CIMI SOLUTIONS - CLOSING THE ADOPTION GAP
Most organizations don't have an innovation problem. They have an adoption problem.
Good ideas get funded. Initiatives get launched. Products get built. Yet many never achieve the impact they promised. The problem is rarely the innovation itself. The problem is leading the innovation through adoption, execution, and performance. That gap has a name and there is a framework for navigating it.
This is what we call the adoption stalemate.
"A cycle where growth hinges on resources, yet resources remain out of reach without growth. We've watched multimillion-dollar innovations sit unused. We've seen brilliant startups stall after promising pilots. We've worked with corporate teams whose most promising initiatives get quietly shelved. Not because the idea was wrong, but because the path from innovation to performance was never clearly led."
Our Intellectual System
One System. Three Proven Engines.
The Align2Performance Model™ is the system that maps how innovations move from problem definition to sustained performance. It is built on CFOSS™, the foundational research published in Customer Adoption Reimagined. The system comes to life through three programs, each complete on its own.
Leading Innovation
Introduces the Align2Performance Model™ and creates organizational alignment around innovation, execution, adoption, and performance. Participants explore why promising initiatives often stall after launch and learn to recognize the hidden factors that influence stakeholder commitment, organizational readiness, and long-term success, establishing the foundation for effective adoption and sustainable performance.
Leading
Adoption™
Powered by CFOSS™
Provides a system to move initiatives from validation into real organizational traction. CIMI's primary program. Most initiatives don't fail because the idea is wrong. They fail because the human layer — stakeholder misalignment, mismatched value propositions, premature execution — was underestimated. Leading Adoption™ gives leaders a structured system for diagnosing adoption barriers using CFOSS™ and closing them.
Leading Performance™
For organizations that have achieved early traction and need to turn it into sustained, scalable performance. Early success does not guarantee long-term results. Many initiatives stall when activity is mistaken for progress or growth outpaces alignment. Leading Performance helps leaders strengthen execution, navigate performance challenges, and sustain momentum through the execution, judgment, and renewal phases of the A2P™ lifecycle.
A connected system for leading the full arc from potential value to actual value.
Not sure where CIMI fits your situation?
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Built from twenty years of field experience, executive education, and doctoral research, our intellectual system helps organizations identify adoption barriers, accelerate customer adoption, and sustain long-term performance.
My initiative
isn't gaining traction
DIAGNOSE
SITUATION
Your idea is sound. Your team is capable. Something in the alignment isn't working. Start with CFOSS™ and the Leading Adoption™ program.
I need an
adoption plan for my organization
BUILD
CURRICULUM
You need a recurring leadership development program built around your leaders, your context, and your real initiatives, not generic training content.
I want
Dr. Baker to speak at my event
SPEAKING
ENGAGEMENT
Executive education sessions, keynotes, and facilitated programs for business schools, corporate programs, and conferences.
Field tested. Institutionally validated.
1000+
Professionals trained
450+
Founders coached
20+
Years in the field
$75M+
Venture capital supported
UNC Kenan-Flagler | Center for Leadership Studies | Georgia State University |
Georgia Tech ATDC | Russell Innovation Center | Morehouse College | Mercer University
STRATEGIES TO WIN EARLY ADOPTERS AND DRIVE MARKET SUCCESS
CUSTOMER ADOPTION
The challenge in innovation isn’t capability.
It’s alignment.
Where CFOSS™ began. The book behind the framework tells the story of how five lenses, Core, Financial, Operational, Strategic, and Social, reveal why innovations actually stall and what leaders do about it. Practical, research-backed, and built for the work you're doing right now.
