AI – what should I do?’” Amer shares.

His advice is to consider a three-phase framework starting with, but not limiting yourself to, efficiency. “AI is a great efficiency driver, but I think that’s just the easy wins,” Amer explains. “So, find those efficiencies and cost savings, but then where it gets more interesting is when you look beyond efficiency to growth. And what’s even more exiting is transformation – building the businesses of tomorrow.” He suggests:

  1. Efficiency First: Start with quick wins in automation and cost savings focused on how to do today's business better. This is where you look for opportunities to apply AI to gain efficiency, automate manual tasks, leverage knowledge better, and more.
  2. Growth Focus: It would be a mistake to stop at gaining efficiency with AI. Consider how you can leverage AI to remove human capacity constraints. Ask questions such as, how would we grow our business knowing what we know about AI? What would growth look like in a world where we have unconstrained capacity?
  3. Transformation: What Amer is most excited about is how companies can reimagine their entire business model with AI capabilities "Efficiency and growth are great for driving your core business and maybe even some adjacencies, but what about building the business of tomorrow?" Amer says. “Consider: what would our business look like if we redesigned it today, knowing what we know about AI?" This question, he suggests, should be at the heart of every leadership team's strategic planning.

The New York Times Lesson in Innovation

Amer and I spoke about how the New York Times provides a masterclass in maintaining core value proposition while transforming delivery methods for the digital age. “Anyone can look at what Apple is doing, but it's more interesting when you look at more traditional companies and how they're innovating,” he says. “One of the ones that's in our book and one of my favorites because it's such a traditional industry is The New York Times. In one of the most old-school and most traditional industries on the planet, they have absolutely bucked the trend. In an industry where fewer than 10% of Americans still read newspapers, the Times has grown to over 10 million subscribers – five times their peak print circulation.”

The New York Times focused on identifying and protecting what truly matters (in their case, quality journalism) while being flexible about how it's delivered and open to change in processes, workflow, and use of technology. Amer says that they pay their journalists well and give them freedom and respect to do their jobs with autonomy but have welcomed the need to find new ways for journalists to express themselves, such as through podcasts and new subscription models.

The New York Times embraced AI tools for efficiency while setting clear boundaries to protect their core product's integrity. “They have approved the use of best-in-class tools like Copilot, Notebook, LM, ChatGPT, etcetera and they've also built some internal tools,” says Amer. “But my favorite thing is they've set some guidelines. Employees can use AI to generate SEO headlines, summaries, suggest edits, etcetera, but can't use AI to generate images or videos. They're outlining a playbook now that I think more and more companies are going to have to get used to, playing in this kind of gray area when it comes to AI. We can no longer say this is okay, this is not okay, whitelist and blacklists or whatever you want to call it. Increasingly, there's going to be more of a gray area. We're already seeing fewer than 30% of companies in America have officially adopted AI tools, and yet 75% of employees are using AI at work. What that means is people are bringing ChatGPT, their personal subscriptions or whatever to work whether you like it or not. So, people are going to use it, and I love to see companies in traditional industries that are embracing that ambiguity and leading from the front of their industry.”

Stay Connected

Related Content

As AI Democratizes Knowledge, The Duty of Leadership Evolves

Future of Field Service Nashville + IFS Connect Highlights

Ecolab’s Remote Service Strategy

Most Recent

The “Fail Fast” Mantra: Empowering or Anxiety-Inducing?

The Untold Truths of Service Leadership: Part One – Navigating Business Complexities 

What Role Do AI Agents Play in Your Field Service Talent Strategy?

April 14, 2025 | 4 Mins Read

My Foray into Field Service

April 14, 2025 | 4 Mins Read

My Foray into Field Service

Share

By Sarah Nicastro, Creator, Future of Field Service

I talk to people often who share stories of how they fell into their careers in field service – in fact, more often than not the tale of career origin in this space is one of happenstance versus intent. Not long ago, field service legend Ged Cranny, who recently retired from Konica Minolta, shared that he built a 40-plus year career by applying, on a whim, to a newspaper job listing emphasizing the free car alongside the perks of a field technician role. My foray into field service, too, was a happy accident (or, perhaps, the universe at work).

I had an opportunity to revisit my story a week or so ago when prepping to be a guest on another podcast, and I realized that while I’ve told the story a number of times, I’ve never written about it or shared it broadly. So, here we go!

When I was in graduate school, I ran into a friend from college who told me about a local publishing company he was working for that he was enjoying and paid well. At that point, I had continued waiting tables and bartending while attending school and I had had about enough of that so I jumped on his suggestion to apply for a sales position. Shortly after doing so, I received notification that they appreciated my interest but didn’t hire without prior experience. I was disappointed, but not deterred.

(I must insert a quick sidebar here. Once when my husband and I were very newly married – and you can tell the ‘newly’ based on me even asking this question – I asked him one day in the car, “If you had to describe me in one word, what would it be?” I’m not sure what I was hoping he’d say – maybe something like kind, loving, generous? “Tenacious,” he said, without hesitation.)

Don’t Take No for an Answer

This tenacity was on display after my initial rejection, because I set a weekly reminder to call and check in with the HR lead. Then, serendipitously, I had a woman from that company in my corporate finance class; on the first day of class, we did introductions and right after class I walked up and said hello and explained that I’d recently applied to her company but was rejected. We partnered on a group project that semester, and by the time the class was over she spoke to the company on my behalf and told them they were making a mistake.

That got me an interview, a few of them actually, but ultimately still resulted in rejection – or redirection, perhaps. The company felt I wasn’t right for the sales role but offered me a position as a writer. My goal had simply been to get my foot in the door, so I took the role with no intention to stay more than two years or so while I finished my MBA. But then, to my utter shock, I sort of fell in love.

I hadn’t even heard the term “field service” before starting in this writer role and my honest initial reaction was that it seemed like it would be very boring. As I started interviewing business leaders, though, I became very interested in what they had to say. It was a time where a lot of change was beginning – the early phases of service being perceived as a potential profit center versus a cost center, the early iterations of digital transformation, and a whole host of layers that came with these big shifts.

My interest was complemented by other external factors. First, the 2008 recession took hold, and it seemed a very poor decision to voluntarily leave a job when so many were without work. Second, the company made the decision to move into some new markets giving me a chance just over 18 months or so into the work to become the Editor in Chief of the publication and oversee a re-brand from Integrated Solutions to Field Technologies.

All of this was very exciting and gave me a variety of work to explore and pour into, all while doing what I still love most – having interesting conversations with people about the challenges or opportunities they face, creating compelling content to help individuals learn from one another and build collective knowledge, and to foster community. More than ten years later, I was still leading Field Technologies when the opportunity to join IFS and launch Future of Field Service arose.

I had a lot of emotions about leaving that initial role that led me into this space behind, but I also had some reasons why I knew it was time to do so. All in all, it’s been more than six and a half years since I created this platform, and I am incredibly thankful for all the opportunity, learning, and growth it has brought.

What’s interesting about considering how many careers in field service start serendipitously is how we create greater awareness of the vast potential of career opportunities in this collection of industries so that companies don’t have to work so hard to attract talent. This is a need that many organizations are tackling in different ways, from visiting schools to share stories earlier on to partnering with trade organizations, colleges, and the military to broaden the knowledge of what this world is really about and how much we all interact with “field service” on a day-to-day basis without even realizing it.

I hope you enjoyed learning how I got here; I’m so grateful to be here. Those that find themselves in service also often comment how there’s something that makes it truly special, and I couldn’t agree more. How did you land in your role – intentionally or by chance? I’d love to hear your story!

Stay Connected

Related Content

As AI Democratizes Knowledge, The Duty of Leadership Evolves

Future of Field Service Nashville + IFS Connect Highlights

Ecolab’s Remote Service Strategy

Most Recent

The “Fail Fast” Mantra: Empowering or Anxiety-Inducing?

The Untold Truths of Service Leadership: Part One – Navigating Business Complexities 

What Role Do AI Agents Play in Your Field Service Talent Strategy?

April 7, 2025 | 4 Mins Read

Why Most Companies Fail at Innovation (And How to Fix It)

April 7, 2025 | 4 Mins Read

Why Most Companies Fail at Innovation (And How to Fix It)

Share

by Sarah Nicastro, Creator, Future of Field Service

In an era where innovation is consistently ranked as a top three priority by corporate leaders, would you be shocked to hear that 80-90% of innovation centers fail? As last week’s podcast guest, innovation expert Amer Iqbal, pointed out, this devastating success rate would be unthinkable in any other business function. “Imagine telling your sales team that a 10% success rate was acceptable – you'd be laughed out of the room,” he says – and he’s not wrong.

Amer founded 5 Ways to Innovate after earning some serious experience in roles such as Head of Digital Transformation for APAC at Meta and Director of Digital Strategy & Innovation at Deloitte Digital. In studying why companies with massive innovation ambitions consistently struggle to execute, Amer’s research, spanning 100 companies, reveals a fundamental truth: the gap between innovation ambition and execution isn't about ideas or investment – it's about systematic approach.

When it comes to one of the biggest missteps that large organizations make with innovation, it is to try to act like a startup. "I think when large companies try to be a startup, they're selling themselves short because large incumbent corporates have so many advantages that startups don't,” says Amer. “They're not scrapping for VC money, they have revenue models, they have strategic modes. They have partnerships, they have all of these capabilities in place that startups can't possibly compete with."

Amer suggests using "speedboat" initiatives like startup studios to explore new opportunities while the core "battleship" business maintains stability. Leaders can fund small, agile teams to test innovative approaches without disrupting established operations. This balanced approach allows organizations to benefit from startup-style innovation while maintaining their strategic advantages in scale, resources and established customer relationships.

Another issue contributing to the innovation execution gap is related to breadth. “Organizations put all their eggs in one basket instead of treating innovation as a portfolio,” explains Amer. “Innovation is not a project, it's a portfolio.” Depth also presents challenges, Amer points out, because often innovation success is measured by inputs (training programs completed, POCs launched) rather than outputs (actual business impact).

5 Approaches to Innovation

The research Amer has done has revealed that successful innovators use five common approaches to innovation. While it isn’t necessary to use all five approaches, the best success is achieved when a business is consistently implementing at least three of five fundamental approaches.

  1. Upskilling with Purpose. Rather than generic innovation training, successful companies create structured programs aligned with specific business objectives. This isn't about checking boxes – it's about building practical capabilities that drive results.
  2. Innovation Hubs That Actually Work. The key difference between successful innovation hubs and the 90% that fail? Integration with core business objectives and clear metrics for success. They're not innovation theaters – they're profit centers.
  3. Startup Studios: The Internal Venture Builder. Think of this as "entrepreneurship as a service" within your organization. Amer shared how one bank successfully launched six simultaneous internal startups, each with blended teams of internal talent and external experts.
  4. Strategic Incubators. Unlike internal startup studios, strategic incubators focus on external startups with minimal corporate interference. The goal? Let innovators innovate, then invest in what works.
  5. Ecosystem Plays. This passive but powerful approach involves systematically scanning the startup ecosystem for partnership opportunities. It's about being a smart investor rather than trying to build everything in-house.

In addition to incorporating three of the five innovation approaches, Amer suggests companies consider the right mix of invested vs. divested approaches, emphasize the importance of clear metrics focused on outcomes vs. inputs, and moving beyond the familiar efficiency-only thinking.

Keep Innovation Customer-Centric

Amer and I also discussed the importance of outside-in innovation and some of the shortcomings that occur in companies with even the best of intentions around customer-centricity. “Too many businesses are still running their planning process inside-out,” he says. “This is what the business processes need to be, this is what the regulations are, this is what our business model is. And then right at the final point when it's time to launch a product, launch an app, or whatever it may be, that's when we go do some customer research."*

True customer-centric innovation requires integrating customer needs into products, business models, and user experience - not just the final interface. And companies must move beyond traditional customer feedback to understand unexpressed needs through observation and data analytics. "There's in-context inquiry where you're shadowing customers, you're observing, you're collecting data through digital platforms,” Amer says. “There are so many ways of understanding those latent customer needs that a customer may not express and sometimes may not even know themselves. That's how great companies actually do customer research."

As traditional industries face disruption from digital natives and AI-powered competitors, the ability to innovate systematically has become a make-or-break capability. If you’d like to hear more of Amer’s advice, you can listen to the full podcast conversation.

Stay Connected

Related Content

As AI Democratizes Knowledge, The Duty of Leadership Evolves

Future of Field Service Nashville + IFS Connect Highlights

Ecolab’s Remote Service Strategy

Most Recent

The “Fail Fast” Mantra: Empowering or Anxiety-Inducing?

The Untold Truths of Service Leadership: Part One – Navigating Business Complexities 

What Role Do AI Agents Play in Your Field Service Talent Strategy?

March 31, 2025 | 5 Mins Read

How ACCO Engineered Systems Aims to Lead the Charge in Service Innovation

March 31, 2025 | 5 Mins Read

How ACCO Engineered Systems Aims to Lead the Charge in Service Innovation

Share

by Sarah Nicastro, Creator, Future of Field Service

Keeping pace with change is challenging for many of today’s service organizations. But the conversation of last week’s podcast proves how much of meeting that challenge head on has to do with mindset and commitment.

Michael Potts, Executive Vice President at ACCO Engineered Systems, brings a refreshing perspective to what it takes not only to remain relevant and competitive, but to lead the charge. ACCO Engineered Systems has one of the largest and most experienced service departments in the nation, specializing in HVAC, plumbing, and specialty services. ACCO was founded in 1934 in Los Angeles and provides service and long-term maintenance agreements to over 8,000 accounts throughout the Western United States. Michael oversees a $2 billion+ operation with 550 service vans across eight states and has learned that service excellence in today’s landscape demands a fundamental rethinking of how the business approaches people, culture, and service delivery. Here are four key areas ACCO is prioritizing in its quest to lead its industry.

#1: Creating a Culture that Challenges the Status Quo

Throughout its company, ACCO is focused on practicing open communication and creating a culture where everyone feels they have a voice. While many businesses would make this claim, Michael gave multiple examples of how this commitment is practiced at ACCO.

Perhaps most striking is ACCO's commitment to creating what he calls "safe spaces for accountability." Their committee-style interview process involves multiple leaders who can openly disagree and challenge each other's perspectives on candidates. This approach extends beyond hiring into day-to-day operations, fostering an environment where constructive disagreement is valued.

One of the statements that stood out to me from the prep call Michael and I had for our podcast was his point that, “As a leader, I feel it’s my responsibility to challenge the status quo. How can I do that if I don’t welcome others to challenge me?”

#2: A Bold Talent Strategy

Many organizations are stuck in outdated approaches to talent acquisition and retention. While some leaders hope for a return to "simpler times," ACCO is making strategic big bets that are transforming how they attract, develop, and retain top talent in field service.

Michael emphasizes that running lean is preferable to hiring people who aren't the right cultural fit for ACCO. "I would rather run lean in our groups, whether it's our field teams, our sales teams, or our operations teams, and wait to find the right people that are going to fit those roles than to hire people just because we need bodies," he explains Potts. While this approach might seem risky in today's tight labor market, ACCO's experience shows that rushing to fill positions with misaligned talent creates bigger problems. Poor cultural fits don't just impact immediate team performance – they can erode company culture and damage customer relationships.

The strategy focuses on seeking candidates with core traits like work ethic, integrity, and willingness to learn rather than just technical skills. This patient, selective approach has helped ACCO build stronger teams. "I don't want somebody to come to work for ACCO that is just looking for a job. I want somebody to come to work for ACCO that's looking for a career, and then we can help build their career," Michael emphasizes.

This shift represents a significant departure from the company’s approach five years ago, illustrating its willingness to evolve beyond its historical norms to adapt to new circumstances. For service leaders looking to transform their talent strategy, ACCO's approach offers several key lessons:

  • Prioritize Cultural Fit: Be willing to run lean rather than compromise on cultural alignment.
  • Invest in Development: Focus on core attributes and provide comprehensive training for technical skills.
  • Create Safe Spaces: Foster an environment where open communication and constructive challenge are welcomed.
  • Balance Innovation and Tradition: Embrace new technology while maintaining personal connections.
  • Lead with Emotional Intelligence: Invest in EQ training to develop more effective leaders and teams.

#3: Leaning in to EQ

One of ACCO's most successful initiatives has been their company-wide emotional intelligence (EQ) training program. Initially focused on leadership teams, the program has created organic demand throughout the organization as employees experience benefits both professionally and personally.

"When I started down this emotional intelligence path, my perception was ‘I'm going to learn tools to figure out how I communicate with you better.’ What I found was it's not an external opportunity... it's really an understanding of your behavior and how you react to the situations around you," reflects Michael.

ACCO's commitment to EQ training represents a strategic investment in developing more effective leaders and teams. The program focuses on helping employees understand their own behaviors and reactions rather than just improving external communication. The initiative has sparked additional wellness programs and demonstrates ACCO's holistic approach to employee development. This investment in people skills provides a competitive advantage in both talent retention and customer service.

#4: Balancing Technology and Human Touch

While ACCO embraces technological advancement, the company maintains a careful balance between automation and personal connection. "While we want to be more efficient, we still have to have that personal touch. We're a very large service business, but I believe our customers in all of our markets feel like we're still a mom-and-pop shop," says Michael.

When implementing IFS, ACCO succeeded by prioritizing employee buy-in and transparent communication. Despite warnings from internal skeptics of losing 50% of technicians during deployment, they only lost two employees and Michael makes the very valid point that you have to accept the realities of some attrition when it’s tied to an unwillingness to evolve in ways the business must.

ACCO actively involved field leadership in the development process to gather input about must-have features as well as addressed concerns proactively rather than forcing change from above. This collaborative method helped dispel rumors and maintain team stability during a major technological transition. The success demonstrates how proper change management can minimize disruption while advancing necessary organizational evolution.

While embracing automation and AI, ACCO maintains that personal connection remains essential in service delivery. Their approach focuses on using technology to improve efficiency while preserving that "mom and pop shop" feel that customers value. The strategy requires careful consideration of how new technologies impact both employee and customer experience. They emphasize staying nimble and ready to pivot as technology evolves while maintaining their industry leadership position.

Conclusion

The waves of change, especially related to the talent war in field service, aren’t going away, but organizations that make strategic investments in people, culture, and leadership development will have a significant advantage. As Michael demonstrates, success requires bold moves and a willingness to challenge conventional wisdom.

The future belongs to organizations that can balance efficiency with humanity, technical excellence with emotional intelligence, and individual growth with company success. ACCO's experience shows that while this balance isn't easy to achieve, it's essential for sustainable success in modern service operations and it is attainable with effort.

Stay Connected

Related Content

As AI Democratizes Knowledge, The Duty of Leadership Evolves

Future of Field Service Nashville + IFS Connect Highlights

Ecolab’s Remote Service Strategy

Most Recent

The “Fail Fast” Mantra: Empowering or Anxiety-Inducing?

The Untold Truths of Service Leadership: Part One – Navigating Business Complexities 

What Role Do AI Agents Play in Your Field Service Talent Strategy?