OzziePaezResearch

Traditional concepts of decision-making are being challenged by new and still emerging technologies.  Our services take these monumental changes into account by addressing specific needs based on individual customer requirements.  These include leadership training, cultural development, systems assessment, and the implications the Internet-of-Things and related technologies.  Contact us and let’s have a conversation about your needs and our ability to meet them.

 

Why do we tailor our services to each client?  Three words: technology, change and disruptions.

 

Technology, decision-making and the IoT

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Decision-making has been, for nearly all recorded history, a fundamentally human affair.  Individuals, small groups, tribes, city-states, empires and nation-states made decisions individually and through formal and informal entities, from emperors and legislatures to families.  In this context, human history is largely a catalog of decisions, decision-makers, and decision-making processes, and their successes and failures.  It is also a collection of decisions ignored, poorly implemented and intentionally derailed.  Ancient texts like the Bile describe Gods frustrated with their human creations’ unwillingness to follow Their laws, meet Their expectations and act on Their commands.  If Gods couldn’t ensure fidelity and compliance, what chance did mere humans, even Emperors had?

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It took centuries, but in some areas humans overcame their decision-making and implementation weaknesses through automation, i.e. by outsourcing them to smart devices and computers.  Many Flight Management Systems (FMS), for example, can fly modern aircraft from take-off to landing with little human involvement.  These and other non-human decision-making systems frequently outperform their human counterparts by processing, analyzing and responding to inputs much faster, predictably and reliably.  In this context, technology changed the central question in decision-making from “who decides,” to “who or what” decides.

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Emerging technologies, particularly the Internet-of-Things (IoT) and machine learning are poised to revolutionize decision-making more deeply, in more areas and greater contexts than any other advancement in human history.  That’s because the IoT will produce and exchange more comprehensive, real-time data than has ever been available.  Humans are already incapable of coping with the current onslaught of data and information, so it will be left to emerging analytical systems to extract meaning and implications from much of the IoT's data.  These will increasingly be making a wider range of data driven decisions that not long ago were exclusively made by people. 

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That doesn’t mean that humans are becoming irrelevant.  On the contrary, these technologies are empowering the best prepared leaders and their organizations to be more responsive, agile and sensitive to changing conditions and customer needs.  By contrast, less capable leaders and organizations will struggle to perform in what will feel like bewildering data-saturated environments. History, and our own experiences over the past twenty years suggest that there will be many business failures, including established market leaders.  Others, including some newcomers, will quickly rise to market dominance.

 

Becoming and remaining a market leader in the IoT age will largely depend on thoughtful preparation, a willingness to adapt, and the ability to make timely decisions in the midst of technological disruptions and related uncertainties.  Coping and quickly adapting to disruptions allow leaders to take the initiatives, even as their competitors struggle to keep up.  Spotting, assessing, responding, adapting and taking the initiative amid rapid change remains a core function and focus area of our work.  It's how we have and will help our clients face an exciting future filled on unparalled opportunities, while avoiding catastrophic risks and paralyzing uncertainties.