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In a recent conversation with a good friend of mine in Dallas I was reminded with one simple sentence how important it is to understand the impact of what Artificial Intelligence in some form is going to affect every business.
He simply said; “Nothing 
Clears the mind quicker than a lack of options.”
That is exactly the situation most family businesses will be facing as the age of Artificial Intelligence evolves. The lack of options may occur in many ways. It can be in the form of disruptive competition. Or it can be a differentiating product that changes the way businesses or consumers go about their daily lives. Or it can be a slow decrease in the need for a product as a new idea comes into maturity.
For example, the social media scene has changed many businesses in the past 10 years. Books that were once essential for study are now replaced by instant information. It did not happen overnight but dictionaries and encyclopedias to name a few are no longer on book shelves in many homes. School books are on laptops as are homework assignments and schedules. The telephone has found a new place in our lives, not as a telephone but instead as a handheld computer that also works as a phone.
I mention these now common place things because everyone is very familiar with them. They replaced someone or something in the business world. The internet has now been around for twenty five years or more. Many kids have never known a world without it.
Like the internet and social media, Artificial Intelligence is an evolving phenomenon that is happening to every family business in America and the world today. Many business leaders are under the impression that that they have options. They do but they are dwindling.
Kai-Fu Lee, sometimes referred to as the “Oracle of AI” said “I believe it’s (AI) going to change the world more than anything in the history of mankind, more than electricity.”
If that is the case, businesses must get serious about their greatest weakness – a blind spot for how Artificial Intelligence will affect them. Not surprisingly, most businesses come into today waiting to see what will happen and then expect to react to it. In the past that has been a good and wise position to take. It was a safe position to allow someone else take the larger risk and then adjust as time proves the concept right or wrong.
But time is no longer on the side of this safe alternative. Machine learning is changing everything. Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Kevin Scott said “machine learning is something every developer at every company needs to know about, right now. When organizations talk about futuristic-sounding technologies there’s a tendency to think that they will never come to fruition, and even if they do they’re a long way off. Not so with machine learning. And while AI is big today, Scott says the potential is limitless down the road.”
“Even when it doesn’t seem like it’s going be relevant right now, progress is happening so quickly that if you wait too long you are going to be in this position where you are scrambling to catch up,” Scott said at the 2019 GeekWire Cloud Summit.
More importantly, businesses must know what they want to accomplish before accepting all of the machine learning solutions that are available.
Machine learning has already developed sophisticated methods of providing highly realistic audio and video content. With every good solution there is also an opposing issue. Deep fake technologies can also create very realistic and difficult to disprove audio and video misinformation. For example; “FaceApp,” is very popular all over the internet today. It provides sometimes humorous renditions of a how we will age into the future. It obviously uses machine learning Artificial Intelligence to derive the future you.
The technology is cheap and readily accessible. Its uses are limited only by our imagination. It is reported that “FaceApp” has modified more than 80 million user images. Its terms of use allow “FaceApp” “to store and use” the images, even if users delete them. One has to only imagine what comes next.
Danielle Citron, law professor – Univ of Maryland, testified before a house committee “soon it will be easy to depict someone doing or saying something that person never said or did”. It will be “hard to debunk digital impersonations in time to prevent significant damage”.
Artificial Intelligence will have an impact on everything and everyone. It will take away options. The most important message we must all receive is that we have a blind spot in regards to Artificial Intelligence.
Audio and video is just one example of the extent Artificial Intelligence through machine learning will affect our lives. Other technologies will come from the ubiquitous internet of things that touch us all. Then there are advanced robotics and drones.
Elon Musk has just launched a set of satellites that will create a whole new network for communications and other things not yet developed. His Neuralink company is working on an implant that can be inserted into the brain to help paralyzed people to control phones or computers through brain-machine interfaces. Tesla will provide autonomous automobiles.
Quantum computing will be millions of times faster than it is today making the internet and other forms of computing such as blockchain faster, more secure and more reliable as well.
Amazon is leading the way in the shopping space. When you walk inside an Amazon Go store, you scan a barcode on your phone’s Amazon Go app linked to your Amazon account. Cameras track what you take. Amazon charges your credit card on file and emails you a receipt. No lines. No checkout counters. No self-scanning. You just walk in, grab what you want, and walk out…
As we say in Texas, “keep your saddle oiled and your horse ready because the rules are a changin’ “
If you are not ready, just wait a bit– “Nothing Clears the mind quicker than a lack of options.”
One of the great lies is that nobody can predict the future. In Texas, when somebody says that, we say: “Bless their heart.” That’s Texan for “I feel sorry for you but I’m gonna be polite.”
Many leaders ask about the future of artificial intelligence. But their questions are more in the form of “What is it?” rather than in the form of “How can I take advantage of it?”
Rest assured that over the next five years someone in every industry is working to apply artificial intelligence and change the way that industry will do business. The future will be better, faster, and much more profitable than the way you do business now.
Most businesses have not stopped to ask: “What do we look like in the future?” Or if they ask, their leaders simply stare back at them with a blank look. The questions are simple.
How will we be providing our products to the market in 5 years?
How will our products change over the next 5 years?
How will our industry change and how will we change it to become or remain the leader in it?
These are tough questions every generation of leaders has had to deal with. Here are a few examples of what others have done in the past.
IBM began in 1911. In the 1960s it was a typewriter company. They embedded their engineers with their customers to understand how computers would impact businesses. They used that learning to become a computer manufacturer. From there they became a service provider. Today they are leading in the artificial intelligence arena with a machine learning tool called Watson and priding new ideas for cloud and blockchain technology. It is interesting to see how a stodgy old grey suit company evolved to making typewriters and evolved again to become a computer manufacturer. From there they evolved into a computer services company and now to a very smart computer company that provides even more services. They have a very promising future.
Amazon began as an online bookstore in 1994. Then it used the data from those sales to add other products to its store. Today it is still mining its data to add to its product line and develop new opportunities through purchases of food store chains and newspapers. Amazon has now become a familiar part of our everyday life and is experimenting with delivery services through drones and autonomous automobiles and trucks.
Netflix began as a DVD mail order sales rental outfit in 1997. It became so popular that they saw the future was not DVD’s but movies. Today they have over 148 million subscribers in 190 countries worldwide except in China. They create, distribute and stream their own movies as well as providing a distribution and streaming outlet for the other major movie producers. Netflix is no longer a startup DVD mail order business. Their data is driving intelligent analysis of the movie business and movie goers. They are the major player that is compelling the movie industry to change the way they do business in the Artificial intelligence age.
Google originally began as an internet search engine in 1998. It has become so successful that it is now referred to as a verb: “Did you google it?” Its impact widened its appeal to other kinds of data and work products that are now in common use. Google now ranks as one of the most visited websites in the world. Its large data cache also makes it very attractive to those who need data to further their business activities in the artificial intelligence age.
The demand for intelligent data is driving all of the large data companies to use machine learning and other analytical tools to dive deeply into the business of collecting, managing and learning from their data to provide products that will drive sales and profits.
Called data mining, it is changing the product development scene very quickly. It builds value, customer relationships and more saleable products at much faster speeds. Companies are also partnering with others who can help them expand their data sets quickly. Adidas recently connected with Salesforce to develop better data insights for their apparel business.
CIOs are moving to more robust digital business models. Gartner announced at the 2019 CIO symposium, after a survey of more than 3000 CIOs, that 49% are changing their business models and more will do so in the future. Budgets are up and remaining steady as businesses realize that the digital arena is now a reality and they must continue to change and innovate if they are to remain competitive for the future.
This trend is only beginning. The rules are shifting to a new and different world. Amazon, Microsoft and Google among others are already shifting to cloud-based solutions. If you have ever or are receiving requests for a voice or text message to get a verification code, you are probably being touched by a cloud-based solution.
Artificial Intelligence is appearing as a solution for more and more businesses. Machine thinking has entered the field with its analytic capabilities. Information Technology is embracing information systems to engage with the creative thinking that is readily available from many independent thought leaders throughout the world.
The rules are shifting. The voice and text message market alone is expected to grow to $10.9 billion by 2022. Other markets are projected to grow even larger and faster.
What is happening in your marketplace? How do you see the rules shifting?
Each of us together can help to provide greater insight and understanding in this rapidly expanding and changing marketplace.
Use #RulesShift to share your experiences.
May 2019
Ralph Waldo Emerson tells us, “All great masters are chiefly distinguished by the power of adding a second, a third, and perhaps a fourth step in a continuous line.
Many a man has taken the first step. With every additional step, you enhance immensely the value of your first.”
Emerson’s quote is a great, if not subtle, description of decisions creating momentum. It is up to the CEO and top executives to determine the decisions they will make on their path to maximizing profits.
But it is not just the big decisions that create or interrupt momentum. The Law of Decision says that everything we decide is a decision, even if we decide not to decide. Every decision confirms a direction and applies force. Force either increases momentum or reduces momentum and resets direction. It goes without saying that reduced momentum does not maximize profits.
Every leader at every level must lead with decisions that multiply. As focus-forward leaders, every action and decision should assure that the decision stays true to the word picture that will maximize profits, even when placed under a spotlight.
Lead With Decisions That Multiply Under A Spotlight
In 1946, Estée Lauder was making creams at home on a restaurant stove and delivering them personally. She was absorbed by the cosmetics business, and every decision she made, whether it was about the product, the salespeople, or the customer, always maximized profits. Lauder was dedicated to making decisions that multiplied.
She pioneered a “free gift to every purchaser” program. It still exists today. She provided free samples at charity functions and other benefit occasions. In the beginning, she even chose her salespeople carefully to “focus on the whole woman” and not just the face.
In 1995, the company issued its first public stock. Its success continues to be outstanding. Today the Estée Lauder company has a clear purpose to accomplish. It is summed up in the phrase, “Bringing the best to everyone we touch.” In living their purpose, the leaders of Estée Lauder have made the decision to maximize profits with new products and by acquisition.
In leading with decisions that multiply, the Estée Lauder company puts every acquisition under a spotlight. The acquisition result must answer this question: Are these companies innovating, and have they proven their product is a winner in the marketplace? If you are in the cosmetics industry and want to build a company for acquisition, simply innovate and prove your product is a winner. Estée Lauder will probably want to talk to you.
Estee Lauder is an industry leader enjoying the success of its focus-forward leadership. The organization is maximizing profits because decisions are directed within the focus of the word picture the company is working toward. Leaders have chosen their path to maximize profits. They also have the basis for determining the data they will need to gather and the direction they will travel as they maximize profits in the artificial intelligence age.
April 2019
Focus Forward Leadership: Maximizing Profits in the Artificial Intelligence Age.
Email Martha@focusforwardleadership.com for a free PDF copy of the first chapter.
April 2019
Focus Forward Leadership: Maximizing Profits in the Artificial Intelligence Age.
The challenge of finding leaders who can lead focus-forward leaders is as real today as it ever was. Now it is even more consequential because of the evolution and impact of artificial intelligence on companies and their leadership at every level. Maximizing profits will require leaders who can lead leaders who see a purpose in the future better than they can see the future themselves. It will not be easy. It will be hard to make the changes required.
Focus Forward Leadership is quick and enjoyable learning. Every chapter is packed with real life lessons and anecdotes that immediately demonstrate each point. Action strategies are clearly outlined and provide a road map for success. If you are serious about leading in a world being revolutionized by artificial intelligence, this is the book for you.
Email Martha@focusforwardleadership.com for a free PDF copy of the first chapter.