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Science and Service | is AI cultural?

Irene was beaming with pride this morning as she shared the conversation last night with her daughter Izzy. One of Izzy's college courses was to conduct research based on a handful of Harvard business studies. At a high level these studies were comparing organizations from three different approaches; keep doing what they're doing, except change but only incrementally, focus on changing in industry by deliberately disrupting the status quo.
People were gathering as Irene began to play back the conversation. Mom, exclaimed Izzy, after listening to each bit of explanation on the three Harvard studies it was quite difficult to make a decision on which one was correct. The first example; "leave the business alone we are making money" made some excellent points, continued Izzy, however I really felt as though the rationale had much stronger value in the past and was not preparing organizations for our high velocity changing future. The second use case, "incremental change, slow and steady wins the race" certainly has its merits. Unfortunately, it was easy to see that the reason for this approach had more to do with other factors such as bonuses and fear. Izzy paused for a minute and I couldn't tell what direction she was going to head, just then she burst out, "the third option of going all in and doing something very different was the most exciting for me". Irene remembered the goosebumps as she listened to the excitement in Izzy's voice.
Irene continued to share Izzy's story; our professor advised us to make sure that we looked at each of these three examples objectively, but that seemed next to impossible as the first two were just copout's. It was the final approach that seemed to make the most sense. Hey, if we were not surrounded by the convergence of sensors, data sciences, algorithms, and the ability to mash information up from multiple sources, maybe the other two had some merit. That simply was not the case in 2018. We have the opportunity to take advantage of information, leverage the science around what we were doing, and simply work smarter. There was no stopping Izzy now as she had incredible momentum, and as she continued explaining why science had to play a role for the business to survive, Irene was grinning from ear to ear. What a perfect moment.
The room was silent as Irene's work associates hung on every word, vicariously enjoying the happiness Irene exuded from every ounce of her being. It wasn't just the story about Izzy and how others in the room had reflected or hoped to be able to share a story about their child one day, instead the room was filled with optimism that a generation entering the work force might not be saddled with the constraints that hold us back when contemplating innovation. We have all had conversations about green, sustainability, predictive modeling, and even some with prescriptive modeling. None of these are trivial tasks and the mass amount of effort to take your business from a traditional to a science-based environment takes one dose of technology and four doses of cultural change. IIoT systems will act like modern networks, socializing connected product data to foster unparalleled knowledge and collaboration. When I see the future, summarized Irene, the reality that no product or asset will be an island, fills me with energy to keep pushing forward.
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Next post: magnificent models
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