The Adapt Or Die Moment For Businesses: Data & AI Can Help But We Must Make The Case
Businesses are in trouble, but very few have come to terms with the threats to their survival. Data and AI can mitigate those threats and keep companies from failing. However, most businesses don't understand the stakes, opportunities, and urgency.
Data and models give senior leaders the ability to be forward-looking and prescriptive. It's a Catch-22. Early maturity businesses don't see the threats because they don't have the data products to reveal them.
It's up to the data team and data leaders to define the problem and deliver solutions. My framework can help you succeed, and I need to start with the macro-view before diving into the presentation.
Three broad economic forces are creating a threat to business models across industries.
A Tight Labor Market
Declining Productivity
Businesses are bringing in the same revenue at lower margins, so profits are dropping. If the trend holds (rising costs, decreasing productivity, and stagnating revenues), businesses will quickly reach the point where they are burning through cash.
Lenders and investors are not interested in making deals with companies in declining profit cycles. Without access to capital, firms will go under. It's time for the data organization to throw businesses a lifeline.
The process begins with us showing senior leaders a more detailed view of what's happening. Then we need to connect macro-factors and the business's KPIs. Finally, we explain how data and AI initiatives move those KPIs back into positive territory.
Let me explain how to do each one.