About this episode

In this episode, Donna P. Mitchell discusses the challenges of technology transformation with Noel Sobelman, focusing on the gap between strategy and execution.

70% of technology transformations fail. Not because of the technology, but because of the gap between a strategy set in the boardroom and the work that actually gets executed. In this episode, Donna P. Mitchell sits down with Noel Sobelman, Partner at Accel Management Group and author of Innovation Portfolio Management: Linking Strategy to Execution. For more than two decades, Noel has helped the world's largest enterprises, including Medtronic, BD, Siemens, Kimberly Clark, Honeywell, and Whirlpool, turn innovation strategy into real execution. Most leaders think the adoption gap shows up at implementation. Noel sees it forming earlier, in the boardroom, when strategy fragments and the wrong projects get funded. Together they unpack where innovation really breaks: funding the technology before the customer problem, the difference between a project leader and a coordinator, why killing the right project should be rewarded, and the question almost no one can answer, who actually owns adoption. TOPICS COVERED: - Why "fall in love with the problem, not the solution" is the discipline most teams skip - How portfolio management connects strategy to execution - What separates a true…

People in this episode

Host: Donna P. Mitchell

Guest: Noel Sobelman

Topics covered

• technology transformation
• innovation strategy
• portfolio management
• cross-functional leadership
• customer problem
• project management

Keywords

• technology adoption
• innovation
• strategy execution
• project funding
• leadership
• healthcare bottlenecks

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Accel Management Group, Medtronic, BD, Siemens, Kimberly Clark, Honeywell, Whirlpool

Books & works: Innovation Portfolio Management: Linking Strategy to Execution

More episodes of Pivoting to Technology Adoption

• The Builder's Chair: What C-Suite Misses About AI Adoption · July 21, 2026 · 36 min
• What People Know: The Gap Between the Dashboard and the Break Room · July 14, 2026 · 6 min
• The Leadership Operating System: Trust People, and the Profit Follows · July 7, 2026 · 26 min
• The Dashboard Trap: When Technology Doesn’t Change the Business · June 16, 2026 · 40 min

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