S3:E2 Innovation at the Edge - AI, ERP, & the Art of the Calculated Bet
- Leah Farmer
- 20 hours ago
- 2 min read
This week we sat down with Evan J. Schwartz, Chief Innovation Officer at AMCS Group — the leading SaaS platform for resource-intensive industries — to talk about what it actually means to build a culture of innovation inside a large, complex organisation.
Evan's role is a fascinating one: he runs a separate innovation track, takes high-risk bets that the core product organisation can't afford to make, and hands winning ideas back once they've been proven out. It's part incubator, part matrix programme, and entirely focused on the question: is there a there there? We pushed him on the tension between innovation teams and product teams, the question of who owns the fun stuff, and what happens when the answer to a bet turns out to be no.
We also got deep into ERP transformations — why they fail so consistently, what companies get wrong before they even start, and why "we have to upgrade" is just about the weakest reason you can bring into a rollout. Evan's seen it all, and he didn't hold back.
Key Takeaways
Innovation needs a separate track — and a clear handoff. At a certain company size, core product teams can't run high-risk bets alongside mature product delivery. A dedicated innovation function proves ideas out fast and hands them back once the questions are answered — with tight oversight and shared standards throughout.
Fail fast, fail cheap, and know when to stop. The job of an innovation team is to answer questions, not build finished products. "Not a good bet" is a valuable outcome. The goal is to find that out as quickly and cheaply as possible and redirect the budget.
ERP transformations fail because companies skip the foundations. The technology is rarely the problem. Weak goals, no baseline metrics, and undocumented processes are where implementations go sideways. Map your current state and define three ROI-backed reasons for the change before you sign anything.
"We have to upgrade" is not a vision. A compelling, shared picture of the future state is what carries teams through the friction of a rollout. Without it, every paper cut becomes a project-stopper.
Questions for PMs
Where in your organization are the high-risk, high-reward bets sitting at priority 11 — and what would it take to give them a proper runway?
When did you last do a genuine as-is mapping of your systems or processes — and how confident are you that you actually know what you have?
How do you balance the tension between innovation and the stability your customers depend on?
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