I talked to a Head of Strategy last month. She showed me her list.
Twelve initiatives she knows would move the business. She's working on two.
The other ten sit in a backlog because every one requires weeks of research her team can't spare.
She's not unusual. She's typical.
12 INITIATIVES
She's working on two. The other ten sit in a backlog.
THE CONSTRAINT
The backlog isn't a prioritization problem. It's a physics problem.
Two weeks ago I told you only 6% of companies are seeing AI hit the bottom line. Last week I showed you why timing kills most innovation pipelines.
This week: the bandwidth problem.
The constraint isn't ideas. It's not budget. It's not even talent. It's the manual work that buries your best people before they can think.
13 minutes vs 70 hours
That's the difference. A Japanese automaker asked: "What if research took 13 minutes instead of 70 hours?"
They used FifthRow to run the research on ventures they'd been putting off. They hit their full venture target in Q1.
Not because they worked harder. Because they stopped having humans do work that should be automated.
The backlog isn't a prioritization problem. It's a physics problem.
THE REAL QUESTION
The question is: what work should humans do, and what work should be automated?
Human work: Judgment. Relationships. Creativity. Strategy. Decisions.
Automated work: Research. Monitoring. Synthesis. Formatting. Reporting.
Most companies have brilliant strategists doing automated work. That's the tax. That's the backlog. That's why 10 of 12 initiatives never happen.
THE BANDWIDTH CHECK
How many strategic initiatives are stuck waiting for research?
What percentage of your team's time goes to gathering vs. thinking?
When did you last explore an opportunity without a 6-week research cycle?
How many market questions go unanswered because "we don't have bandwidth?
The backlog is a symptom. The physics of manual work is what's actually broken.
WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK
Pull up your strategic backlog. The initiatives you've been meaning to explore.
Pick one. Ask: "What research would we need before we could make a decision?"
Then ask: "How long would that research take with our current approach?"
If the answer is measured in weeks or months, you're paying a tax that compounds against you every quarter.
FROM THE PORTFOLIO
FifthRow automates the work that comes before strategy. 150+ apps that encode consulting playbooks into autonomous workflows. Market research in 13 minutes. Competitive intelligence on demand. This is how companies clear the backlog without adding headcount.
At HauerX Holdings, we're on a mission to make AI-native growth the standard for every enterprise.
If any of this resonated, or you have ideas for partnering, I'd love to hear from you.
Talk Tuesday,
Jason Hauer
CEO, HauerX Holdings
jason@hauerX.com
