ACTTHREEIII

AI is changing what your company can know, build and do.

ACT THREE helps leadership understand what that means for their business—before the decisions become obvious.

WHAT COMES NEXT?

Most companies are experimenting with AI. Far fewer know what they are preparing for.

01 / WHAT BECOMES POSSIBLE?

02 / WHAT BECOMES VULNERABLE?

03 / WHAT KNOWLEDGE BECOMES MORE VALUABLE?

04 / WHAT SHOULD YOU BUILD, BUY—OR AVOID?

05 / HOW SHOULD THE ORGANIZATION CHANGE?

ACT THREE works with leadership before expensive technology, hiring and organizational decisions become difficult to reverse.

STRATEGY FIRST.

PILOTS SECOND.

ORGANIZATION THIRD.

SCALE FOURTH.

Where does better intelligence materially change this company?

OPPORTUNITY

Where can new intelligence create meaningful advantage?

OPPORTUNITY

Where can new intelligence create meaningful advantage?

EXPOSURE

What becomes vulnerable as capabilities and competitors improve?

EXPOSURE

What becomes vulnerable as capabilities and competitors improve?

READINESS

What knowledge, data, workflows and leadership must be put in place now?

READINESS

What knowledge, data, workflows and leadership must be put in place now?

AMBITION → BUILD → TEST → LEARN → NEXT GATE

The new moat may be the distance between what you are testing now and what competitors think you are still doing.

THINKING

ESSAYS ON INTELLIGENCE, ORGANIZATIONS, LEADERSHIP AND WORK

Essays by Mike McElderry exploring the questions shaping ACT THREE.

01 · ESSAY

THE INTELLIGENCE QUESTION

When intelligence becomes abundant, the questions leaders need to ask begin to change.

Mike McElderry · September 11, 2026

READ ESSAY ↗

02 · ESSAY

IF WE BUY TIME, WHAT DO WE DO WITH IT?

AI is moving faster than the organizations adopting it. The question is what needs to catch up.

Mike McElderry · September 2026

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03 · ESSAY

THE JUDGMENT DIVIDEND

When intelligence becomes abundant, experience has a chance to become more consequential.

Mike McElderry · September 22, 2026

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Transformation is not principally a technology problem.

It is a leadership and organizational problem.

Mike McElderry founded ACT THREE after a career leading complex transformation across strategy, design, engineering, real estate, fabrication and construction.

As a former managing director and design executive within several of the world’s leading multidisciplinary firms, he has spent his career helping ambitious ideas survive organizational, technical, financial and physical reality.

ACT THREE brings that same discipline to AI: helping leadership determine where better intelligence creates advantage, what the company must protect, what it should test now and how the organization may need to evolve.

SEEN BY OTHERS

Perspectives from people who have worked closely with Mike.

BIG IDEAS. REAL ORGANIZATIONS.

Lindsey Peckinpaugh

President, Perkins&Will

Worked with Mike at Perkins&Will

Mike is the kind of person who makes everyone around him better.

SEEING BEYOND THE PROBLEM.

Tim Wolfe

Principal, Firmwide Interior Design Director, Perkins&Will

Worked with Mike at Perkins&Will

I had the opportunity to work with Mike during his time with Perkins&Will, and what I always valued most were the conversations.

OPTIMISM WITHOUT NAIVETY.

Heather Currier Hunt

Former Chief Learning Officer, Perkins&Will

Worked with Mike at Perkins&Will

When in those conditions you want to work with someone who has genuine enthusiasm for what could lie ahead.

BUILDING IT FOR REAL.

Sara Rubenstein

Design Firm Profitability | Strategy | Operations

Worked with Mike at Henning Larsen

I had the pleasure of working with Mike McElderry as he helped launch Henning Larsen’s New York office, a role he took on with tremendous energy and real sweat equity.

ACT THREE

What does AI change about your business?

If the answer is not yet clear, that is where the conversation begins.

TALK WITH MIKE