AI for Competitive Advantage
AI technology development and implementation is moving faster than most leaders and businesses can process. Creating situations where in most are left behind, and the few who have jumped onto the AI train either haven’t found satisfactory results yet or have failed totally. Ditching overthinking and planning the perfect AI strategy for small actions that enable learning and progress, starting with the customer and working backwards to understand the problem and solving for it accordingly, aligning the business processes to be complementing than competitive in the AI game and using uncertainty as an advantage to learn and move ahead than feeling stuck, are important for anyone to make AI a competitive advantage.
Turning AI Uncertainty into Competitive Advantage
AI in Search Engines
AI related searches cost higher compared to organic search. Although the AI models are offering a free account, limits on free queries, they do come at a cost for the companies, and the freemium model is bound to change once people have got used to it like they did with the search engines.
AI assisted Search engines changing the game for organic search results
Bridge For Innovation in Business
Ideas can come from anywhere in an organisation, however the most promising place is from the people in the frontline, or at the bottom. These are the people who in close touch with the markets or operations hence seeing problems first hand and arriving at ideas or solutions first. Setting up systems that enable anyone to speak up ideas to the higher management, encouraging the middle management to not just evaluate but also elevate promising ideas, rewarding them for the process of bridging the ideas between the various levels of the organisation regardless of the result of the idea are some of the ways to ensure innovation is practiced openly across the business.
Stopping Big Ideas From Getting Blocked at the Mid Management
Celebritypreneur
Celebrities in entertainment or sports have long been using their personal brand and influence to endorse products and services, a few are going beyond endorsements and actually founding businesses, launching products or services.
Beyond the arc lights: 5 celebrities who are building brands and startups
Clean Fuel
Corporations taking up waste reduction, reducing carbon emissions and circular economy matters seriously.
Producing clean fuels from wastes agro to solid wastes
Commodities Booming while Companies Busting
Work from home and hybrid work arrangements has made people consume more of their coffees at home than outside whilst transiting or at the café. While the coffee bean or powder may have been bought at the café, it is a small percentage of revenue in comparison to the same people actually buying coffee and consuming at the café, as the coffee bean or powder would result in many servings at home over a single purchase, but on premise consumption would result in a daily purchase, increasing revenue and profitability of the coffee shop. Businesses need to focus on strategising the lie marketing to target the work from home or hybrid work arrangement scenarios, by making the coffee bean or powder more expensive thus prompting them to buy ready coffee instead or other marketing tricks that would have the similar result.
Coffee shop’s struggling despite record coffee consumption
Communication Strategy
Starting meetings with yourself, your stories, achievements may not be the best way to start with a new client or contact. Knowing your contacts or getting to know your contacts by asking relevant questions that may be their priority as well, earns attention as it is relevant to them. That then can be followed with personal experiences and stories later.
Communication Strategy That Earns Attention, Trust and Influence
Customer Feedback and Organic Marketing
Startup founders the scale organically eventually succeed, there is no pressure from VC directives as there are not funded by VC’s. Relying on customers feedback and growing organically is always worthy.
He Found a $7M Business Hiding in Plain Sight
Delegation
David Rusenko Founder of Weebly and now Leap Frog Ventures breaks down the problems of founders getting stuck while the company is growing, emphasises on delegating and trusting team members and employees to do what needs to be done. To be accepting if it’s done differently, and to not criticize it because it is done differently.
Why Most Founders Can’t Grow Past 25 Employees| Problem Solvers
Entrepreneur Lessons
John Paul DeJoria – Living out of a car, starting a business with just $700 to becoming a billion dollar legacy. Treating rejections as a toll to pay and go ahead improvising, evolving, learning and growing, building for continuity and not just for the initial hype, helping others succeed even if you haven’t found success yet are some great lessons from John’s experiences.
Founder Stories
There is more to founder’s story than just about finding a problem and solving it. A good story has to be structured with authenticity.
Health
Health and fitness is important not just when you are young but all through your life. Working out in the gym, practicing yoga, playing a sport, are different ways to remain fit and healthy and also triggers to muscle strain and damage. Relying on medicine or certain therapies to recover from the strain is a natural inclination, but the most basic or simple thing for recovery is post work out diet. Consuming proteins and carbs help in muscle recovery more efficiently and effectively.
Human Element
Machines and technology associated with the machines will always be meant for assistance, not replacement.
AI Euphoria Cooling Down Around Replacing Entry Level Positions
James Clear Newsletters
Power of Commitment – It is natural to have starting problems, self-doubt, fear of failure, avoid the uncomfortable and all things that can come in the way of you getting started on your idea. Leaving all of those things aside and just getting started and committing to a process of doing the stuff has a power to make it happen, to align the required resources in helping you succeed.
Leadership
Leadership is not about only finding problems, it is more about finding solutions to the problem and owning those solutions.
Real Leaders Don’t Just Spot a Problem, They Own The Fixes
Navigating Setbacks
Jensen Huang CEO of Nvidia commented on a podcast recently that he would never start a company again, recollecting on all the moments of challenges, hardships, failures along the way. Did he start nothing else before Nvidia? If he didn’t, then this is a great story of starting up becoming the most valuable company on the planet. It’s never easy no matter how big or small a business is, entrepreneurs feel the pressure internally constantly. For those times Huang has the right advice of not looking back, forgetting about the pain from the setback, and looking forward and focusing on next steps.
Why Nvidia’s CEO Says He Wouldn’t Start the Company Again
Obstacle Is The Way
Entrepreneurship is never easy, lots of challenges and lots of times faced with obstacles or failures. It is important to embrace the obstacles as a part of the process, and to learn from the failures, even if it may be a small failure, learning from it is better than letting it become bigger and learning the same then.
What You Need is a Small Crisis
Seth Godin Newsletters
The second thing – Every action has a reaction. Entrepreneurs launch products nor services and in return receive a reaction from the markets or customers that can be favourable or unfavorable. That’s the first natural reaction, that the entrepreneur must accept and gratify if it’s favorable, learn from it and improvise if it is unfavourable.
Side Hustles
Side hustles are not easy, especially if one wants to convert it into a full-time passive income. It requires dedicated time everyday over months and years to make it generate consistent passive income.
Side Hustles can become Full Time Passive Income
Bobica Bars
Harrison Nastasi and Justin Iannelli solved a personal problem at home for his parents around healthy snacking. Launched Bobica Bars from their kitchen, funding it out of personal savings and prize money from competitions at college, making $8k per month. To not dilute equity too early in the business, open to learning all the time are validating lessons from their experiences so far.
Best Friends’ College Side Hustle Hit $10K in 30 Days: Bobica Bars
Social Entrepreneurship
Graamya – Annu Sunny launched Graamya in 2019 as a travel platform to promote rural economy. The pandemic changed those plans, pushing her to look in to the agri space, helping farmers with productive, sustainable practices and marketing the produce in bulk for exports and domestic retail.
Graamya is taking indigenous spices from Kerala’s remote villages to the world
Startup Spotlight
Gymguyz
Josh York founded Gymguys an at home and on-site personal training and fitness business with $15k from his parents dining room to global franchise with billion dollar revenue. Consistency, doing the uncomfortable first, not quitting easily are key lessons from his startup success story.
Gymguyz – Disupted Physical Training and Fitness
Warmur Blankets
Jane Helmer didn’t go to a business school, but got the basics of starting and succeeding at starting up just right. Using her personal resources to prototype, bootstrapping to scale to the next level, being patient and focused on solving the most immediate issues first and persevering through challenges.
Stoic Lessons
Change
Change the way you live through a day, 24 hours and you will find yourself making change easier.
How to Change Your Life in 24 Hours
How Much is Left – Nothing is permanent. At least not in its whole, with time and many external factors everything runs through its share of change. Sometimes there is a lot that’s left to pass on, sometimes there is not much. But irrespective of the quantity, it comes with learning, with a knowledge that can be spread to a larger community today than in the past.
The Four Stoic Virtues are Distinct, Different and Inseparable – Courage, Discipline, Justice and Wisdom the four stoic virtues flow into one another seamlessly. Its not about mastering one of them, its about using all of them to one’s best ability to lead a good life. Similarly in a business its not about one function or department is wholly responsible for the success or failure of the business. All the functions and department need to give in their best.
Why be surprised? – That’s the thing about not being prepared or not planning. One get caught surprised by the unexpected or the unlikely. Being aware of a particular subject ensures that we don’t waste time crying, feeling bad and thinking over its occurrence. It happens and we witness it and move on. No time wasted on things that don’t add value to your goals.
It is a Lonely Thing – Doing what’s right is a lonely thing. Stoics trained and practices in these things through life. Entrepreneurs match up to the stoics in this regard as it too is a lonely journey.
Think On Paper
Great scientists, artists, entrepreneurs used and still use a pen and paper to think. Just thinking on an idea or a situation without using a pen and paper to write down your thoughts is an endless loop with no solution. Putting it on paper in its raw format is the start to the solution. Digital tools are available but not as effective to the brain as a pen and paper that translates a sensory reaction which cannot be matched by any technology.
The Notebook System That Saved My Brain
Timing the Exit
Entrepreneurs can get attached to the business, that they may always find some kind of value addition that they must execute successfully. Leading them to believe that the more value added, the more the valuation for exit. But on the contrary they may miss the valuation in the process of making the business more valuable, as investors will not find anything left in terms of growth. The best time to get the highest valuation is when there is scope for growth, as that leaves room for an investor to grow the business and make a return on his investment.
Work Life Balance Breeds Complacency
Anything worthy has always happened outside the comfort zone. Expecting or experiencing comfort slows and even stops progress. Discomfort puts the mind into an active zone that leads to solving problems.
Sources
Daily Stoic
Entrepreneur
James Clear
Problem Solvers
Self
Seth Godin
Side Hustle School Podcast
The Black Book – Vijay Anand
theMITmonk
Your Story
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