The Reactive Path optimises for speed first: the red curve climbs along the flat project baseline (dashed white line) with no governance built. At Month 3, a compliance incident — an unapproved model decision, a data provenance failure, or an audit gap surfacing in production — forces a volatile retroactive remediation climb: the jagged white line spikes, dips, and spikes again, and the hatched area beneath it is the exponential cost of building governance under incident conditions. The Proactive Path inverts the sequence: the Shield phase (Governance & Cybersecurity) occupies the first month, the Rails gate (Process Control) lands at Month 1, and the white architecture curve completes most of its ramp inside that first month — governance climbs fastest while Speed (red) rises steadily beneath it, delivering sustainable performance. The shaded area between the two curves is Governed Velocity — capability gained with no incident and no remediation cost. Both paths reach similar capability by Month 6; only one reaches it without liability.