---
id: "action-track-tco-and-impact"
type: "action-item"
source_timestamps: ["§ Stage 4: Scale & Operate Portfolio (Navigate)"]
source_url: "https://hbr.org/2026/01/manage-your-ai-investments-like-a-portfolio"
source_title: "Manage Your AI Investments Like a Portfolio"
tags: ["metrics", "roi", "production-ai"]
related: ["claim-production-cost-spike", "prereq-tco-concept"]
action: "Implement cost-tracking to understand TCO and measure actual mission impact rather than assuming benefits."
outcome: "Provides accurate data for regular portfolio reviews, ensuring production systems continue to deliver expected ROI."
speakers: ["Faisal Hoque", "Erik Nelson", "Tom Davenport", "Paul Scade"]
sources: ["spine"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-spine"
originDay: 1
articleStem: "hbr-foci-61-ai-investments-portfolio"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/01/manage-your-ai-investments-like-a-portfolio"
sourceTitle: "Manage Your AI Investments Like a Portfolio"
---
# Track Total Cost of Ownership and Actual Mission Impact

> **Action:** Implement cost-tracking to understand total cost of ownership (TCO) and measure actual mission impact rather than assuming benefits.
> **Outcome:** Provides accurate data for regular portfolio reviews, ensuring production systems continue to deliver expected ROI.

A Stage 4 (Navigate) discipline; the operational answer to [[claim-production-cost-spike]]. Presupposes [[prereq-tco-concept]]. The resulting data feeds the 'regular reviews' mechanism of the [[framework-three-portfolio-mechanisms]].